HK Trip: L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon.

After many days of nice if not superb local food, the little darling and I opted for something a little bit classier and sophisticated.  Taking on the recommendation of a popular Singaporean blogger and fellow UWA mate Glenn, we visited the L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon located in Landmark, Central.   L’Atelier is one of the more casual restaurants by Robuchon who already owns a string of 3 star restaurants around the globe.  At the restaurant, we were given seats at the bar counter facing the group of chefs preparing our food and to  be honest, it was a splendid show we had seeing the busy kitchen coming together.  Especially when the chefs kept shouting words of acknowledgement to the captain!

Staircase to great food! 

 

The Amuse Bouche that day was a chestnut soup served warm with drizzle of truffle oil and chestnut crisps.

The Amuse Bouche was simplicity at its best and the way it was presented before us by a Frenchman with an equally French moustache! I’d have to say, it was quite a sight!  The Amuse Bouche was really good.  I started of with that top bit that felt somewhat ‘foam like’ followed by a warm liquid and crispy bits of chestnut.  The taste was no more than saltiness with the sweetness of chestnuts but it was good!

 

Bread Basket

The bread basket at L’Atelier is one of insane choices.  Someone have probably mentioned it before that you would probably want to hold back on eating the bread but you know you cannot resist!  Between darling and I, we shared each of every pastry.  Out of the 8 or so choices, the mini croissant, sundried tomato twist and the fruit bun was the best.  Each were exceptionally tasty and  with the butter, it was even nicer!

 

For our appetizer, darling had the classic Landes Foie Gras:

Unlike the warm Foie Gras she has had so far, this one was served cold as a sort of spread on toast rather than warm with caviar.  Rather unfortunate, the delicious Foie Gras did not quite turn out as delectable as it felt lacking in creaminess/richness.  Its taste without a doubt was class act, but still it felt somewhat unfulfilling.

 

For my appetizer, I had the fresh crab meat and citrus jelly with fennel cream, crispy crab meat waffle .

The appetizer was quite a handful when it arrived.  Was I supposed to go from left to right or the other way around.  But being curious I had the toast first.  As classy as it looks, it taste and feels like I am eating one of those classic Chinese favourites, the prawn toast but with a slightly better flavouring of course.  Crab cake on the left was OK but was too little to enjoy.

 

The fresh crab meat and citrus jelly with fennel cream was probably one of the tastiest things that afternoon.  Consisting crab meat and bits of citrus jelly, it really did not taste as weird as I expected it to.  The crab meat was sweet and all that acidity from the jelly helped the crab mix with the fennel cream giving it that really distinct yet delightful taste.

 

Next came the soup. The soup was way better than the one we had previously at a Japanese restaurant. It did not feel overly rich from the cheese despite having lots of it. The pepper was just spot on to give you that spicy taste that makes it all taste so yummy! Even for onion haters, the onion here is cook so well to the extent that it is no longer pungent but instead is sweet.

Traditional French onion soup with Beaufort cheese gratin.  On its side is a tuile which is a thin piece of wafer topped with red onion paste and crispy white onions. This again was was another good initiative putting significant attention to details.

 

Cheese?!

 

Once we were done with our soup, the waiter promptly asked us whether we were finished before removing the plates. Out came darling’s main the  pan fried Wagyu beef flap with shallots and crunchy green beans, black pepper sauce.

Done in medium, it came out a little redder than expected. Fortunately, the meat was well rested and was still moist and juicy.  However, it is still a less fatty and slightly thin steak which means no bits of layers of tantalising fat as expected if you had a scotch fillet instead! Nevertheless it was still good although the little darling was a little put off by the redness of the meat!  It’s condiments once again used onions which was ok but at this stage was starting to get a little boring.  However, underneath those pieces of steak though is a caramelised balsamic onion which I though tasted quite special when eaten together with the beef.

 

My main was the deer stew.  With sprinkles of parsley and truffle bits along with some cone shaped puree on a thin piece of pastry, I found my main quite ambitious and artsy.  So many things for a simple dish really had me wondering what to expect.

Artsy!!

