White Spot

My stomach starts rumbling again just by looking at the burger and shake now.

My classic combo with gravy on the side and blueberry milkshake. I would kill to have one of those milkshakes now.

The combo with fries and a pop is about HK$50 I think. I find it a bit scummy that you have to add money to have cheese...what kind of burger is this with no cheese? Anyway by the time I got all the extras (egg, cheese, gravy, swapping pop for milkshake) the combo came to HK$93. bit pricey but it's worth it.

Triple O's by White Spot
LG1, Great Food Hall, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong. Tel: 2873-4000

Yung Kee Restaurant

Finally I got to pig out at Yung Kee! We got to order everything we wanted as there were 10 of us. Yay!!!

The legendary roast goose: very tender and juicy. HK$210 for half a goose.

This cold cut dish made of pork(HK$110) is apparently one of Yung Kee's signature dishes. It's not really my cup of tea but it seemed fine judging by what people were saying.

My favourite dish scrambled eggs with XO sauce(HK$78).

Another signature dish beef brisket in clear soup(HK$115). I didn't really like the cut of beef but again it seemed popular.

Stirred-fry green sprouts(HK$80).

Deep fried pork fillets(HK$96). Nice seasonings and not too greasy surprisingly.

Beef and spring onions in clay pot(HK$100). Beef tasted OK and tender but too little of it and too much spring onions.

Sweet and sour prawns(HK$170). The prawns were huge and fresh and the sauce was zingy and sweet at the same time. Excellent!

Fried glutinous rice(HK$95). Very heavy dish indeed. We each had a spoonful or two and it was more than enough.

The fried rice (HK$90) was not as good as usual. Where were the big prawns?

Yung Kee
32-40 Wellington St., Central, Hong Kong. Tel: 2522-1624

Sorabol Korean Restaurant

My favourite Korean restaurant in Hong Kong - Thank you V for coming with me even though she was on diet.

Our kimchi spread. Unlimited refills.

Marinated beef short rib: possibly the nicest beef dish in the world. The texture was just out of this world and the slightly sweet marinate was equally as wonderful.

Spicy chicken. I never cared much for Korean chicken dishes until I tried this one.

Finally the reason to come to Sorabol over other Korean BBQ places: the home-made noodles with beef. Loved the substantial bite with the noodles and the soup base is to die for also.

Sorabol Korean Restaurant
17/F, Lee Theatre Plaza, 99 Percival St., Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Tel:2881-6823

Nam Wah Restaurant

The Hainen Chicken rice I grew up with. The restaurant is there and pretty busy still. My chicken rice set was average but the rice was not as fragrant as I remembered. The chicken tasted OK but the cucumber slices underneath looked like they had seen better days. At least the dips were tasty as usual and they helped giving the rice some taste. As average as it was I still think it's much better than the version at the Mandarin Cafe and it's half the price. Time to hunt down another chicken rice place in town!

The set is about HK$90 these days.
Nam Wah Restaurant
8 Pak Sha Rd., Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Tel: 2890-4507

Iccho Japanese Restaurant 魚一丁刺身居酒屋

Visibly less busy compared to its prime time, we were happy to get a table right away at Iccho at dinner time. We started off with the Iccho signature cold ramen salad. It was pretty refreshing.

Chicken yakitori.
Katsu don.
Grilled cod steak. Very nice indeed.

Some kind o beef hot plate. It arrived way too late and it was tough despite being medium. Ate a piece each and V took the rest of it for a stray dog near her home.

Iccho Japanese Restaurant 魚一丁刺身居酒屋

Shop 312, World Trade Centre, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Tel: 2882-7468

Sidewalk Cafe

From the relatively small lunch menu I picked a set lunch with a main + soup + tea.

A typical "Russian borsch" in Hong Kong. It would be interesting to see what it's really like in Russia.

My pork fillet with Shanghaiese veggie rice. I have to say everything was average at best: the pork was pretty greasy and lacked taste and the rice pretty bland.

A ordered curry beef with rice (forgot to take picture) and it was rather greasy as well. he had indigestion all afternoon!

Each set was about HK$80. Verdict: very expensive for what you get!

Sidewalk Cafe

Shop P8, Telford Plaza 1, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong.

Jo Jo Indian Cuisine

Although I didn't feel like eating that evening the meal tasted pretty good nonetheless. We started off with some samosas....

...and some masala papads. Loved the onions and corriander.

Chicken tikka.

The rest of the spread we had a light chicken curry, dal mahkani, lamb jalfreizi and a biriyani. All tasted nice except for the chicken curry - it had that frozen chicken taste despite the curry sauce.

Freshly baked nan and roti.

Jojo Indian Cuisine

2/F, David House, 37-39 Lockhart Rd., Wanchai, Hong Kong. Tel: 2527-3776

Mandarin Cake Shop

Another amazing creation from the Mandarin Cake Shop. I believe it's made out of icing and chocolate - it'll probably taste as good as it looks.

Pho Saigon

A small restaurant recommended by my friends V and S. They said the food is generally pretty good and the super-friendly owner Nathan is always ready for a good chat. Right on.

The house special pho Saigon (~HK$40). It had lots of sprouts, thin slices of beef, beef balls and chicken. The broth was pretty good - I was told that it's made daily in house.

Vietnamese sausages (~HK$35). They were OK but I found the clear gristly bits embedded in the sausage a little off-putting.

Will visit again if I'm in the area and try the home-baked baguette.

Pho Saigon

G/F, 319 Hennessy Rd. (nr. Tonnochy Rd.) Wanchai, Hong Kong. Tel: 2833-6833

Simply Thai

When we got to Simply Thai at around 7:15pm it was already packed. Having tried a number of the dishes we could see why though. The food seemed to have gotten so much better than our previous visit about a year ago. Nice work!

