Hard Rock Cafe, Denarau, Nadi, Fiji

We were back again on the Pacific Rim (and back in time as this entry is from my Fiji trip over Easter). We were in Nadi for a short stopover and stayed in the Denarau area. We found a Hard Rock Cafe and so had lunch here as well as take an opportunity to make this a global compare and contrast review with the Lunchquest family.

As we entered we were greeted by a friendly waiter, who looked after us for the afternoon. We were given a drinks and food menu, were I chose to go for an adventurous Coke to drink to start off with. My wife went for a mocktail.

My Coke in the foreground, My wife's in the background

I decided to go for a British fish and chips for the food. I received two long portions of fish on top of chips, with a salad to the side. The fish was pretty golden colour on the outside and well cooked on the inside. The batter was crispy but taste wise I could not sense the Fiji Bitter used to make the batter. The chips were hot, medium sized but not too many, which was a shame as they were quite tasty. There was tartar sauce served with my dish but no brown sauce, although not surprising.

The salad was mainly strips of carrot and shredded red cabbage that was a decent accompaniment.

My wife went for Chicken Satay and gave me a couple of sticks, which are shown in the photograph. These were pleasant morsels of meat and not too spicy.

Fish & Chips (with a Satay Skewer from my wife's order)

The restaurant was clean and decked out with rock memorabilia, as expected. Service was attentive and efficient and our food arrived in a timely manner. Overall we had a nice time here.

I have been to the Hard Rock branch in my hometown before but not for some time now but it may be worth a return trip for a compare and contrast next time I am in Edinburgh!

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

Total Bill: 100FJD, which was less than £20 a head.

I ate: Fiji Bitter Batter Fish & Chips.

I drank: Coke. 

I wore: Diesel Shirt.

Harrington's, Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong

We were here in Harrington's on a Sunday brunch for a birthday celebration. It is an upstairs bar in the Lan Kwai Fong drinking area of Central that has a British gastropub feel to it. Overall the place is light and airy decked out with contemporary furniture.

Whilst it looks clean but where our party of 10 sat there were a lot of little flies loitering above us so we asked to be moved to another table.

They do a weekend brunch menu and thats what I chose to eat. It comprises of three courses with choices for the starter and dessert.

For my starter I asked for Chicken Liver Pâté. It came in a pot along with a salad and four toasted baguette slices that overall was nicely presented on a wooden board. The pate was rich if a little heavy for a starter. The salad was light and fresh.

Starter  Course

The main course was a single visit to the carvery where they offered a choice of chicken, beef, pork and lamb. I went for the Roast Beef and piled on top as much mashed sweet potato, sweetcorn, roast potato, roast parsnip, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower & macaroni cheese and even a Yorkshire pudding to get my money's worth as shown in the photograph below. I tried my best to munch through it but could not finish it all and left some of the sweet potato mash. The beef was a bit too bloody and chewy for my liking. The rest of the side dishes were good enough, with my favourite probably being the comfort food macaroni cheese. The food is kept hot under red lamps but it does make it hard to see what you are picking out.

The Main Course

I chose Blueberry panna cotta as my dessert, shown below. This was the best course of the day for me, with it being sweet and creamy and with fresh blueberry on top. It was a shame it was not slightly bigger.

Dessert Course

Harrington's is not too bad value given the type and amount of food (if one manages to efficiently fill up their plate during the main course) and location. The service could be a little better in attentiveness, though. Brunch is served in a three hour window, which give you sufficient time to eat, digest and socialise, making it a fit venue for our birthday celebration purpose. Whether I would return again for the food or with a smaller party remains to be seen.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 3/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 3/5

Overall: 12/20


Cost: $238 for the set lunch, $60 for a glass of prosecco, plus 10% service charge.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Prosecco with strawberry garnish (2 glasses)

I wore: Hilditch & Key shirt.

Hideaway Island, off Port Vila, Vanuatu

This is a real retro entry as its still in Vanuatu, where I holidayed almost 3 months ago. 

After scuba diving in the morning, where my wife gained her PADI Open Water certification (well done her), we went to for some snorkelling action at Hideaway Island and took in some lunch as well. 

This resort has a separate restaurant open to non-residents and it was serving a set lunch that consisted of four courses. There was a choice for some of the courses and what I had is noted below.

The first course was Laksa soup. This was a pleasant starter that had a nice creaminess and slight spice to it and contained snapper fish. I could taste the coriander garnish, which was also complimented with the basil.

Laksa Soup

The next course was Tuna sashimi.  This came in slices, which I was slightly disappointed with as I am used to the cuboids of fish meat from a Japanese restaurant. It tasted fine and was garnished with pepper and lemon for some more taste as well as some red onions.

Tuna Sashimi

The red snapper shown below was the main course. This was fried and covered in Hollandaise sauce, giving it a the buttery and zesty taste that I liked. It was served with a decent portion of white rice, a salsa that was quite tasty and some basic salad vegetables to provide some nutrients for me.

Red Snapper

Banana flambé was the dessert, which came with a serving of vanilla ice cream. I did not taste too much alcohol but the banana was still firm and not overcooked. The weather was quite hot and the ice cream started to melt fairly quickly, though.