 

My main was an absolute delight from the start till the end. Everything seems faultless.  If there is a fault with the main that day, it was that the little darling refused to try any perhaps because eating a deer seemed too cruel ahaha.

Stew was tasty and moist without any stringy bits of meat that happens from time to time.  Also, the seasoning was lovely and there was not gamey smell at all. Mash was spot on and all the taste from the herbs and truffles along with the crisp bits made this whole dish an exceptional standout that day.  No wonder the waiter said “Excellent choice!” when I ordered.

 

Feeling a bit stuffed at this point, we were confronted with the appetizer course.  One which no level of fatness/fullness will resist!

Le Paris Brest which was a praline crème mousse stuffed into pastries which resembled mini profiteroles served with poached pear and pear sorbet.  Every aspect of this dish screams joy!  From the well flavoured praline to the lightness of the airy profiteroles. WOW!  Having every individual profiteroles with a slice of poached pear and a spoonful of pear sorbet tasted exquisite! Even little darling who had second thoughts about ordering the dessert was praising the dessert for its taste and freshness.  Magic and .. gold!

 

Lastly we were served hot tea and ‘things’ to put our meal to rest.

Consisting of lemon macaron, fruit jubes and crusted cocoa.  It was a sweet ending to both our meal and trip.  Jubes were jam packed in fruitiness that words cannot describe.  Darling was keen to buy a box but I am pretty sure they were not for sale.  Cocoa had subtle bitterness which calmed our heightened senses for sugar.  Macarons were sweet but lemon did its damage control!  At the end, we were so full we literally just let the escalator carry us down.  For $60 a head, it is not exactly what one would call great bargain.  But in comparison with general food prices in Perth, this was a steal!

 

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon really lives up to its hype and world recognition.  With heaps of other quality Robuchon restaurants around the world, one would not be too far from a food coma.  This meal easily comes in closely behind my trip to Jackson’s on my birthday!  Nevertheless, this restaurant had me leaving Hong Kong elated.  A good meal to start a good (hopefully) year! Hehe ;)

 

WenY

HK Trip: Central favourites!

After spending much time on Kowloon, we finally decided to cross over to Central to look around.  Typically, tourists would visit places like Lan Kwai Fong which is a drinking hole famous for people watching.  IMHO?  Overrated! Perhaps that its coming from a non-drinker, my argument is invalid :P! The other attraction would be the Peak which is a great place to catch the skyline at night:

Been here a couple times now! Still captivated by it!  The only bad thing about this place is that its freezing and extremely windy.  Coming at night in winter is crazy! Add that to the long queue to take the tram down and @@!

 

After awhile we headed back down to the CBD to find some stuff to eat.  We started with two scrumptious egg tarts which were fresh from the oven! 

I have to say, short crust pastry has never tasted better!  The Tai Cheong bakery one was so moist yet crumbly! Kick ass! As for the custard, it was good but not mind blowing!  Nevertheless, with a crust that is to die for, this was really good! Imagine a hot egg tarts and you are hungry on a cold night!  No wonder this bakery is often frequented by a men who once used to be the Premier of HK!

 

After having our egg tarts, we were looking to have noodles!  Instead of slurping down delicious serves of wanton noodles at the famous Mak’s place, we ate at a rival store just opposite the road as the former was closed. 

Among the locals, Tsim Chai Kee is often preferred as the noodles here are cheaper and tastier.  According to my sister and friends, Mak’s place is 50% more expensive and is served in a bowl no bigger than the small Ikea soup bowls but its yummy! The serving size would not have been an issue because Kau Kee which served the “best braised beef noodles” is just down the road! But oh well!

 

Disappointed as anyone could be, this turned out very much to be a blessing in disguise as the wanton noodles here were kick ass no doubt! 

My first spoon full was pure satisfaction as the hot broth tasted very delicious.  It was slightly oily so as to complement the smoothness of the noodles which were good itself!  Springy and more importantly, it does not carry that raw flour flavour.  Wantons were great as well.  So definitely no complains from me! Satisfaction achieved!  But in all honesty so as to no discriminate, I find that all the top wanton noodles as voted by the locals always have good prawn wantons. It is good the people here do not take crap because that is the way it should be!