Prawn cakes (RMB60) - a must-have with my husband. They were very nicely seasoned and fried and more importantly not greasy at all. Loved the texture also - we could actually taste prawns.

Mixed saute vegetables(RMB40). We didn't expect much as a dish like that is usually very pappy and cooked to death. To our surprise it was actually very good: everything was crunchy and tasty.

Green curry chicken (RMB55). It was rich and full of flavours and the chicken didn't taste frozen. Loved it.

Pad Thai(RMB45). Another dish turned out to be excellent.

We also got lap gai/minced chicken in herbs and chili (RMB45). Although with just 1 chili sign on the menu it was fierce.

We need to go back soon!

Simply Thai

Xin Tian Di, Ma Dang Rd. (nr. Xin Ye Rd.), Shanghai. Tel: 6326-2088

La Creperie

My second visit to La Creperie and I was happy to see the menu had expanded a little since my last visit. Here's my ham and egg buckwheat crepe (RMB38). I asked to have the egg scrambled as I didn't really fancy eating raw eggs in China. Loved it.

For dessert I picked the one with pear and chocolate sauce (~RMB25). The pears were sweet and with the super sweet chocolate sauce it was almost reaching my limit.

Very naughty indeed. La Creperie

1 Tao Jiang Rd.(nr. Dong Ping Rd.), Shanghai. Tel: 5465-9055

Tin Jia

I always loved Tin Jia and its FRESH toro. The dinner set is such a great bargain too bad we are supposed to limit our tuna consumption to 1 steak a week these days!

On this fine (cold) afternoon I decided to treat myself to a nice lunch. To start I ordered the toro set sushi (RMB160). All of them looked so fresh they had that shine on them. They tasted divine as well with that melt-in-the-mouth texture. Hmmm.....I need to go back next week I think.

My eyes were bigger than my belly as usual and I decided to get the toro rice bowl (RMB78) as well. I managed to eat everything because it was just irresistible.

The lady was going to give me homemade ice cream for dessert but I honestly had no room. What a shame! Will go back for more for sure.

Tin Jia

2/F 1520 Hua Shan Rd. (entrance next to hotel adjacent to park), Shanghai. Tel: 6281-4918

Sakae Sushi

Another day, another sushi gorging experience at the cheap and cheery Sakae Sushi.

Cucumber rolls (RMB6).

Mini California rolls (RMB1x) and egg sushi (RMB6).

Dragon Rolls (RMB3x) with tempura prawns and avocado.

Bimbibap (RMB2x). Less spicy than the Korean version.

Beef udon (RMB2x). Nice soup base but beef was tough.

Everything was average - no surprises there.

Sakae Sushi

7/F Parkson, 918 Huai Hai Middle Rd. (nr. Shanxi Rd.), Shanghai. Tel: 6415-9726

Green Cottage Vietnamese Restaurant

We always go to Green Cottage when we visit Hong Kong - everything on the menu is pretty good. With its new and bigger location it's easier to get a table. Bonus!

Our lime soda..refreshing but not the best we had.

My favourite Vietnamese sausage Nem Chua: a spiced pork sausage, sometimes with chili inside.

Stir-fried pak choi for our fiber needs.

My husband's curry beef noodles. It's probably the best curry soup base in the world.

I ordered beef pho but somehow forgot to take a picture. Too busy eating. The meal came to around HK$150. Excellent value for money!

Green Cottage Vietnamese Restaurant

2/F Gigna Tower, 482 Jaffe Rd., Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Tel:2832-2863

Pierre, Mandarin Oriental

Finally we had a chance to try Pierre, a creation by Pierre Gagnaire. Loved the table decoration: the bears were made out of white chocolate!

We had a good look on the very interesting (strange if you ask me) menu. There are a number of starters and each consist of one main ingredient with 3 or 4 ways of cooking. The main course selection paled in comparison: it was a choice between a beef, a pork, a fish and a chicken dish.

Our complementary appetisers...I don't really remember what they were but the were pretty neat and tasty.

Since we didn't see anything inspiring for mains we decided to order starters only and had them up the portions. My husband picked lobster (HK$888) and it consisted of lobster bisque, lobster tempura, some kind of mousse and an actual tail. He said everything was nicely cooked but nothing exceptionally special.

I picked langoutines (HK$590) and was excited to see all the dishes. Here is the poached langoustine with some kind of (spinach?) puree. As the sauce was light and faint the fresh taste of langoustine was bursting out. Interesting!

Next was the langoustine tail cooked in a turmeric based sauce. Again the meat was very nicely cooked and the turmeric worked well with the texture. It was certainly exciting for the taste buds but not overpowering.

I don't remember much about this dish actually....so I am guessing it was probably average. It was interesting to look at though.

Some kind of langoustine sashimi..I didn't want anything raw so my husband polished it off for me. He didn't really say much about it.

My langoustine bisque. Creamy and not too fishy.

We were almost full after the starters but desserts had to be done! A little sherbet before the grand finale.

Like our starters desserts were made up with 3 to 4 different components. My husband's chocolate souffle (HK$200) came with sherbet and a shot of liqueur.

My Sicilian (HK$160) had some kind of chocolate cake. Loved the sugar coated blueberries. There were also mousse, jelly, and a shot of grappa.

With tea and coffee and a half bottle of wine the meal came to just over HK$3000. While we enjoyed the food we didn't think it was as good as Caprice. We probably won't be going back.

Pierre

25/F, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 5 Connaught Rd., Central, Hong Kong. Tel: 2825-4001