Carnevino (中環)

Friday night with no prior dinner bookings can be a little daunting since most places would be full house. So when I called Carnevino and was able to easily secure a seating for two at 8.30 despite calling just 10 minutes beforehand I was pleasantly surprised, but little did we know...

Carnevino, one of Mario Batali's ventures and from the name already announces what it serves- carne meaning meat and vino (you guessed it!) wine with an Italian touch.

Starting with some bread. A slice of white crusty bread extra thin and because it is a steakhouse as well as being an American thing, a miniature popover. Nothing really special, just empty carbohydrates to nibble on while waiting for your appetisers, the butter was decent, but the lardo was pretty nasty. Although infused with herbs, it could not fully disguise the overwhelming stale fat odour that lingered on the tongue afterwards.I am having a 'thing' with bone marrow at the moment and seeing it on the menu meant I had to order it. One bone split into two, it was beautifully roasted and the marrow wonderfully fatty. They scattered preserved lemon over it which was to help with easing the palate from all the oiliness, but it did detract me from concentrating on the rich flavours of the marrow. The accompanying white bread was lack luster as well, more of the crusty white bread, but this time toasted.The octopus was a decent serving of tentacles, but I would debate the freshness of the octopus used as I detected a slight fishiness. Maybe that was why they had to cover the dish in a strong sweet and sour sauce which was not unlike something you could order at a cha chaan teng just with an Italian twist from the limoncello.They had two selections for their dry-aged steaks and we chose to share the 18oz New York strip. Asking it to be cooked to a medium rare, you can see that it was seared to a rare and not only that the heart of the steak was cool to the touch. We asked for it to be further cooked and in the mean time we occupied ourselves with the side of creamed corn, which if not for the slight popping of the fresh kernels I would have assumed was poured straight out of a can.Upon return it looked slightly better, at least it was warm this time. The exterior is quite charred, with the layer of carbon lending its flavour to the steak. One word to describe this steak, chewy. And not just slightly. If you are in need of a jaw muscle workout I would highly recommend you in tackling this piece of steak.No dessert as our jaws were already too tired.

Carnevino was definitely an experience. One that I happily will not repeat.

Zurriola (尖沙咀)

In Hong Kong it seems whenever there is something that is associated with celebrities locals will naturally flock to it hoping to glimpse some of the stars or whatnot. With restaurants it is the same, like the group of three recently opened by actress Carina Lau up in The One. Two Spanish, the more formal Zurriola and the tapas focused Tapagria as well as a Japanese establishment Kyo-Shun.

All three are arranged together on the 18th floor, more convenient for management I guess and being so high up, a night view overlooking the harbour is almost a guarantee, an alluring aspect to most diners nowadays.

We were there to try Zurriola that evening, not so that we could glimpse the famous owner, but rather to try a dish that I saw previously which looked pretty enticing. Zurriola aims for contemporary Spanish cuisine and being affiliated with the branch in Tokyo, one Michelin star status, it has a certain standard to maintain.

The entrance is framed by an attractive glass wine cabinet and it is only a short distance before we reach the main dining room. The room is a lot smaller than I expected, with two private dining rooms sectioned off, coupled with the romantic mood lighting I would say it feels cozy even.Not feeling particularly inclined towards their tasting menu, we opted for a la carte so we could try more variety.

A variety of bread was offered for our choosing and while there was choice it didn't taste like they were made in house nor were they served warm. The accompanying olive oil was quite good though, thick with a strong olive fragrance.