Banana Flambe (with chocolate milkshake in the background)

The set meal did not come with a drink so I ordered a sprite, with my wife opting for a chocolate milkshake, which is shown above.

Even without the drink it was quite an expensive lunch for one but it was large enough to share between us two so the value for money was not too bad in the end. Taste-wise everything was adequate, with the soup being my favourite out of the four courses. It has to be said that Vanuatu is not a cheap country to visit, even if the locals are not that affluent.

My food was ordered at the bar and it was served at our table in a friendly and timely manner. We dined al fresco on their functional wooden furniture. It actually rained when we ate but they had covered areas to keep us dry.

One gimmick of this venue is that it has the only under water post box in the world where we successfully mailed a postcard back to our home!

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 2/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 3/5

Overall: 11/20

Bill: 2800 Vatu for the set lunch, about 20GBP.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Sprite, Chocolate Milkshake.

I wore: Snorkelling gear.

Air Vanuatu, Somewhere over the South Pacific

We had lunch on a plane as this journey took us on our second leg of our holiday to Vanuatu, with Air Vanuatu taking us from Nadi to Port Vila.

It is a short flight and we were on a small ATR 72-500 craft that was not full at all, unlike our trip from Hong Kong to Fiji. The seats were not that spacious but with the lack of passengers meant there was not such a claustrophobic feeling.

When we reached cruising height the friendly air crew handed out the food in a self contained plastic box, from which I proceeded to remove the lid and start eating. The contents are shown below.

My Meal

The main component of the meal was a wrap with chicken, cous cous and cheese. The wrap was fine and not dry wrapped the contents well; cous cous was filling; chicken was in edible small pieces and the cheese was a processed slice.

The citrus cake was really nice, for plane food. It was soft and not dry and had a good orangey lemony taste that was not sour.The lemon bon bon sweet was probably a bit more sour than the cake.

There were other items from the package that I did not eat, as I was full. These were the salted chips, a Red Gala apple from New Zealand and orange juice. So as not to be wasteful I took them away with me to eat later.

For drinks I decided to try the local alcoholic beverage and drank a Tusker beer, which was good. I also had a tea at the end of the meal, as well as water.

It was a slightly later departure than scheduled so we arrived into Port Vila later than expected but safely though, to continue enjoying our holiday in the South Pacific.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 2/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 3/5

Overall: 11/20

Total Bill: Included in the flight ticket price.

I ate: Chicken Wrap, Citrus Cake, Lemon Bon Bon.

I drank: Vanuatu Tusker Premium Beer, Water, Tea.

I wore: Holiday shorts.

Matamanoa Island Resort, Mamanuca Islands, Fiji

We stayed on this island resort, Matamanoa, so had to eat all our meals here, including lunch.

The restaurant is by the pool and has an open frontage and tables outside, overlooking the sea. It does not have a traditional look about it nor modern feel but does use timber fixtures and fittings. There was not a queue for us to be seated so we stayed inside for some coolness.

I wanted to try something local and went for an Ika Kokoda. This was described on the menu as marinated fish with vegetables. My wife went for their club sandwich.

Bread was given after we ordered and it shown below. It was a toasted white slice with garlic butter spread on top, which was a little soggy taste-wise.

Bread

My main dish was a lot better, though. It arrived in a bowl shaped from a half coconut, which made it look authentic. There were fish cubes marinated in lemon that was in coconut milk. The fish tasted great and the citrus flavour worked well with the sweet, cool milk. The fish sat on top of a nice salad of chopped onion, pepper and tomato. There was shredded carrot placed on top for a garnish as well.

Ika Kokoda

The club sandwich was really big triple decker creation. In between the toasted bread slices were bacon, chicken, egg, tomato and lettuce. I had a small piece of this generous dish as my wife could not finish it all.

Club Sandwich

Seeing as it is the only eating option of this hotel, the food is perfectly edible. Price-wise this was not extortionate either, given its remote location. Service was very friendly, if of Fijian efficiency, but we were in no rush as we were on our holidays.

Scores:
Food: 3/5

Presentation: 3/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 3/5

Overall: 12/20

Total Bill: 39.30FJD, about £7 a head.

We ate: Ika Kokoda, Matamanoa Club Sandwich.

We drank: Water.

I wore: Calvin Klein swimming shorts.

Air Pacific, Somewhere over the Pacific

Bula from Air Pacific. I travelled on this airline on my way from HK to Pacific island nation of Fiji as an Easter holiday with my wife.

Our flight was an afternoon departure so they served us a late lunch as we reached cruising altitude.

There were two choices on board for our meal: Chicken or Beef, from which I chose the latter.

I was given the standard tray of airline food goodness with a main course, appetiser, dessert, bread roll, biscuit and empty tea cup. As I travelled economy I was given plastic cutlery but even these ones looked cheap.

I opened the lid of the main course to reveal beef with choi sum, carrot and egg noodles, as shown below.

My Meal

The beef was nice, with decent sized, cooked slices with a good sauce. The vegetables were al dente but the boiled noodles were a bit dry. However this was countered by the sauce from the beef.

