208 Duecento Otto, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

I was at this Italian restaurant to celebrate the third birthday of my first cousin, once removed.

We had a large table in their upstairs floor as there were about ten of us. It is a very bright space because of the big glazed window at the front letting a lot of light in. The decor is modern and clean.

Each one of our dining party ordered an item or items for everyone to share and this is how we got on:

I chose gnocchi and salad from their menu. The gnocchi was mixed with a tomato and herb sauce but could have had a bit more flavour. Salad was a basic green one but nice fresh ingredients with a light and tasty dressing. 

My order of Gnocchi and Salad

There was a starter platter as well as a burger ordered by our lunchers, which are shown in the photographs below. The platter had a variety of hams that were nice and a very creamy goats cheese that was tasty as well as quite fattening. I did not try the burger but had a chip which were neatly cut into cuboid shapes.

Burger and Chips

Starter Platter in background

Mushroom pizza is not my favourite variety of pizza but I ate a slice nonetheless. It was served on a wooden board and had different varieties of mushroom and a thin crust so not too filling.


Mushroom Pizza

I also ordered a dessert, which is pictured below left and was an ice cream with some strawberry garnish. This was of vanilla flavour and nothing special about it. My wife ordered the chocolate molten cake which is shown on the right. I had a taste of it and it was nice, not too rich and the molten was not burn-your-tongue hot either.

Dessert

This is a family orientated restaurant as there is a children's playroom on the ground floor so this place is good for families and big parties. The food is fine, if nothing spectacular and is all presented well. Service was friendly but some of the multi-national staff could have better command of English, although they may have been better versed in Italian given the restaurant type we were in? Anyway, a decent time was had; whether I will return shall be seen.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 3/5

Service: 2/5

Setting: 4/5

Total: 12/20

Bill: Approximately HK$400 a head although we were treating some of the party.

I ate: A bit of everything from the above

I drank: Peroni beer and water

I wore: Respectable shirt and jeans.



祥興 (Cheung Hing), Happy Valley, Hong Kong

I am here at breakfast time for an early Lunch Quest (from a short while ago as I have a bit of a backlog). I am in a 'cha chaan teng', literally a tea restaurant that is a few minutes walk from my flat. This local cafe does not have an English name (you can see this from the sign of their unassuming shop front in the photograph below) so the phonetic translation is 'Cheung Hing'.

The shop front

It is a fairly famous restaurant as some photographs of local celebrities and newspaper clippings adorn the walls. I am not sure when it was established but it is likely it has never been refurbished. The furniture is still functional though, but I foresee this place getting a little cramped when it gets busy.

However, there were only a few diners as I walked in so was able to get a table easily to myself. There is no English on the menu, apart from some letters designating set meals. Needless to say I ordered an 'A' meal. In truth I do know some Chinese characters so I sort of knew what I was going to get.

Macaroni & Tea

My order arrived very quickly, with the first component of the meal being macaroni with ham. My drink, which was a tea, came next. The third part of my meal, which is not pictured, was two fried eggs and two slices of bread.

The macaroni was in a clear soup base, probably chicken stock, garnished with shreds of processed ham. The tea was hot and strong and in these type of cafes they are served with evaporated milk, giving it a distinct taste. I can drink it this way but am more accustomed to using standard milk. The eggs were freshly fried over-easy and the bread was soft and white, with the crusts cut off, from which I made an egg sandwich out of.

Overall the food in this place is more than edible, it was served in plastic bowl and plate, but I did get a porcelain tea cup and saucer. It is a cheap, efficient and unassuming cafe and a filling way to start the day.

Total bill: $28, about £2.50

I ate: All the above.

I drank: Tea.

I wore: not pyjamas.

W1 Restaurant, iSquare, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

I have been terribly busy this past month, hence the lack of blogging action. Rest assured I have been eating and for this entry we are on the Kowloon side for some dim sum on a Saturday lunch time, which was partaken some time ago. This restaurant is situated on the 25th floor of the iSquare shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. As we were eating a bit later the lunch time rush must have gone and we were able to be seated straight away.

The menus were on the table already and we ordered the following items.

The Drunken Chicken dish arrived first, it was good with an alcoholic marinade taste that was not too strong. Double boiled soup followed soon after; this was a pork based soup and had a very thin and clean taste.

Drunken Chicken in the background, Double boiled soup in foreground

The photograph below shows most of our order. Five dishes are noted, starting from the top row, left hand side and working right to left then onto the next row (hope that made sense). The noodles were linguine-style and were soup based to give it a good flavour and slightly spicy. The 'Siu Mai' shrimp and pork dumplings were nice, with a scallop placed on top for some variety. The steamed custard buns are a sweet dish were the ones that had a runny filling in them; we left them to cool a bit so that the filling did not burn our mouths. The 'Siu Long Bao' Shanghai dumplings only numbered 3, which was a little disappointing and there was not that much soup in them. The 'Har Gow' prawn dumpling had a nice pastry and prawn filling with courgette for a little crunch.

Most of our order

We also ordered an abalone dish that was served on a light pastry.The abalone was cooked and chewy, with a sauce accompanying it and the pastry was flaky. It worked quite well; like a really posh pie I suppose.

Abalone

The best thing about this restaurant is the view. It's located on the 25th floor and one can see easily across the harbour and onto the island. The food was decent with some dishes better than others, as is the case when eating dim sum. Service was adequate and efficient and tableware was elegant and all nicely presented. Overall a decent restaurant that I will most likely go again if in the area.

The view

Scores:
Food: 3/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 4/5

Overall: 13/20

Bill: About $300 total, so about 12.50GBP a head.

I ate: all of the above.

I drank: numerous cups of Dragon's Well tea.

I wore: A sweaty t-shirt following my site visit that morning.