Le Beaulieu, Sofitel Legend Metropole, Hanoi

This late lunch quest comes from Hanoi, where my wife and I went to celebrate our first anniversary as a married couple. We dined at Le Beaulieu which is located on the ground floor of the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel, one of the best places to stay in this city.

The restaurant is elegant, without being to opulent and the maitre'd greeted us and led us to our clean and presentable table. It was not full but not completely empty either. Both of us went for the set menus consisting of four courses and this is how we got on.

Table Setting

The starter from my set menu was duck and fig pâté shown below. This was wrapped in a pastry crust and served along with baby leeks that had a mustard dressing. This was a nice looking starter, which could have done with a touch more flavour but quite filling too.

Starter

Tomato Confit

My wife's starter from the set menu was the tomato confit shown above, which had apparently been cooking for eight hours.

The second course was Tiger Prawn with squid. The prawn was meaty and slightly spicy with the squid being nice too. This was accompanied with some peas and peppers adding some crunch to the dish.

Prawn

Lamb was chosen for the main third course. The two pieces of lamb were well cooked to the medium standard that I asked for and was tender and juicy. It was served with a coffee type sauce that was interesting and sat on a bed of sauteed vegetables. A pumpkin puree was served as a side which was a lovely and sweet alternative to mash potatoes.

Lamb

For dessert the option was the Chocolate Burger. This to me was the best dish of the evening by far, good enough to make my wife envious of it (she got a parfait with marinated fruits). This delicious treat had layers of biscuit and crumble with different chocolate flavours mixing excellently.

Chocolate Burger

Le Beaulieu was a lovely place to have an anniversary dinner. The setting could have been slightly dimmer for a more romantic ambience and there were a few families there but these are minor things. Service was friendly and attentive, with a good standard of English (I am not sure how good their French is). As with quality establishments this is not cheap and very expensive in Hanoi terms but a very good restaurant nonetheless.

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

Overall: 17/20

Total Bill: Complimentary, so many thanks to Sofitel Hotel!

I ate: Duck and Figs Pate en croute with Baby Leeks; Grilled Tiger Prawns and Squid with Carrot; Roasted Lamb Rack with Pumpkin Puree; Chocolate Burger.

I drank: Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc, Sparkling Water.

I wore: The anniversary gift of a Rolex GMT Master II watch, from my wife.

Prince, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

It was a public holiday in Hong Kong so I went with my wife to Prince in Lee Gardens shopping centre for a leisurely dim sum lunch.

As the restaurant is located in an upmarket shopping centre the setting is affluent as well, with decent sized and well laid-out tables with nice tableware. We ordered the following dishes as described below.

Spring rolls arrived first and fairly swiftly. These were different in that they were longer and thinner than the standard ones, plus it was served in a wine glass as shown below. The filling was different too in that it had fish meat that was quite tasty, rather than the usual pork and vegetable mix.

Spring Rolls

The picture below has four dishes. Scallop and vegetable dumpling at the top of the shot did not much scallop, disappointingly but overall OK. The egg tarts were the best dish of the lunch; they had really nice pastry and good sweet filling and we saved these treats until the end of our meal. The savoury dumpling was very standard, with a crispy sweet outside and pork based filling. The 'Har gow' had an adequately sized prawn wrapped by a decent pastry on the outside.

Clockwise from top: Scallop & Vegetable Dumpling, Egg Tart, Savoury Dumpling, Har Gow

Another dish we ordered was the Turnip Cake. This fried dish was a little bland to taste but was served with some peppers for a bit of colour.

Turnip Cake

Apart from the Egg Tarts and Spring Roll the rest of the dishes tasted not that much better than other dim sum restaurants that are common place here. Service was fine too.

One last point is the whilst it is a more high-end dim sum restaurant than usual ones, there were no napkins or serviettes that one would probably expect from a tea house trying to differentiate itself from the rest.

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

Overall: 13/20

Total Bill: $284, about £12 a head.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Cups of Dragon's Well tea.

Brown, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

Last Sunday was Mid-Autumn Festival and taking a break from eating mooncakes, I went to a local restaurant, Brown for some brunch. I had breakfasted that morning but my wife was still on her first meal of the day.

The restaurant was not particularly busy at this time of day so there was not much difficulty in getting a seat, they even have some tables at the back. The decor is, modern and well, brown.

We ordered our food and drinks fairly quickly from their menu. I chose a 'Big Brown Breakfast' to eat and a 'Purple' smoothie to drink.

Our drinks came first, which were freshly made. Mine had cranberry, raspberry and strawberry yoghurt all blended up, giving it the purple colour and the taste was sweet and refreshing. My wife's milkshake was nice too.

