Cammino, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

This Italian restaurant is situated on the first floor of the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay. 

I was running late due to rare trouble on the public transport system. However, with the help of technology I was able to order the set lunch items through my wife, who had arrived first.

It was not exceedingly busy but I had booked ahead in case. The waiter instinctively knew who my wife was (probably because she was the only lone luncher?) and pointed out where she was sitting.  

As I sat down I was promptly poured some water and handed my unfolded napkin. I then got up again to head to their buffet selection.

When I returned from the buffet selection the daily soup had arrived, seeing as it was ordered in my absence . It was Bean and Bacon flavour as shown below, which was served at a good temperature and very hearty. 

Soup of the Day

My buffet selection consisted of a potato salad, salad leaves and Parma ham with melon. All this combined well as a nice appetiser before the main course.

Anitpasti Buffet

I chose the veal as my main. It tasted nice and tender and was fried with a light breadcrumb outer and came with a portion of lemon. The rice was a little too cheesy and they said there was saffron but it did not seem that flavoursome.

Veal and Risotto

Ricotta cannelloni was my dessert choice, shown in the picture below. The ricotta had a slight orange taste to it, like a Jacobs Club. This was unexpected as it was not noted on the menu but nice nonetheless. The cannelloni part to it was a crunchy biscuit roll.

Ricotta Cannelloni

My wife had the Mango Napolitean, shown below.

Mango Napolitain

There was a bit of an inconsistency in our tea orders at the end of our meal. I asked for an English Breakfast Tea and was given a Lipton black tea in a bag, whereas my wife got her Earl Grey order with leaves and a sieve. Nevertheless, I still drank mine without complaint.

The food was generally good, of decent portions and  presented well in Cammino. The buffet selection was also quite wide, given the small-ish size of the restaurant, which lent itself to the service being friendly, quick and attentive. As it is fairly priced I would recommend a visit.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Setting: 4/5

Overall: 15/ 20

Total Bill: $509 about £21 a head.

I ate: Three course set lunch with antipasti buffet.

I drank: Water, Lipton Tea.

I wore: Casio calculator watch.

Fairwood, Tai Wai, Hong Kong

For this entry I am lunching at another one of Hong Kong's popular fast food chains, the orange colour branded Fairwood.

Shop Frontage

As with other branded fast food outlets there is an order counter and then you collect your food from the kitchen counter, canteen style. I ordered a meal that had the letter 'G' designated on it for ordering. Cash was exchanged and I went to the kitchen counter to get my food. 

The wait for my food was not that long but it was interesting that the uncooked item of my order, my 7-up, took the longest. It was more of a logistical reason for the delay rather than a technical one. After receipt of food in all its plastic tableware, I managed to find a seat in the busy restaurant.

My order

I ate the chicken wing first, which was roasted well enough to be quite tender and had a decent flavour.

When I lifted the lid of the noodles it still partly resembled the  out-of-the packet dried cake form. It tasted very instant like also, so a little disappointing. There was a half circle of luncheon meat and a fried egg to accompany the noodles as well.

The toast was a thick slice but there was not enough peanut butter and condensed milk to spread. It tasted sweet enough to pass as a dessert course and quite filling. 

Discounting the noodles this lunch was not that bad and it was decent value. Service is efficiently professional and as there are branches everywhere in Hong Kong so it is very likely I will be popping in here again.

Scores:

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 2/5

Service: 3/5

Setting: 3/5

Overall: 11 / 20

Total Bill: $33, about £2.75.

I ate: Noodles, chicken wing, toast.

I drank: 7-up.

I wore: Fred Perry Polo Shirt.

Le Jardin de Joel Robuchon, Central, Hong Kong

We go from cheap eats from my last blog to Michelin stars in this one. As a birthday treat, my wife took me out to L'atelier de Joel Robuchon in Central for lunch.

This place is split into two and we were sat at 'Le Jardin'. This is a more comfortable setting then the bar table set up they have at the other part of the restaurant. Here we sat on a sofa chair overlooking the rest of the dining area (shown below) and the roof garden, which was very pleasant.

Restaurant Interior

Menus were given to us and we selected our food choices and drinks to start off with. They had a set lunch meal of three courses of quite extensive options so we both went for that. I chose a Heineken to drink.