The appetiser was a mixed salad of leaves, tomato, sweetcorn and I think processed chicken pieces, which was adequate. Unfortunately most of the vinaigrette dressing had seeped to the bottom so needed to be mixed up bit for flavour.

The Coconut dessert was pannacotta-like; good, light and creamy and not overly sweet.

I did not eat the Bread Roll nor the Nestle chocolate bar as I had sufficient.

Service, was friendly in the usual South Pacific hospitable manner was not that efficient. Usually on flights the drink is served with the meal but they came down the drinks trolley a while after serving the food. Nonetheless I chose a can of Fiji Bitter. This was refreshing and had a stout taste to it, without being too heavy. I also had a tea at the end of the meal.

Fiji Bitter

The Boeing 747 plane was old and there were some faults. One was my wife's tray table was broken in that it was not level when laid down. So to rectify this she had to prop it up by wedging a pillow between her lap and the underside of the table.

'Restaurant' Exterior

Another sign of the plane's age was the entertainment system not functioning properly whereby my controls operated my wife's screen and vice versa.

Then there were the other travelling passengers. Some were fellow holidaymakers, some were Fijians returning home after seeing their side victorious in the Hong Kong sevens and most were mainland Chinese. It felt like I was on a train journey in the mainland, with the usual loudness (does one need to yawn that loudly to sound like a wolf call?), general uncouthness, lack of fashion sense and unawareness of safety announcements. If it were not for airline health and safety standards, guaranteed one of them would have lit a cigarette on board.

Sticking with people watching, I think I saw my first North Korean my with own eyes as I saw a large group a gentlemen with the same clothes (some jump suits) and they all had pin badges of Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, or both.

Anyway, I landed safely and had a great time in Fiji!

Scores:
Food: 3/5
Presentation: 2/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 2/5

Overall: 10/20

Total Bill: Included in the flight ticket price, which at about £900 a head, was not cheap.

I ate: Beef & noodles, salad, coconut dessert.

I drank: Fiji Bitter, Tea.

I wore: A holiday smile.

View 62, Hopewell Centre, Wanchai

The visit to this restaurant was an unplanned fine dining lunch on a Saturday about two weeks ago, after my wife had finished her weekend shift. View 62 is located on the 62nd floor of the building where she works so we only had to travel upwards.

There were lift attendants who showed us the way to the restaurant and there was a maitre'd who showed us to our seats. We managed to reserve a table but that was because it was the weekend. Weekdays are quite busy as it is mostly full of office workers doing their power lunch.

The full title of the restaurant is 'View 62 by Paco Roncero', with Mr Roncero being the head chef and creator of the menus. Lunch is a set menu where one chooses three courses, with a tea or coffee included. During the I ordered an Iced Melon Tea, which was a cool and refreshing drink.

We made our choices and bread was then given to us after ordering, which came with olive oil and vinegar. There was a variety of rolls in the basket as shown below and each were hot.

Bread Rolls

My starter was Green beans with iberico ham and potato foam. The beans were chopped into small pieces and the ham was in very thin, small slices too. Although these ingredients were small they were tasty and the foam was like a light bubbly soup that was nice too.

Starter

For the main I chose Lamb shank with vegetables. The lamb was well cooked and tender, easy to cut and tasted great. The vegetables were cooked just right, consisted of carrot, beans, broccoli and others, and were presented beautifully in their miniature form. There was a gravy as well covering the whole dish for some additional flavour and moistness.

Main Course

My dessert was called 'San Marcos'. This came in a rather fancy cocktail glass and consisted of egg yolk cream with vanilla foam and whisky jelly. As a whole I enjoyed this dessert and it tasted like a tiramisu with the alcohol content but without the sponge.

Dessert

We had tea and chose Earl Grey to round off our meal. This was accompanied with a couple of biscuits that were nothing great.

Tea and Cookies

My wife had Salad of Tuna, Potatoes and Peppers for starters, and a main of Cod, with a dessert of Chocolate Coulant, which unfortunately is not pictured.

Hopewell Centre used to be Hong Kong's tallest buildings (at 66 storeys high) so the view from here is not bad at all. Further to this, one of the features of this restaurant is that it is revolving, giving you a 360 degree perspective of the island and the southern Kowloon peninsula. Just bear in mind that you might feel a little dizzy, though.

The View (towards Happy Valley)

One building you will see from the restaurant is the Frank Gehry designed twisty, residential tower, shown below. One 600m2 unit recently sold for a whopping 4M GBP...!!!

Frank Gehry twisty building

Like the apartment block, View 62 is not a cheap place so unlikely I will come here that often to eat, but it is good. Although the portions do not look particularly generous when served in front of you, by the end of the meal I was satisfactorily fed by the quality ingredients they used. Everything is all well presented in the white tableware. The waiters were attentive and service was efficient, although the restaurant was not full. The interior design is modern and view from the restaurant is as described above and probably their chief selling point.

Scores

Food: 4/5
Presentation: 4/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 4/5

Total: 15/20

Bill: HK$792, about GBP£35 a head.

We ate: Set Lunch.

We drank: Ice Melon Tea, English Breakfast Tea

I wore: Slightly under-dressed hiking boots.