Amuse bouche was a slice of Joselito Iberian ham layered on a puffy cracker. It is best to eat this in one mouthful as the cracker breaks open to release a gush of chilled tomato cream. The Iberian ham was so soft that it melted easily in the mouth and its deep flavour paired well with the light tang of the tomato.The dish that I had come for, the sea urchin soup, was unfortunately unavailable that evening so we chose the only other soup option instead. Mushroom and porcini cream soup arrived as a medley of mixed mushrooms and chunks of sweetbread while the soup was poured table-side. We did tell them it was for sharing, but maybe they forgot or didn't pay attention as it only arrived in a single bowl. While the mushrooms were earthy with the sweetbread sharing a meatiness to the flavour, the soup itself was not smooth enough and a sour tang was noticeable in every spoonful. Not so good.Red prawns are always evident in Spanish cuisine so the red prawn carpaccio was a no-brainer. Appearance wise it reminded me of a similar dish served in another reknowned Italian restaurant also high up in the clouds in Kowloon side. Thin layers of raw red prawn dotted with an almond cream sauce, I wouldn't say it was spectacular, but the prawns were fresh.The Iberian Presa salad was possibly the dish I enjoyed most. Thin layers of black pork topped with a forest of fresh greens dressed in vinagrette with scattered kernels of caramelised hazelnuts. The pork was really tender and I liked the light sweetness from the dressing. A refreshing dish.Not much can go wrong with scallops providing they are of course fresh and cooked to the perfect temperature. The pan-seared Hokkaido scallops were just that, soft and velvety with a slight kick from the chorizo emulsion, but I found the smear of almond cream an odd addition to the dish.Rather than ordering a meaty main dish, we choose to try their broth rice. Choosing the seafood version, we were presented with a soupy concoction infused with saffron and topped with red prawns and calamari. The rice had the typical Spanish bite to it while the broth itself was rich in flavour. The first few spoonfuls weren't bad, but it became boring pretty quickly since the flavor was just one tone. Once again, the server did not split this into two portions for us.We shared two desserts. The first was a chocolate velvet cream paired with Williams pear sorbet. Essentially a mousse, it was creamy, but the chocolate flavour was dismal. If the main focus of the dessert is the chocolate mousse it should be more full-bodied and intense, but it tasted quite flat here. The pear sorbet was not too sweet, but it was too icy to be smooth. I think the best part were the caramelized almonds hiding underneath everything.The cheesecake ice-cream fared better, smooth and sweet with the cubes of cake giving a little texture. The berries reduction didn't seem necessary though as it didn't give much flavour and it just made the ice-cream melt faster. Maybe it would be better if they just had the fresh berries only.Finally to petit fours. Dark chocolate dipped orange rind, pistachio financier and mango bon bons. I would say only the chocolate dipped orange rind is worth trying.Although I could see that effort had been made, there were more misses than hits to this meal. Service was relatively attentive since they weren't so full, a little fumbly at times, but honestly is it so hard to split a portion beforehand for guests who are sharing?

嘉麟樓 (尖沙咀)

My first mooncake of the year, none other than the famous custard mooncake from Spring Moon~ even though the price of this hotly coveted item made the headlines earlier this year at $485, I was still lucky enough to receive a box of these as a gift.

At such a huge increase in price I was expecting something a little different, something more special, but it wasn't to be. Opening the box revealed the same golden yellow rounds with the signature dragon stamped on top wafting its enticing buttery flavour.The best way to enjoy these is to heat them slightly in the oven so that the custard and butter pastry are toasty warm. Unfortunately I was in a rush this time and had to make do with one straight from the fridge. Cutting into it the pastry was firm and crumbly, but looking at the filling it was holey in places and the custard was disappointingly dry.Biting into it the flavours were all there, but the texture was not as nice as before... I did not realise that a significant increase in price meant a decrease in quality. What has happened to you Spring Moon?

Pierre Hermé (中環)

To be perfectly honest, I am a little tired of perfectly round almond egg-white biscuits with perfectly formed feet, coloured a myriad of colours and sandwiching a cream, jam or ganache filling. Yet, when I knew Pierre Herme was opening in IFC I knew that I at least had to try the product of possibly the main rival of the reigning Queen of Macarons. Knowing that they had been open from the end of May (soft opening), I was expecting horrific lines for at least a few weeks like what we had all witnessed from the other famous macaron brand. Surprisingly, when I made my visit a few evenings ago, there were no lines and only a couple of other people were making their purchase. Interesting.

The boutique shop is not very big at all. There is a main glass counter housing the renowned macarons and chocolates, while on the shelves they had a selection of caramels, nougats, tins of tea leaves, drinking chocolate powder, praline spread, loaf cake and of course Pierre Herme cook books.

My focus that evening was solely on macarons, and I was kindly informed by the helpful staff that they had four signature flavours rose, chocolate, salted butter caramel and chocolate passionfruit, while the rest of the flavours were seasonal. I have to say that they did look promising, quite big in size with a generous amount of creamy filling sandwiched in between. I only wanted to try a few, so three I picked. Their signature rose, Celeste and the olive oil and vanilla macaron. Rose- coloured a dusty pink, the whiteness of the cream filling was a stark contrast. When I bit into it I was anticipating a fragrant aroma of roses to fill the senses, but all I could taste was a faint whisper, almost like an afterthought. The macaron itself was a little chewier in texture which I did not mind, but I felt the cream filling was a bit much. Actually really disappointed by this.

