The Coffee Academics (銅鑼灣)

The Coffee Academics is an unique coffee shop that's tucked away in a more quiet area of Causeway Bay. After a quick shopping spree, I wanted to find somewhere with good quality coffee and not your typical cup of joe. Coffee Academics popped up in my head since I heard they roast their own coffee beans on the spot. The store has a very interesting set up, with an open balcony sitting on one side, and then community tables in the middle. Then a couple more small tables on the other side of the store. We arrived around 3:00 in the afternoon and there was already a wait out the door. Luckily, we only had to wait for about 15 minutes. While we were waiting, we got to peek through the glass house where there's someone roasting green coffee beans. The guy was nice enough to open the door for me to take some pictures and asked him about roasting coffee beans. The first thing we ordered was a cup of ice dripped coffee in the JWF blend ($98). It's not your typical ice coffee where it's just immersed in ice, but ice drip takes time to slowly soak the coffee bean and drip the coffee one drip at a time. It's interesting how this place serves their ice dripped coffee in a wine glass. As for the coffee, it's very rich in woody, chocolate flavor and also very refreshing at the same time. It's definitely not bitter where you can't drink it alone without milk or sugar. Highly recommend this if you're willing to pay the price and used to drinking black coffee by itself. Then we also ordered the TCA house blend and it was prepared in the clever cup method. This one is smooth and very easy to drink. Slightly more flowery to the taste bud. Also a very good choice! Then we also ordered a cappuccino and a hazelnut cheesecake. The cappuccino was mediocre. Not the best I've had but not too bad either. But moving on to the hazelnut cheesecake, it was not good at all. I usually love anything hazelnut but the ones here was not enjoyable. The cake was not smooth and the hazelnut tasted like old stale hazelnuts. I wouldn't order that cheesecake again. Overall, the environment was a nice change to your typical coffee shops. I love how they offer so many methods of making your cup of coffee and there's so many blends to choose from. The food menu also looks very promising, so I will definitely come back to try the food next time. But sadly to say, maybe skip the desserts here.

牛涮鍋 (銅鑼灣)

Mou Mou Club is the place to be when I want to binge eat on some good quality beef shabu shabu style. There are 3 different type of sets you can pick from and I usually go with the most expensive set since the quality of the beef is way better. I figured, if I'm going to eat so much meat, it might as well be worth it. The set comes with 5 different kinds of beef (different parts of the cow and different region). Then there's also one type of pork meat to choose from. After selecting the meat type, you also get to select two soup base for your shabu shabu. I picked the tomato soup and the beef soup this time. I wouldn't recommend the tomato soup if you dont want to take away from the beef's original taste. Since it's sour so it takes away the meat's flavor. The beef soup is just a clear soup, so this is better if you decide to go with the higher quality beef. Each table gets 90 minutes to eat, so the time is a little bit rush. There's also a self-served vegetable table along with udon and rice as well. There's also unlimited drinks like soda, juice, and tea. Lastly, there's also ice cream for dessert. Wagyu beef Shabu Shabu tablePork slices

Overall, I think Mou Mou is good spot for all you can eat shabu shabu. The place is clean and the meat is overall pretty good quality. The only downfall is there's always a wait, so try to make a reservation early.

鮨佐瀬 (中環)

Sushi sase is a high end sushi joint in central. It's a small restaurant with simple decor, but the food is amazing! It was my friend's birthday, so we decided to splurge a little came here for lunch. We both got the Hokkaido sushi set ($400).  The meal also comes with miso soup, and a salad.

First item that came out with our set was this uni/salmon roe with rice! This huge bowl of rice was fully covered with delicious uni! The uni are very fresh because we see the chef cleaning them in clean water right before serving it to us. The chef explained how uni preserved in salt water is better than the ones stacked on a plate because those are chemically preserved. So at sushi sase, they only use the best quality imgredients. 

Then 6 pieces of sushi was prepared separately and served to us one by one. We had a wild salmon, snapper, hamachi, mackerel, fresh crab meat, and house-made tamago. What makes these sushi so different is that the chef usually adds a unique sauce or some condiment that compliments each fish so well and brings the best flavors out.  Then we were served with a udon soup to end the meal. The udon was simple, but the noodle was smooth and the soup was so delicious that you can drink the whole thing along with the udon. I love how sushi sase gives you an intimate environment for you to see the chefs at work as you eat your meal. I also like how the chef will make your sushi freshly as you finish the sushi piece by piece. The service is also very good here. Although the price is on the higher end, I definitely feel that sushi sase makes your money worth it. It is a must that I will return to try out the omakase with chef table!