My 'Purple' Smoothie to the left, Malteser Milkshake to right

My breakfast arrived afterwards and it contained bacon, sausage, roast potato, tomato, baked beans, white and brown toast slice and two eggs of you choice, which I chose to be fried over-easy. It was also garnished with some salad leaves with a vinaigrette, which was a strange addition but I ate it nonetheless. The egg was cooked as requested; the bacon was flavoursome; so too were the sausages but the were a bit smaller than anticipated; tomato was grilled with herbs and fine and the roast potatoes were probably a posher alternative to hash browns, although I would have preferred the latter. The toast was buttered with the little portion they gave out and that filled me up, along with the baked beans.

My Big Brown Breakfast Order

Brown has the tag line 'Bar Restaurant Lounge', making it a multi tasking eatery. It does fine in the restaurant department served decent fare. Overall it is ok, nothing too special, and service was efficient without being exceptional. Out of convenience I would go again due to its proximity, but would not tell people to make their way over here to eat.

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

Overall: 12/20

Total Bill: $350, about £14 a head.

I ate: Big Brown Breakfast.

I drank: Purple smoothie.

I wore: Sunday jeans and t-shirt.

Palm Court, Ritz Hotel, London

Following on from our visit to the Savoy, my wife and I  went to the Ritz Hotel for another afternoon tea session. This time it was at the even later sitting of 7.30pm, when most people are having their dinner.

The tea is held at their Palm Court on the ground floor. The hall is sizeable but tables are less spaced apart and our table was smaller than the one we had at the Savoy but still comfortable and well laid out. The room was opulently decorated, maybe a bit too garish for my tastes. They only have traditional afternoon tea so my wife and I chose that and I opted for Darjeeling tea to drink.

Table Setting

Sandwiches and pastries were served first on the tray. The sandwiches were in six flavours (Smoked Salmon, Cheese and Chutney, Ham and Mustard, Cucumber, Chicken and Egg Mayonnaise) which were all very pleasant. Similar to the Savoy these were replenished upon request.

Sandwich and pastry tray

The traditional pastries and cakes were served at the same time as the sandwiches and placed on the top tier of the tray. These consisted of chocolate cake, macaron, raspberry tart, vanilla slice. I tried most of these, with the vanilla slice being my favourite.

Following on from the two course were the Scones. These came with two accompaniments of clotted cream and strawberry jam. Again, like the Savoy visit our scones were ok but probably not oven fresh.

Scone with Cream & Jam

Another round of cakes were presented, which we were allowed to choose from. I chose a slice of Lemon Cake (not pictured) and my wife went for the pistachio cake shown below. My cake was fine, light and citrusy without being too sour, which ended the meal nicely.

My Wife's Pistachio Cake

We had also pre-ordered a cake with a message to be placed on top but due to various correspondence dealing with booking arrangements the cake came as plain, unfortunately. Nonetheless, we took this cake home to east as we were too full. This was mango and strawberry with icing and was really nice.

Cake (with no message)

Service varied depending on the waiter. They are all suited nicely in their tailcoats but some could have been slightly more friendlier. They did however not charge us for the cake due to the non message on it.

They had live music in the form of a quartet, playing more background music. The sound was better in the Savoy as they were located further away and to the side of the tea drinkers than in the centre of them.

Having tea at the Ritz was a nice experience, very filling and very popular to the masses (hence our late sitting). Price-wise it compares to the Savoy but to me for service and setting the Savoy was the better of the two afternoon tea heavyweights.

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

Overall: 15/20

Cost: £84 for two of us, no service charge.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank:  A lot of cups of Darjeeling  tea.

I wore: Suit and tie, which is their dress code for gentlemen. Tie by Gieves an Hawkes given from my wife.

Thames Foyer, Savoy Hotel, London

I am still in Europe and in UK's capital, London for some afternoon tea at Thames Foyer of the Savoy Hotel. I was accompanied by my wife, who being the afternoon tea loving type, was very excited in being here.

Being a top hotel, the room where tea was held was in a large hall,  with glass dome ceiling with tables well spread apart and arranged around the centrally placed grand piano (where the pianists played an eclectic mix of songs from different genres). We were shown to our table as we had already made a reservation, which was all set up with the nice crockery and cutlery.

Table Setting

Our waiter was a friendly chap, informing us of the varieties of tea they have on offer and the two different dining options, traditional and high tea. I chose the latter, which has more savoury dishes in lieu of scones and cakes.

The tea was served as a formal meal, with the sandwiches arriving as a first course. these arrived promptly after we ordered. There were five different fillings of Cucumber, Egg Mayonnaise, Chicken, Ham and Mustard and Smoked Salmon. All arranged in a pretty radial formation and formed a good 'starter'. The sandwiches arrived along with the Assam tea I chose. 

Sandwich First Course

After we made inroads into the sandwiches (which were replenished upon request) I was served my second course of Scrambled egg with Salmon. The egg was cooked well and salmon tasted nice after drizzling with lemon juice that came with it. It was also served with some thin slices of toast that I forgot to eat.

Salmon and Scrambled Egg Second Course

My third course was toasted Crumpet, which was accompanied with honey, orange preserve, and strawberry jam. These were more filling than tasty and to me crumpets are more of a breakfast item but they were not bad.