Celeste- a mixture of strawberry, rhubarb and passionfruit. I was already enticed by its description and the pretty iridescent colour of purple brushed onto the yellow background was alluring too. It was a little squished when the staff packed it for me, but I was not too worried as long as the taste was good. The sharp and tangy elements were there, but the flavour just missed the mark with the passionfruit overpowering the other two

Olive oil and vanilla- I have always been intrigued by the use of olive oil in desserts so this particular flavour sprung my interest. I was already prepping myself for disappointment since that was the way the trend seemed to be going, but I was pleasantly surprised by the noticeable olive flavour from the creamily light filling flecked with vanilla bean seed and the piece of salty olive hidden inside was lovely with the sweetness of the macaron. I definitely recommend this flavour~

I know that Pierre Herme is world renowned with a huge following, but his macarons just did not hit the right notes with me. I am glad that I had the opportunity to try, maybe later on I will give the other flavours a chance too, but at this moment my vote still remains with the Queen.

國金軒 (尖沙咀)

Meeting Mr. C after work on a Saturday afternoon (this was around a month ago) he suggested we have dim sum as we had no prior set plans on what to have for lunch that day. I was perfectly agreeable to the suggestion, but the question was where. We were near Sun Tung Lok, but I was not feeling the craving to go there, so Mr. C suggested Cuisine Cuisine inside The Mira. Having only been there for dinner once with the experience being quite decent, I was happy to go along with the idea.

We arrived a little after two which is way past normal dim sum times, but we still had to wait while our table was being set. During that time, the hostess did inform us that their last order would be at 2.30pm and we were fine with that as we tend to order quite quickly. Once seated, our menus arrived and looking at their dim sum menu they do offer a decent amount of variety which is a pleasant change from a lot of places which only offer a one page selection.

Having decided on what we wanted we signaled for the waitress to come over. As I was placing our order with her I did ask her some questions regarding the dim sum, most pointedly whether the birds nest egg tarts and the braised abalone and chicken tarts used 'so pei' (flaky pastry) or the baked biscuit kind. The reason I asked is because both Mr. C and I dislike the so pei variety and when she answered that it was not made with so pei we picked both. I was not facing the waitress when I was making my choices and by her voice she seemed polite, but Mr. C noticed the waitress looked a little impatient and seemed either annoyed at my questions or wanting to hurry us through our order. Quite rude.

Char Siu. This was one of their recommended items. The pork was thickly cut which is something I prefer and the meat was tender with thin veins of fat giving additional flavour.Broccoli in concentrated broth. The broccoli itself was cooked to the perfect eating state where the stalks were softened enough, yet still retained a little crunchiness. Nothing extraordinary, but filled the vegetable quota.Since we ordered two of the steamed dim sum items as a serving of two, they put them together in one steamer. I adored the assorted vegetable dumpling with truffle paste~ The vegetables were fresh and cut into perfect bite sized pieces and just one bite into the delicately chewy skin filled the whole palate with the scent of truffles. The shrimp and pea shoot dumpling was quite good too, the prawn was fresh and bouncy and the pea shoots were nicely tender. Scallop and shrimp dumpling. This came in its own individual steamer and looked almost exactly the same as the one served at Lung King Heen, the only difference being that lobster is used in the Lung King Heen version. The green skin of the dumpling was a bit over steamed as it was a little mushy, but the scallop filling was still very juicy while the prawn on top was very fresh. Steamed ma lai gao. This arrived looking quite pitiful, small and uneven in size, it really was disappointing to look at. Fortunately tastewise it ticked the boxes, nicely fluffy and not overly sweet with a fragrant brown sugar aroma.And then arrived the egg tarts and abalone tarts. When they were set on the table, I noticed that the tart base was made from so pei and feeling quite annoyed I told the waiter who had placed these items down to find the waitress that took our order. She took a few minutes to arrive and not only did she not ask me what was wrong or gave me time to explain the situation, before I had even said anything she was already defending herself by saying that she had told me the tarts were made from 'so pei'. No apology or anything, she made it seem like I was in the wrong which was really unbelievable! Sensing my displeasure, she did make a move to cancel the order ungraciously, however Mr. C just told her to let it be. This was unfortunate, as the filling of the egg tarts were quite good, creamy and subtly sweet with a generous amount of birds nest on top, while the diced chicken and abalone in the tarts had a good flavour with enough sauce to make them nicely moist.Despite the food actually being quite good, the attitude of the waitress really affected my experience there. I really would need to think twice before re-visiting this branch of Cuisine Cuisine.