 

Darling who is allergic to prawns opted for the sliced beef and fresh minced fish ball noodles:

Served with the exact same broth and noodles, the only difference here would be the condiments.  Seeing how tender those slices were, I really could not resist but pick bits and pieces of darling’s food!  It was good as well.  The tender beef slices could easily rival the king prawn wanton as the best condiment!  The fish ball too was good but little darling did not quite like the seasoning of the fish ball.  There was this sort of taste which I thought was fine but she disliked it.  So I willingly helped myself to both the fish balls :P!

 

I could not be happier after our meal.  With our stomachs filled, it was a great feeling compared to when we were starving up at the peak.  The meal as Tsim Chai Kee might be accidental but it was a great eat! Is this what the call serendipity? However, the next time I come, I will order the noodles with all three condiments! The wantons, the beef slices and the fish ball!  Why?  Because it is only 10 HKD more at most :)!

 

WenY

HK Trip: Desserts @ Paul Lafayet, Tsim Sha Tsui

On day 3, we enjoyed a scrumptious dim sim meal at Tim Ho Wan which I blogged before here.  Soon after, we decided to check out the Tsim Sha Tsui district which is well-known for its high end fashion and hotels where Bentleys and high powered German limousines are ‘normal’.  Of course I did not pick up anything for myself but I would have loved too if I could afford it :P!  But we did not leave empty handed as we picked up a little gift for the darling’s little brother sponsored by her sister xD! 

 

At night a light setup is used to showcase the beauty of the Central district from the Avenue of Stars.  I would not say that the show is mind blowing but it was worth the experience considering it is free to watch anyways!

The view of Central from Tsim Sha Tsui!

 

After visiting all the touristy stuff in the area, it was time to get serious! Fooooooooooooooood!  And since we already had our dinner, we were looking for some dessert in the area.  There we searched for a Paul Lafayet branch which is a French dessert shop with various outlets around HK. Seeing how lovely the desserts looked when we reached, we could hardly contain ourselves!

Crème Brulee is something so good that it has consistently topped my charts for favourite dessert year after year.  With the perfect consistency and crust, this dessert can easily make anyone crave for seconds.  And believe it or not, the one at Paul Lafayet delivers superbly.  The creaminess and sweetness was just spot on.  It does not leave that creamy taste and neither is it so sweet that it becomes cloying.  The texture was just right, silky smooth and extremely light.  Air bubbles were non-existent. To finish it all, the burnt crust was delicious despite being done by the waitresses at the store which seemed rather inexperienced at first.  I have to say, darling and I was really impressed.   What more could you ask for?

 

Macaron tart with wild berries.  A pastry filled with custard and decorated with berries before being finish by a Vanilla macaron.  While this dessert was good, I found that it tended to be something that was rather difficult to enjoy politely.  Its a dessert where one needs to take a bit of macaron and a little bit of berry along with the custard to get the right chemistry of sweetness and freshness.  When the berries were eaten alone with the custard, it tended to carry too much acidity making the whole dessert too sour and if you go with the custard and macaron alone, you’d probably complain of its sweetness.  Either way its a tough call.  But when messy fingers come in, nom nom nom! :)!

 

Classic Blueberry Cheesecake.  A simple cheesecake with the right amount of cheese in the mixture always leads to an orgasmic sensation.  Too much too brittle, too little too soft.  Its really an art which I have to say many have perfected and flopped.  I have eaten many good cheesecakes and despite having a large variation in prices, the quality of good or bad depends solely on the shop itself.  At Paul Lafayet, I would rate it somewhere between ok and good.  Probably nothing above but definitely nothing below.  But after having so many decadent desserts halfway through the trip, it was a hard call especially after having the awesome Crème Brulee!

 

Once we were done ordering, a friendly men approached us and started talking about the restaurant.  He was actually the owner of the franchise in HK and he was really friendly.  He told us about how the restaurant came by and its key effort to increase customer satisfaction lies in the core ingredients which are fresh with absolutely no preservatives or flavouring.  I think he mentioned imported from France too?  I guess that explains the fairly pricey price tag of the desserts there!  When we finished our little chatter he offered us free macarons! Nom nom nom! But to be honest, I never quite understood macarons.  They are always too sweet for my liking with the exception of flavours like Jasmine and Lavender.  Those are really special!