Azure Restaurant Slash Bar (中環)

I always try to dine out on restaurant week to check out some restaurants I've never been to. This time, I decided to pick Azure because the menu seems appetizing and I heard the view is nice. The dining room is located on the top of of lkf hotel and the dining area is spacious with lots of natural sunlight. It's great for a sunny lunch. 
Since we already looked at the menu before hand, we quickly told the waiter what we wanted. Then we sat there for atleast 15 minutes and nobody came back to serve us water or asked us what we want to drink. I finally couldn't wait anymore so I asked for water. After another 15 minutes they finally gave us a bread basket. The breads were lightly warm but none of them were good because they are too chewy and seems like it's been over heated. 

Pan Seared foie gras: home-made brioche with a truffle and sherry soaked raisin veloute.
This dish was very well put together starting from the presentation to the taste. The foie gras was lightly seared so the outside was crispy and the inside was soft. It worked perfectly with the sweet sherry sauce on top to balance out the strong foie gras taste. The brioche on the bottom was also hot and crispy. Lobster Linguini: Al dente Linguini with a lobster bique cream sauce & parmesan cheese, topped with Rocket lettuce
This entree was very delicious. There were chunks of lobsters mixed in to the linguini and the pasta was perfectly cooked to al dente. The star of the dish must've been the sauce that they tossed everything in. It's creamy and rich lobster bisque flavor but not too buttery where you get sick of it. It also comes in a good portion but since it was so good, I had no problem finishing it. Chocolate trio: Milk chocolate, Dark chocolate, & amaretto terrin. Served with white chocolate. I'm a dessert freak, and this place makes the desserts sound better than they actually are. The very far left is a piece of chocolate like cake with a layer of chocolate flavored gelatin. This piece was not too sweet but I thought the textures didnt all work well together as a whole. The center piece was just a chocolate mousse like cake rolled up in white chocolate cream. This was my least favorite because it was too sweet and lack any kind of interesting factors to it. It tasted like something I can buy at a local chinese bakery. The ice cream on the right was supposed to be a white chocolate ice cream im assuming. But the texture was more like a gelato and it was way too icy and lacked flavors and texture as well.  Black & White Sesame Creme brulee: Served with mixed berries and almond tuile.
This dessert comes with two dishes of creme brulee. One was just a classic flavor and the other with sesame added in. I guess the sesame one was interesting because I've never had creme brulee with a asian twist. But the almond tuile in the middle was horrible since it was stale and wasn't crispy. We ended up not finishing the desserts.

Lastly, we were served a cup of cappuccino and petit fours and they were both disappointments. I usually like to drink my cappuccino without sugar, but this cappuccino was so bitter that I had to add some sugar to even take a couple of sips. Then the petit fours were just pieces of dark chocolate and some cream puffs that were not attractive nor did they taste good. Sadly to say, desserts were a total disappointment. But I enjoyed the appetizer and the entree very much. Also, service can be a little bit more attentive here.

麵鮮醬油房周月 (中環)

I've been wanting to try Shugetsu for a long time since all the rave about the ramen here. I finally got the chance to drop by and tried a bowl of their ramen. The wait during lunch wasn't as bad as I expected, I only had to wait about 15 minutes to get a table. Before they seat you, they also take your order first so you don't have to wait as long for the food when you sit down. I think that's a very efficient method for a small place like this. I ordered the tsukemen since that's one of the more popular ramen here. It's basically a dipping ramen where you dip the ramen into a bowl of sauce. The ramen came with half of a soft boiled egg and the soup has chunks of pork in it. The ramen noodle itself is probably the best i've had in hong kong. I love how it's chewy and has a lot of texture. You can definitely tell they were freshly made. On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy the soup/sauce as much. It was very salty and it had a thick layer of oil on top. I basically had to lightly dipped the ramen in the soup then scooped it right back out to eat it in my other plain ramen bowl. I would come back and try the other ramen made in other styles but I wouldn't order the tsukemen again.