Bread Basket Selection

After ordering we were given bread and the basket was left with us as shown above. The Amuse Bouche, shown below soon followed, which consisted of a cold asparagus soup and a little cake. These were cute little things that was a good indication presentation wise, of the remaining food to come.

Amuse Bouche

I decided to go for the 'Jambon de Boeuf Wagyu', as written on their menu as my appetizer. This was slices of Wagyu Beef ham sat on top of a Focaccia base with goats cheese, onion and pepper, finished off with peach slices around the perimeter. This was an excellent starter with the ingredients combining really well.

Starter

For the main course I went for the rabbit. I chose this primarily as I had never seen 'lapin' before on a Hong Kong menu. As much as I would like to say it tasted like chicken, it was lean so tasted more like turkey. Thin rolls of cannelloni that were stuffed with garlic and mushroom accompanied the rabbit, which was good and filled up the dish quite nicely. It was also served with a creamy mash potato that was a bit on the cold side. 

Rabbit Main Course

For my dessert course I went for the Dessert Platter, where I chose three the three sweet items shown below. The item in the foreground is the vanilla slice, which was my favourite of that trio. They also prepared a birthday message on a white chocolate slice as shown below, for that special touch.

Dessert

All the food is beautifully presented and tasted pretty good as expected, with the beef ham starter my top pick out of the three dishes. Service is very good although they may have made that extra effort to make you feel that bit more special. The leftover bread in our basket was given to us to takeaway after a slight error in their waiting.

Whilst the decor is very upmarket it did feel slightly cramped when the waiters were pushing the dessert trolley around. There was also a fly buzzing in our vicinity, which is a little disconcerting considering the high quality establishment we were in. A little quirk is that the toilets have an automatic door, which did not add that great benefit though.

All in all, if you save up and want to splash out for an expensive lunch, this is not a bad place at all to go to.

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

Total: 17/20

Cost for Set Lunch: $588 a head, about £50.

I ate: Set lunch, three course meal (four can be chosen at an additional price).

I drank: Heineken beer.

I wore: Hardy Amies Shirt.

Spraying Water Chicken Rice, Chiayi, Taiwan

This is our second visit to this restaurant as we enjoyed their signature dish, chicken rice, on the first night we arrived in Taiwan. We stopped by here again en route to southern Taiwan to get another fix of their rice.

My wife and I ordered a bowl each, along with with a plate of Morning Glory vegetables as a side dish.

The rice arrived very quickly as there were staff making it constantly whilst we were there. It is a simple dish of rice, sauce and shredded pieces of chicken as shown below. All mixed together this tastes great. The secret maybe in the gravy sauce but the rice is well cooked also.

The morning glory is stir fried with a lot of garlic and some chilli to give it good flavour and was a nice accompaniment.

Rice in foreground, Vegetables in background

The restaurant is unassuming with basic furniture, plastic plates and bowls and communal napkin dispensers to get your serviettes. However, it was still busy with the lunch time business and was like this when we visited during the evening so the food speaks for itself, really. The staff seemed amiable enough (my wife did the talking in Mandarin) and very efficient. 

We left to continue our journey to southern Taiwan very satisfied and having had sufficient.

It is an oddly named restaurant but it is the direct translation from their Chinese name. I am not sure of the origin of the name in all honesty. So if you are ever in central Taiwan get yourself to this restaurant for a bowl of chicken rice for less than a pound.

Scores:
Food: 4/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 2/5

Total: 12/20

Total Bill: 120NT about £1.50 a head.

I ate: Chicken Rice, Morning Glory.

I drank: Nothing.

I wore: Shorts & t-shirt.

Business Class, Dragonair, South China Sea

My wife and I were lucky enough to get upgraded to Business Class on this Dragonair flight to Taiwan. It was a midday departure so lunch was served for us.

Similar to the Cathay Pacific flight I was recently flying on before they provided you with a menu and served the tray with the starter first, as shown in the photograph below, then followed up with the main course.

Starter

The starter was fresh fruit and bread from their roll selection. Being business class we lunched with silver cutlery and a cloth napkin. It was fairly basic ceramic bowl consisting of slices of melon, grape, orange and water melon, which started things off adequately.

As it was lunch time they served us with drinks, which I chose a Bloody Mary. This was quite well made (although no celery stick garnish) and served as a nice aperitif before the main course, and served in a proper glass.