 

Having stuffed our face, darling and I were all smiles.  I guess having good desserts to reward ourselves after a long day of walking is well earned!   Would I recommend Paul Lafayet to my friends? Heck yes! Despite being labelled as factory food by some, it taste nothing like it.  In fact, I was actually surprised with the quality of the desserts despite them being made in large quantities.  Kudos!

 

WenY

HK Trip: Desserts @ Luk Lam!

After an obviously mediocre meal of wanton noodles, the little darling and I decided to drown our disappointment by enjoying desserts in the Sam Shui Po area.  One thing I have learned from all my previous trips to HK, is that the desserts here are truly amazing and they clearly part of the HK dining culture.  Dessert shops here are mostly filled with people of all ages especially at night.  Luk Lam clearly was not lacking in fans that day.  There was a queue for takeaways and the tables inside were packed.  In fact, they  even have an established Facebook fan page!  And from what I have seen, lots of check-ins and a good amount of fans on it too!

 

Like?

 

My usual dessert :

The dessert which I ordered was a mix of mango, sago and pomelo fruit! Generous servings of mango paired with a sure win combination made this dessert a winner for me.  Always is!

 

As for darling…

Dinner sucked? No worries! EAT ALL THE DESSERT! Yeap that’s right, the mango pudding, durian pancake and a red bean soup mixed with tau fu fah!   Even the couple who shared table with us thought we were nuts when they saw what we ordered!

 

By the time we were done, the mango pudding came out the obvious winner out of the three with their pudding having the right amount of sweetness and taste.  The additional milk was spot on as it went really well with the flavours of the pudding!  As for the durian pancake, the generosity of Luk Lam in putting the fruit in did help make this dessert worth the money but as a person familiar with the king of fruits, the quality of durian used was deplorable.  Instead of being creamy and rich, it was unripe and crunchy.  Could have been a lot better! And the worse one that night was the red bean soup with tau fu fah!  Red bean soup was unenthusiastic.  Bitter orange peel was horrible. Not to mention their tau fu fah (bean curd dessert) was rough in comparison to the ones we had before.  Honestly, I would never eat that dessert ever again! I guess it just was not my type! 

 

Overall, this is the right place for mango type desserts like the one pudding and soup I ordered.  But I was also told that their black sesame desserts are delicious as well. Regardless, I would never come here for either the red bean soup or tau fu fah again.  Definitely have them written off my list!

 

Stuffed to the brim? Checked!  Satisfied? Checked! 

 

WenY

HK Trip: Wanton Adventure @ Lau Sham Kee

If you have tried looking for the best Wanton noodles in Hong Kong through the internet, you will realise that this is a never ending debate involving both tourists and locals.  Finishing our day at the big Buddha, darling and I got off the train a few stops earlier at Sam Shui Po.  There, we dined at a highly rated Wanton Noodles shop call Lau Sham Kee which has been dishing out quality noodles for many decades now.  On top of its list is the Ha Chi Lou Meen or in English the dry wanton noodles with dried shrimp roe.  Darling despite being allergic to prawns ordered that despite being allergic to it while I conservatively picked the traditional wanton noodles. 

 

The classic dry wanton noodles!

 

The famous dry noodles with dried shrimp roe.

 

Each of the noodles came with a serve of wanton soup as well:

 

Over all, I have to insist that we came here expecting more.  The prawn noodles instantly scared the little darling off and instead she had mine.  In all honestly, the noodles were sufficiently bouncy and tasty but having that much hyped roe is an acquired taste rather than anything else.  For me, I love seafood but found that the roe left me with a gritty feel which I dislike.  Instead, I am more seasoned to slurping smooth textured noodles!  Hence, I felt that this was nothing special.  However, I must insist that the wanton soup tasted yummy and with the added freshness of the prawns, what can I say?  It was yummilicious!   In fact I happily enjoyed darling’s bowl of soup as she was allergic to prawns.  Double win!   But do not be put off from giving this restaurant a try.  In fact this might be for you considering this place is packed from lunch till midnight proving that some people really enjoy the shrimp roe noodles.  Hence, do give it a shot as its really near the train station at 82 Fuk Wing Street,Sham Shui Po, Kowloon H.K.

