波士廳 (中環)

As the headline suggests I went for dim sum on a Sunday.

The restaurant has a slightly odd basement location. The interior is modern, but not fancy, let's say it doesn't distract from the food. Is a realatiy small restaurant (by Chinese standards), probably a bit under 20 tables.

We ordered to types of char siu based dim sum. The baked one had a thin shell and lots of stuffing, which was quite sweet - together with the sugar on the bun a bit too sweet for my taste. Not bad, but no match for Tim Ho Wan's signature.  The steamed char siu bao was solid HK quality.

The ha gow (shrimp dumplings) where at the higher end of the HK quality range - relatively large and with perfect texture. 

The sui mai where the least good of the lot with the shrimp overlooked and the overall flavor too mild.

Finally we got the boss' signature fried rice, which was truly one of the best fried rice I ever had (and I had a lot in my life) - very dark and savory with lots of shrimp and a bit of green vegetables.

As desert I picked one of my usual favorites - mango, sago, pomelo. A relatively disappointing version - too creamy and very liquid. 

Overall a good experience, but I don't understand why this restaurant deserves I Michelin star compared to many other equally good restaurants. Will come back for dinner, maybe I understand it then.

Lab Made 分子雪糕專門店 (尖沙咀)

This ice cream shop tries to “re-invent” ice cream. They only offer three flavors, which are made to order using liquid nitrogen. The experience depends a lot on the flavors, which are currently on offer  - last time I was there they had Ovomaltine (which I wasn’t interest in), lychee with green tea jelly – good, but very mild and mango/pineapple – good, but quite ordinary. On previous visits flavors had been more interesting, with sometimes innovative combinations and fancy decorations.
They claim that the liquid nitrogen method results in smaller ice crystals and therefore an ice cream that is smoother and creamier than conventional ice cream, but I can’t really confirm that. The texture of the ice cream is good, but not outstanding.

As the ice cream is made to order the waiting time can be a bit long.

Price is around 40 dollar per portion, which is a bit pricy for their more plain variants, but ok for the fancy ones.

Amber (中環)

We were quite (positively) surprised that we got a table on short notice – the restaurant wasn’t even fully booked on a Sunday night.

Coming in, I have to say that I am not a huge fan of the decoration – it’s all very contemporary and restrained, but the big copper tubes hanging from the ceiling (which is the main decorative element) make it a bit claustrophobic.

We went for the degustation menu with wine pairing, which comes at 3500 HK per person (2000 for the food and 1500 for the wide). After three little gifts from the kitchen (which where all nice) the first course arrived:

Violin zucchini: thinly sliced zucchini with some more vegetables and (pretty tasteless) summer truffles. A very green, light and fresh start into the evening, but not particularly spectacular. It was paired with a French apple cider, a good match (however a bit of a cheap drink given the price of the wine pairing).

Next was a light cured & smoked aji horse mackerel – beautiful dish with a very light touch of smoke, great texture of the fish. Accompanied by a bit of tomato and coriander purée. It came with a glass of Sancerre, which was spot on.

Up next one their signatures dishes was the hokkaido sea urchin in a lobster jelly and cauliflower puree and caviar. Looking back this was probably the best dish of the evening – the strong iodine taste of the sea urchin worked extremely well with the mild cauliflower; the caviar added another layer of texture to it. It also came with a “crispy seaweed waffle”, which in my view was unnecessary as it didn't add much flavor and I didn't like the texture. The dish was perfectly matched with a glass of sake.

Next Scottish langoustine with crispy chicken skin, green vegetables and apple. Nice piece of seafood, perfectly cooked (although I don't understand why they serve Scottish shrimps in HK), the apple flavor was an unusual combination, which was very pleasant and the vegetables added some nice texture. The crispy chicken skin was paper thin and more of a optical and taste addition. Dish was serves with a (pretty cold) Spanish red wine, which honestly didn't make any sense at all.

After that an interesting French-Japanese combination: steamed duck foie gras with daikon and seaweed broth. I don't think that steaming is the ideal way to prepare foie gras, but the combination of the mild liver with the relatively strong broth worked extremely well, probably my second favorite dish of the evening. Foie gras with sweet wine is always a winning combination, and the sweet Alsace Pinot was no exception.

Next the “main dish”: wagyu beef with some tomato and black garlic caramel. You can’t fail with wagyu – this one was very fatty and fery good. The nice surprise was the black garlic caramel, which added crispiness and an interesting additional flavor component. Came not unexpectedly with Italian red wine.
This would be a French restaurant if there wouldn't be a cheese course, which came next. Relatively small selection of maybe 15 cheeses to choose from, solid quality, but nothing to rave about. However it came with a glass of Brunello di Montalcino, which was my favorite wine of the evening.

First desert was a fennel sorbet with lemon custard and some shaved raw fennel. Sounds a bit strange, but was an absolute winner. The fennel was very mild and herbal and the lemon custard rich and creamy, great combination of flavors and textures. Came with a cremant rosé, which added some interesting strawberry flavor to the mix.

Finally chocolate bowls (“spheres”) with cocoa sorbet. As I am a chocoholic I was looking forward to this one, but unfortunately it was the weakest dish of the evening. Both components where somewhat bland and the two textures didn't work together very well either. At least it came with a nice glass of port.

So overall 8 out of 9 dishes where between very and extremely good; 8 out of 9 wine pairing worked very well. So overall a very pleasant evening and well deserved 2 stars.
Service was spotless as you would expect.

莎巴馬來西亞餐廳 (灣仔)

With the bright neon signs this place looks more like the restaurant-by-day bar-by-night places in the area, but apparently it is a regular Malayan restaurant.
I came for an early lunch at around noon and there were plenty of tables available. Went for one of the lunch combos, which include soup, main, desert and a soft drink for HKD 75 + 10% (which they round up to HKD 83).
As soft drink I went for the orange juice, which was surprisingly good. The soup was quite unremarkable – some kind of tomato broth with egg, edible, but not very enjoyable.
For main dish it took the beef rending with roti bread. The portion was generous, the beef itself was good, but the curry was a bit to soupy – more like an Indian curry, the taste was good, but not great – strong taste of the spices and the coconut milk and not at all spicy. The roti was very flaky and a bit too oily for my taste, went very well with the sauce.
The desert was a single piece of something like a Mochi with coconut on the outside and an indistinct filling – wouldn't necessary call that a desert, but given the size of the main dish I couldn't have eaten a bigger desert anyway. Texture was nice, taste mainly sweet.
Service is very efficient – I probably spend less than 30 Minutes in the restaurant.  
Overall I was say this is an ok place for lunch, but I wouldn't come for dinner when the prices are much higher.

功德林上海素食 (銅鑼灣)

This is a vegetarian restaurant with many classical dishes in meatless versions. 

We tried a Kung Pao "chicken" (made with tofu) and a sweet-and-sour "pork" (made with mushrooms) as well as a more traditional vegetable dish - sprouts in soup.

The  sprouts were very good in taste and texture. Kung Pao "chicken" could have had a bit more chilly, but besides that the taste of the dish was close to the original, however the texture of the tofu was nothing remotely similar to chicken. Similar the sweet-and-sour "pork" - taste-wise not far off the mark (a lot leaner), but very different texture. 

Overall I enjoyed the taste, but expected the meat substitutes to be mire similar to real meat. 

The interior is typical Chinese restaurant design (except they use a lot of green colors) and the restaurant has a nice view over the Victoria harbor.

Prices are a bit on the high side. Service was quick and efficient.