Cafe Gray Deluxe @ Upper House, HK

Back to my 2nd Home where my best fav friends lived.....its always nice to be back there for visits....Hong Kong is really a wine and dine haven...and you will never lack any wine and dine friends..

So for the 'glam' night..its off to Cafe Gray at Upper House...very sophiscated interiors by Andre Fu, food was nice but really not great and not worth the prices they are charging.

Wines are expensive , but alright, since it was 'glamour puss' night with the girls...

Predominantly French Food menu.

Restaurant Baked Bread - with a very very nice aioli sauce

Appetizer - Scallop Ceviche with julienne cucumbers with Salmon roe.

This dish really rocks and really up the expectation for the plat principal.

Main Dish - Duck Breast with Dark Cherry Glazing. I always loved the french way of cooking duck. But the texture of this duck turned out to be a bit too tough, and not as succulent as a typical French duck should be....disappointed... :(

Sputini @ Star Street

Sputini was recommended by friend of mine, who is an absolute gourmet......I went there, and found very very well done pastas, very interesting amuse-bouche, and an overall pleasant experience....even though it came after a night of hard core partying......great lunch set...really worth it.

Set lunch menu

The lovely antipasto display next to us

Minestrone soup yes, in a glass jar...love this

Amuse-bouche: Pasta Sushi....

Freshly baked bread

Plat principal - pan seared fish with penne....yum

SangKee , 107-115 Hennessy Road

I had my office dinner party there, and we finished 90 bottles of beers...till the restaurant ran out of beer...anyway, this is good old cantonese food at its rawest form. No reservation, no niceties, just uncle waiters serving a range of old time customers. This is a real Hong kong establishment, for those in the know...I like the food very much, there is an authenticity to it, which you don't find in many new Chinese restaurant. You can definately taste the wok-hei here.

The stuff that makes the soup

the soup - I don't know what it is called!

carp meat patties - this is the best i have ever tasted so far

Deep fried eggplants with chilli and garlic - yum

Salt roasted chicken

Salt and scallion big head prawns

Gu lo Yok

Lotus root with braised pork kunckles

potato leaves with pig's liver

Minced meat with Choy Sum

Ovologue @ 66 Johnston Road Wanchai

Yet another Dim Sum blog....I never get sick of having Dim SUm in Hong Kong...they are so good, and the better ones are just innovative and very exciting..Ovologue is one of those places , which from the exterior, you would have thought that it is expensive, serves bad dim sum..and tries to hype things up by having an extremely posh decor....but to my surprise...dimsum was not expensive..they served the best tea in any dim sum restaurant to date ( excluding HK tea house in HK park) and dim sum was exquisite there...I am going to bring all my friends there in the future...on top of that..service was great..and servers were attentive...luv luv luv

beautiful table setting...love the different tea-cups for each set

quirky decor - I looove this ambience

Foie Gras fried wonton - alright, the foie gras ain't great..but the wonton is...plus the sauce is stunning

Vegetable & mushroom dumplings- nice

Scallop and crab dumpling with crab roe

Har Gaw - very decent...skin is very well-done

Mega spring roll - very very delicious

Fish patties with water chestnuts and other ingredients  -forgot the name...but it is very good too

really luv this dish - scallops with steamed melon, simple delicate and wonderful

Fried Carrot Cake - This is probably the worst of the lot...not that it is bad...but it is quite ordinary...I prefer Sabah's friedn carrot cake

Xiao Long Bao -quite normal too...can skip this dish

Bamboo piths with asparagus & mushrooms - this dish is amazing...so delicious..

House special spare ribs - very interesting taste...very subtle...must try

Almond lychee tofu pudding - yeap..very exciting very delicious

Rose Jelly with Ginseng..very good...even though we can't really taste the ginseng..

Sabah @ 98 Jaffe Road

Sabah is one of my favourite places to go to when I miss Malaysian/Singaporean food..They have a great after taste which returns you literally back to KL/Singapore.....Food is always good....more Malaysian than Singaporean though...Hot Picks - Banana Grilled Fish , Fried Carrot Cake ,Fried Kuey Tiao, Bak Ku Teh & Roti Prata . Luv luv luv

Mutarbak - I seem to find a connection between fritata and this mutarbak...but luv!

Roti Prata - this place serves the real deal...even the curry sauce is good

Sambal Okra

Spicy Chicken dish - a little too spicy

Chickpea Curry - luv luv luv

Fried Carrot Cake

Bak Kut Teh

Fried Kuey Tiao!

Grilled Fish on Banana Leaf...:)

Sinma Deluxe @ Far East Finance Center ,Admiralty

Friends recommended this place as a new joint, and since Shiok has closed down, I decided to go there for my weekly fix..Food - average in my opinion, because the fusion part is not too sophiscated and lack the real rich flavour of singaporean or malaysian cuisine...some dishes are positively bizarre..Some combination don't quite work that well...like the Pandan batter chicken wing. Ambience wise, it is okie and the servers are rather nice..Don't think I will go there again..

The Menu

Hainan Chicken Laksa - the Laksa base is not too correct..too watered down, even though i can taste the shrimp stock...too much funky ingredients eg eggplants..noodles are too soggy..not considered a good laksa dish

Hainan Chicken - this is much better, with different sauces..but chicken too fatty, and not fragrant enough though

Tasting Platter - grilled pork neck (not too bad), pandan coated chicken wing ( too weird, no taste of chicken), and aubergine soaked in galangal ( no  taste of galangal even though aubergine was nicely done)

Sambal Okra - this dish is actually tasty, well their fancier dishes are not good..maybe they will excel in simpler and more traditional dishes..

Makoto@J senses ,Ship Street, Wanchai

Went to this yakitori place via a recommendation of a friend , and found it half empty...was it that bad? i wondered to myself.....but in end , the food was pretty honest and authentic, not the awe-inspiring Japanese food you would find in Japan, but really the quality is decent, and they do not have bubblegum Japanese food. The portions are a little small though...3 of us end up sharing a set dinner ( about 8 courses) and a few extra dishes.....tried to order some exotic sakes...but they are out of stock for a good 60% of the sake...talk about restaurant management...:(
.it is alright for a decent semi-formal meal...but I still way prefer Rakuen or Nanbantei anytime for Yakitori.

The menu

Beautiful Sake Bottle

The Sashimi platter is not bad, at least the sashimi is very fresh..

The appetizer - tomato salad, grilled blow fish, Age Tofu and stewed ABalone

Stewed beef cubes

Yakitori set - chicken wing,beef tongue, minced chicken meat, mushrooms, peppers and chicken meat

Fried rice - the taste is a little too chinese

Grilled mackerel - this is good!

Cheese-baked seafood - the seafood is really fresh. interesting dish

Vegetable Tempura - not bad...but portion is really small..and I still prefer tempura from Agehan...