 

WenY

HK Trip: 2nd day! ADC + Big Buddha!

On the second day, our breakfast started unexpectedly with something that came from Australia!  The Australia Dairy Company or ADC as commonly mentioned among locals is one of the hotspots in Jordan where the queue is long all the time.  But thankfully, the turnover here is quick.  How fast? Well, so fast that the waiter does not even have time to bother about you.  When little darling asked them about their specialty, he pointed to the wall and say ‘OK? OK? I’ll just get you two of those sets!". =.=!  Totally insane! Also their food flies out fast.  Our orders were met within 5 minutes.

 

ADC is most famous for its Scrambled Egg and Butter Toast!

When the only thing 100 people eat is this, you know shit just got real!  While the my hype was almost as great as my doubt, it was almost maniacal that the scrambled eggs here tasted better than ones back in Oz.  Believe it or not, butter was used unsparingly.  Everything tasted good thanks to it.  Another big difference here is the use of salt where they decide what’s good for you rather than otherwise.  In Oz, most big brekkie comes with flat tasting eggs which allows you to add salt and pepper to your liking.  My take on this? 10/10!  But of course do not expect this to fare as though it is something worthy of a 3 starred restaurant!

 

Darling on the other hand asked for fried eggs which were better than the ones I had at Sayers where the eggs were cooked in a little pan to the extent that something that was meant to taste magical ended up “OK”!

The egg white itself was cooked just nice still smooth with a coating of oil, while runny yolk are still finger licking good! Good but no match for its scrambled version!

 

Macaroni and ham with soup!

The macaroni soup with ham is the accompanying dish which in my opinion, the suckiest one for the day.  With pieces of ham, this dish was unpopular with many people as there were plenty of unfinished ones around.  And to be honest, doesn’t the soup look suspiciously mixed with butter?  I guess it was! I would not recommend this!  Another set of scrambled egg and toast would have been more appreciated!

 

Our meal at ADC cost us around 65HKD/RM26/$A8 for all the above and 2 drinks.  Quite decent in my opinion ;)!  If you are making a trip to HK and are sick of dim sum, this is definitely worth a shot despite its poor service!  Even a friend who studied in Melbourne mentioned that one of the thing he misses the most in Hong Kong is ADC! So my fellow foodies be sure to put ADC in your address book @ 47 Parkes Street, Jordan, Hong Kong.

 

After our quick breakfast, we visited the big Buddha which I have to say, is still looking pretty kickass despite me coming here just 2 years ago!  To get up there, take the cable car called the “Ngong Ping 360”!  You have a choice of crystal or normal cabin!

Darling and I tooked the Crystal Cabin Package which was cheaper than taking either of rides by itself! And jesus! I really hated the Crystal Cabin as it was scary as hell!  Worst of all, the cable car ride takes something like 30 minutes?

 

Up in the hills we decided to feast on some delicious Tau Fu Fah.  A dessert commonly found in Asian markets and in Perth, at Dim Sum places!

Silky smooth consistency makes this hard to beat.  Even the ones in the CBD areas of HK was no match for the ones near to the big Buddha!

 

Curry fish balls were an extra order after we started tucking into our desserts :P!

 

After eating, starts our long ascend up the flight of stairs leading to the Buddha statue. 

Ambitious child makes her way up the flight of stairs while..

 

Someone is tired!  Doesn’t matter! Still lovely to me :D!

 

The Buddha and us!

 

After walking around and taking more pictures, we came back down and prayed in the nearby temple before helping ourselves to another serve of Tau Fu Fah! This time at another place!  My take on it? Equally good!  Hence, it is fair to say that the dessert around in this area is consistently good!  And I guess this will be all for now :)!  Will try to get the next post up soon!

 

WenY

First day: Taiwanese Food in HK!