Crumpet Third Course

The last course was a choice of cakes for 'dessert' so I chose the classic Victoria Sponge. This was really lovely and a nice way to  end the tea sitting, of which I had sufficient. The sponge was light and there was a good amount of cream and sweet jam.

Cake Fourth Course

The scones came after the sandwich course for my wife and at our request they brought along the tray for presentation, as shown in the photo below. Below the scones on the bottom tray were the accompaniments of clotted cream, jam and lemon curd. My wife was generous enough to give me one scone, which was OK, but given as it was the end of the day, did not have that freshly baked taste. However, the lemon curd was lovely.

Scones with Jam & Cream

We were both really full and were able to take away the sandwiches and the staff were kind enough to give us extra slices of Victoria Sponge and chocolate cake.

The Savoy is not cheap and my high tea set cost slightly more than the traditional set my wife had, which had more pastries, cakes and scones.  Thinking about it that was probably better value for money considering the effort in making the sweeter items. However the grand hall is a lovely place to spend the (late) afternoon, where the service was very polite, helpful and attentive, the food is good and plentiful, with the standout item being the lemon curd.

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

Overall: 18/20

Cost: £42.50 for my Afternoon High Tea, plus a 12.5% service charge.

I ate: All of the my Afternoon High Tea set and one Scone.

I drank:  A lot of cups of Assam tea.

I wore: Smart Loake shoes I had not worn for 18 months.

Mark Greenaway, Edinburgh

This entry is located way outside the Hong Kong boundary limits as I am in my home city of Edinburgh. I was also in revered company as I was lunching with LQ's co-founder and the Istanbul's bureau chief. There were four of us in total and making up the quartet was a regular LQ:ED contributor.

The restaurant is located in an Georgian townhouse making the main dining room large and airy.

We all chose from the set lunch menu and for my starter I ordered Mushroom velouté. This was served with one mushroom and single ravioli in a bowl and the velouté poured on top. It was a creamy, bubbly soup that had a very nice flavour, with the mushroom and pasta adding body to the dish.

Mushroom Veloute

The main course I chose was the Pork Belly and mash. The pork was soft, tender and chewy with a crispy and crunchy skin, which sat on a bed of savoy cabbage. There was a sweet sauce to accompany the dish and little apple cubes for garnish. 

Pork Belly

For the dessert I went for the Fish Bowl. This consisted of strawberry, cream, shortbread, jelly and ice cream. It was a decent assortment of those ingredients served in a glass bowl, with the fresh strawberries and cream being enjoyed the most by myself.

Fishbowl Dessert

All dishes were presented beautifully as shown in the photographs. Everything I ordered tasted great, with the velouté being my favourite course that day. Service was very good from the onset, with an attentive waiter and maitre d' serving us. Overall a top quality restaurant that I would thoroughly recommend.

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

Overall: 17/20

Cost: £20 for three courses, which was actually given to us for half the price as the menu was still on trial. However, we were treated by the generous P, thanks very much!

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Sparkling water.

I wore: Casual top & jeans, a bit scruffy next to the sartorial elegance of LQ co-founder.

Cafe de Coral, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

I am back in Hong Kong for this lunchquest and visited a local restaurant Cafe de Coral in Saturday. They are a well established chain with a lot of branches around the city, serving fast, local based food competing against other similar chains and foreign firms like McDonald's.

This branch is located in an office building and Saturday lunch was busy, but not as much as it is during the week.

They operate in a fast food style way where you chose your order at the front counter, then make your way to the back of the restaurant to pick up your food at the kitchen counter. I went for a Shanghai spare ribs dish that was served with rice and ordered a Sprite as my drink. My money was taken and I made my way to the queue to collect my order. The queue was not large and there was a slight wait for my food but nothing too long. Quite a few seats were available and I sat myself down to eat.

My Order

The Spare ribs were coated in a crispy batter that was ok but the pork meat could have been seasoned a bit more. To the side of the pork were some fried string beans, which were nice and crunchy. There was also a Smoked egg in the plate, which did not that much of a smoky taste.

To accompany the meat was a bowl of Vegetable Rice with chopped pak choi mixed in with the rice to give it more character and colour.

I do come here to this branch and others quite often as they are dotted around Hong Kong. As they are popular a lot of things are standardised so the meals are very average but good value for money and served at a quick pace. Trays and dishes are plastic but they are clean, along with the setting of the restaurant. So overall, a convenient and decent eatery.

As I write this entry I am in Hong Kong airport waiting for my flight to the UK, where I will soon be in the illustrious company of LQ Editor in Chief, lunching with him!

Scores
Food: 3/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 3/5
Overall: 12/20

Total Bill: $38, about £3.50

I ate: Shanghai Spare Ribs with Beans, Smoked Egg and Vegetable Rice.

I drank: Sprite.

I wore: Standard weekend Jeans & T-shirt