Drinks

For the main course I selected the Oriental choice of pig neck and rice, which is shown below, presented in a white bowl. The slices of meat were steamed and probably too chewy for my liking but they had a decent flavour from the shrimp paste it was cooked with. The meat sat on a bed of tofu, which was really nice, soft but still cohesive. It also came with a healthy portion of white rice, two sticks of steamed choi sum and a little carrot flower. 

Main Course

The meal was filling enough and service was very good as you would expect from business class. The seats were large and comfortable but they did not recline the full 180 degrees like the seat on Cathay, although that could be down to the short duration of the flight. However, it was still a very pleasant flying experience with them.

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

Total: 14/20

Cost: Came with frequent flyer redeemed airline fare.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Bloody Mary, water, tea.

I wore: Star Wars t-shirt.

Abaca Restaurant, Cebu, Phillipines

We had lunch at Abaca restaurant  on our first day of our stay here, at the hotel of the same name. Although the hotel is quite small the restaurant is open to non-residents and fairly sizeable. It is quite open to let the warmth in as well as mosquitos but they are ready to give you additional fans and mosquito coils for your comfort.

From their menu I decided to order their Sandwich Set Menu, which consisted of a soup, herb potato salad and sandwich of my choice. The set arrived after not much of a wait, served on the wooden plate as shown below.

The soup was cream of asparagus, which was served at the right temperature and had a nice flavour and consistency. The potato salad was small but tasty with mini cubes of potato mixed with a sour and creamy herb dressing.

I chose their Roasted Cubano as the sandwich. This was very meaty, consisting of roast pork, ham  and some pickled gherkin (or cornichon as written on the menu) stuffed in between ciabatta-type bread. There was also some Dijon mustard to compliment the salty pork meat taste. 

Sandwich Set Lunch

For drinks I had a freshly squeezed mango juice, which tasted lovely and refreshing in the hot sun. My wife had a water melon juice that was also freshly made and both are shown in the picture below.

Drinks

Chips

All in all this sandwich set was tasty and filling. I also had some chips that my wife ordered shown above, which were hot and herby. Service was really friendly throughout the meal (and our stay as well for that matter). It is not cheap for Filipino standards but not bad value for money either considering the food, presentation, service and setting factors. It is probably a bit out of the way to visit for some lunch but if you are a resident then this is a great place for food.

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

Total: 15/20

Cost of Sandwich Set: 595peso, about £10.

I ate: All of the above.

I drank: Freshly squeezed mango juice, water.

I wore: Suitable holiday wear of shorts & t-shirt.

Business Class, Cathay Pacific, South China Sea

Continuing the journey from the last blog entry, I am travelling Business Class on my flight to the Philippines, courtesy of using our frequent flyer points.

As my wife and I were travelling in the morning, we were served breakfast on this flight.

There was a menu that showed a choice of two main courses, with one being Western and the other Oriental. I picked the Western main course of omelette.

The tray was handed over to me first that had the starter items shown below. There was a yoghurt and fresh fruit. I also chose a croissant from their basket. There was a rolled cloth napkin with silver cutlery too, making a change from the plastic stuff given in economy class. The fruit of kiwi, melon, pineapple and water melon was good and ripe and I dressed it with the blueberry flavoured yoghurt. The croissant tasted soft and buttery and had a slight warmth to it.

Starter

The main course was served a little later, as if you are eating in a proper restaurant. The white ceramic dish contained omelette, with some bacon, sausage, potato and a ragout. The eggs were cooked well and the bacon and sausage were tasty too, with good flavour. I liked the potatoes the most, which were roasted with herbs and had a fluffiness on the inside.

Main Course

So the food on this flight was quite enjoyable and presented very smartly. Service was really good, evident from the crew making the effort to call you by your name. Needless to say my seat was comfortable and was able to recline to a flat bed if necessary, but that was not required for this early lunch quest. If you ever get the chance to go Cathay Pacific Business Class, I would wholly recommend it.

Scores: 

Food: 3/5

Presentation: 3/5

Service: 4/5

Setting: 4/5

Overall: 14/20

Total Bill: Came with the plane ticket, which was free with Asia Miles.

I ate: All the above.

I drank: Water, English Breakfast Tea.

I wore: The same pink shirt.