Reaching HK just before lunch, the place has not even changed a bit.  The same shops, the same things all in familiar places.  That’s good news for me considering how badly I fare in speaking their language!  For lunch we were thinking of having dim sum at Tim Ho Wan, the only Michelin starred hole in the wall dim sum canteen the world!  But knowing the size of their fan base, it was impossible, true enough, it was! Hence, using a handy application on iPhone called Open Rice, we found a popular Taiwanese restaurant in the area.

 

Braised Pork Rice or Lu Rou Fan, was pretty good! Definitely much better than the ones I have had in Taiwan where their meat consists mainly of lard.  Packed with vegetables, pickles and a braised egg, this was definitely a decent quick fix before running around town shopping!

 

So if you peeps are looking for this place, its called Seam Eett Taiwan Restaurant located in 2N Hung Kwong Building, 2 Tung Choi Street Mongkok.

 

WenY

HK Trip Final: Old Spice.

Time to wrap up the last part of my trip to Hong Kong.  To help ensure a smooth transition from holiday to reality, we made sure that our trip would have covered as much of this small country as we can to avoid regrets that is.  Being said that this country isn’t all that big, it really shouldn’t be too hard to visit most of the places within a week. That is unless you’re too caught up with shopping ahah.  To finish off the last day in Hong Kong, we had a choice of either visiting Macau or Lama Island.  But a trip to Macau is quite ripoff and having heard there isn’t much to do, there really wasn’t a point for the ladies to suffer a 1 hour boat ride considering they both suffer from sea sickness.  So Lama Island it was.  Just had to take a train to central before getting on to the jetty for a 20 minute boat ride.  It was quite short really and my sister was already dying ahaha. 

Just got off the boat @ the Lama Island Jetty.  The architecture is pretty well aged in Lama Island.  Loved how there would be mosses growing on the buildings.  There was also a certain effect on how the houses were positioned as if they were arranged on terraces to especially provide this “effect”.  This place is really a good change of environment when you’ve been in the concrete jungle for too long.  Sometimes in the city all you see is metal framed boxes that really just get you nauseous especially with loud mouth people everywhere, 360 degrees.

Lots of bicycles just outside the jetty.  Most of the roads here are no more than 3 metres wide.  Obviously there won’t be any cars here at all.  But there were some other pests that looked like an ATV “pick-up” truck version.  They were roaming all over like stray dogs. SO annoying.  But I guess they didn’t have much of a choice considering they were upgrading the infrastructure on the island.  Then there were this three ladies sitting by the jetty showing their fine fishing artistry.  Approx 1 small fish every 10 seconds. @@!

It didn’t take long for us to feel hungry!  We were looking for food and started looking around the restaurants near the jetty and let me tell you its a fckin rip off!  But at times like this I somewhat felt like succumbing to their ridiculous pricing.  O well, at least my mom had her principles right.  280HKD for 2 miserable mantis prawns lol.  And just because this is an island, it doesn’t mean the seafood is fresh. It’s shit FYI.  So we headed towards a beach area to see what we could find. Walked through all the small lanes which really feels so nice for some reason :S! Am I a village boy? omg.  Walked for like err 2-3km and we finally reach the beach but there wasn’t any seafood barbecue happening because we didn’t know they only have it at night unless you’ve booked beforehand!

The beach!

However, although the restaurant did not have decent meals for us, they did have something else :)!

The cheapest and smoothest tau foo fa mmmmm! It was like err 6hkd or 7hkd per bowl.  Really cheap as I remember the one @ the Buddha statue was at least 10! Put some cane sugar powder and yumms!!

Walked around Lama Island for awhile and we didn’t really know where our destination was.  Just pretty much walked where the roads would take us. And by the time we know it, we were kinda lost.  But dad and I just kept on walking while mom and sister panicked a little ahah.  Walk through to some lanes which we saw large machines putting large rocks by the shore to prevent additional erosion.

Wicked machines!  Imagine them suddenly transforming into those big badass robot in Transformers!  Probably sink Lama Island hehe!

I didn’t get too many pictures of this trip to Lama Island.  There wasn’t really much to take truth to be said.  Not to mention the weather was cloudy with cool moisture streaming in from China.  This place however has a good environment to get absorbed into for awhile ahah.  After walking for a super long time, we headed back to the jetty for a rip off meal which was crap! O well.  Learnt our lesson :P!!  We headed back to central to check out my jeans @ Harvey Nichols but disappointingly there weren’t any.  HK is too Japanese inspired.  I don’t see those low-key cult European brands in HK!  A bit disappointing but it’s fine.  Now that I’m back in Perth I can indulge in denims I want! Ksubi? Nudie? hmmm.

WenY

Hunger by the Harbour: HIP Katsu @ Harbour City.

After travelling all about Mongkok following the guide book, my sister and I finally decided its time to do something not visiting.  While my parents headed back to the hotel to get some rest, my sister and I headed over to Harbour City to do more shopping :D!  Pretty happy with my shopping bag although I only spent about 25% of what I would have like to spend during my trip to HK.  Tommy Hilfigher was having some pretty sick sales as well as Polo By Ralph Lauren, hmm some really premium brands like Seven for All Mankind were having sales as well. Hmm I think Diesel was on sale as well.  Sister got a pair of jeans from there.  The jeans at Sevens were rather disappointing considering the promotion the media gives it.  Saw a guy trying on a pair of Sevens which were disgustingly similar to what Obama wore in some event that gave him bad publicity the next day as the press compared the jeans to “granny pants” ahah.  Along the way we also stopped by a massive I.T shop in Tsim Sha Tsui where I was looking at the clothes that they had. NBHD is a whopping 5000 HKD a pair. 1 word, SICK.  But I like my jeans raw untouched unworn untorn.  So yeah, I’m gonna get more Nudies! We were famished and the stores started to shut their doors about 8.  With my sister close to hitting her gastric limit, we were careful to have something asap.  There aren’t many food stall in the mall and one of it was HIP Katsu.  We got a number and waited for awhile before being guided by the captain to our seats. (that’s after me questioning why the waiting numbers are rolling back! Bitch!)

I was takened back by the prices on the menu really.  A bloody katsu for 130HKD? ohh ok @@ Its like 20+ aud Or 65 ringgit.  Damn!!  Luckily there was this other set menu which seems fairly prices @ 150HKD per person!  Not sure whether to consider ourselves lucky or not but yeah, take a look;

For starters, Miso, pickled radish, Chawan Mushi, and salad.

After that our mains took about 20-30 minutes to come so I waited an got myself a few more pictures!

The chef carefully preparing the crepes

And from our seats at the bar we had some view which was nothing to shout a bout for sure.

The view of Central.  These are the few picture worth noticing ahah.

And jeng jeng jeng, the food started pouring in one by one;

Thinly sliced beef with udon in Japanese Curry soup base.  I liked this because it tasted good but there wasn’t really a “wow” factor in this.

If presentation was everything, then this tasting platter of the menu really quite makes the mark. Its well presented, everything looks so neat on one plate.

Upon closer inspection:

I just love scallops.  Have a scallop with a small slice of mushroom and celery. Wow really nice aha.  Maybe I’m just a sucker for scallops ahha

Baked Oyster was well errr ahah ONE TO EACH OWN. I personally don’t like this fancy shell thingyy.  But I did scoop the cheese of the oyster.  When I asked my sister how did it taste, she said “OK”.  So then I kindly offered her the oyster and she said “Just because I said it was OK doesn’t mean I like it”. HAAHAHAHA fakkkkkkkkk

Lastly was this crispy pork from the USA. You heard me people the USA.  That is why this whole HIP Katsu thing is so pricy. But I have to be honest, I don’t like the USA.  They f*ck up the Reds, the World Economy, the Harmony, err what else did they NOT f*ck up?

Dessert was jelly with red bean paste.  Quite nice even though it was a bit too sweet!

All in all my dining experience here was nothing to shout about.  If this restaurant was supposed to specialise in serving Katsu as its name suggests, then I have to insist that this place is a failure.  Akira-san @ Kanta does his katsu at half the price, and doube the serving.

I’d go back to Kanta anytime rather than this place.

WenY