[Review 225] A piece of England @ Portobello

Portobello 30/12/2008
中環蘇豪士丹頓街9號地下
G/F, 9 Staunton Street, SOHO, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/a-piece-of-england-e1962029


I was drawn to this cafe by its name "Portobello", a popular street market in Notting Hill London.
The restaurant name sign just brought me back to London, the name Portobello in white background within a black border. The typical London Street sign with a postcode in red, and the borough below the street name.

The interior of the café had a tall ceiling, with shelves of books at the side, totally taking you to another world. Even the W.C didn’t look like one to me from the outside, but it was good they had their own there.

I ordered a pricey scone set with tea, served with a tea strainer.

The scone set came with clotted cream and jam, heavily clotted cream with a touch of sweetness from the jam.
It rounded off with a lovely cuppa of fragrant tea, owing to the loose tea leaves as opposed to teabags.

[Review 224] LKYCS's last christmas @ 樂香園咖啡室 Lok Heung Yuen Coffee Shop

28/12/2008 posted on openrice
樂香園咖啡室 Lok Heung Yuen Coffee Shop
中環威靈頓街15號C地下
G/F 15C Wellington St, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/lkycss-last-christmas-e1961315

Heard it was shutting down soon from Chan Jan, so decided to pay a visit to this Chinese style cafe, a place I don't usually set foot in. The calendar at Lok Heung Yuen signifies the cafes age, it is one of those manual old date boards.

Before going, I checked its reviews, and saw that it was famous for Oyster cakes and tomato cakes. I was a bit puzzled because not many Chinese cafés offer them; all was answered when I got there, because it is a Chiu Chow styled café.

Apart from the fried cakes, I was recommend the chicken pie by Chan Jan. Before ordering it, I really did not know what to expect of a Chinese pie, never tried a Chinese pie before, ie would it look like an English pie? What would be inside it?

Anyway, I ordered the chicken pie, scrambled eggs with prawn and rice, stir fried black bean sauce clams and the oyster cake too. The tomato cake the one I most wanted to try was not available that day.

The chicken pie turned out looking like a normal pie, with a sweet crunchy short crust pastry, and chicken inside.
Then I had the scrambled eggs, the best I have eaten so far, just like Australian Milk co, the egg has a yolk like layer on top of it, just like a half cooked egg, and tasty spring onions mixed in it.

As for the evening snacks, they were ok; the oyster cake was a bit greasy, would have been perfect if I could have tried the tomato cake too, but that’s just life!

[Review 223] Another soup outlet @ 原味家作 Original Taste Workshop

28/12/2008
原味家作 Original Taste Workshop
中環士丹利街21號皇后中心5號舖
Shop 5, Queen's Place, 21 Stanley Street, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/another-soup-outlet-e1961048

Another soup chain has entered hong kong, with a convenient location in LKF, very convenient for people in central.

It offers a wide range of snacks to filling food, such as garlic conch, ducks tongue to mixed grain rice.

For me, I ordered soup, and felt peckish so also to tried the ducks tongue, never tried it before in my whole life!! It appeared a little different to the picture advertised, anyway it tastes good, and strong in wine, but you just have to imagine your eating something other than a tongue!! I was expecting it to be opaque Jelly like and soft like the picture.

I am looking forward to my next visit to try the garlic conches, rice and other little snacks. I would recommend this place to try delicacies as it is neat and most importantly clean.

[Review 222] Smooth Liver @ Lo Pak Restaurant 鹵八鵝店

Lo Pak Restaurant 鹵八鵝店
灣仔春園街20號富國大廈地下C舖
Shop C, 20 Spring Garden Lane, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/smooth-goose-liver-e1961018
20/12/2008

Finally found a place that serves goose liver, ordered the marinated goose liver and rice. It was served with the marinade sauce and the chiu chow style vinaigrette dressing.

The goose liver was smooth, and full of flavour, and the sauces were good too, especially the vinaigrette, not too sour and exploding with garlic and chili in it.

[Review 221] Christmas Chocolates @ agnès b. DÉLICES

25/12/2008
agnès b. DÉLICES
觀塘觀塘道418號創紀之城五期(apm)C-3號舖
Shop C-3, apm Millennium City 5, 418 Kwun Tong Road, Kwun Tong
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/christmas-chocolates-e1960364

Received a box of Agnes B chocolates for Christmas, each chocolate is fun to eat and look at, since it has a pretty drawing on it.
The tea flavoured ones remind me of Cha Ke Li.

I like the fruity flavours, and nutty ones, as the dark chocolate, or chocolate filling ones were a bit plain.

[Review 220] Hot hot sizzles Pepper Lunch Express

25/12/2008
旺角亞皆老街8號朗豪坊4樓F2號舖
Shop F2, Level 4, Langham Place, 8 Argyle Street, Mong Kok
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/hot-hot-sizzles-e1960358

I don't usually eat beef, but felt like giving this a try, so I ordered the Pepper beef rice,
it was presented neatly, beef surrounding the rice, topped with an abundance of sweetcorn, black pepper generously sprinkled over.

After mixing the beef and rice together, it smelt nice, especially after the beef had been cooked.
The rice was not too soft and not too hard, and tasted just right after adding soya sauce to it.

[Review 219] Will not disappoint @ Pasta De Waraku

24/12/2008 Pasta De Waraku
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/will-not-disappoint-e1959910
鑽石山龍蟠街3號荷里活廣場2樓288舖
Shop 288, Level 2, Plaza Hollywood, 3 Lung Poon Street, Diamond Hill

Another standard Japanese outlet, serving a wide range of pastas in various of sauces.

The Pasta with Seaweed sauce and other delectable things on their menu tempted me, after my first visit, I have been there several times, but the Pasta with Seaweed sauce is not served anymore.
But anyway the other pastas and side dishes do not fail.

Chicken Basket: Juicy, flaky chicken which surprised me.

Littleneck clams with butter: Although it was a small portion, the butter taste was strong, and it wasn’t like boiled butter, but a creamy salty taste to the clams, yet you could still taste the sea in the clam.

Deep-fried cubic tofu: This was the best, because I was expecting a crunchy skin, and nothingness inside, but it amazed me because it was tasty and chewy inside, like cheese. The tofu used was “thousand layer tofu” (千葉豆腐, 凍豆腐 or 冰豆腐), not usually fried, but in this case, it worked out very well.

Fried Potato with cheese: Although the name is fried potato, it looks like roasted English potatoes on the menu, so ordered that too, piping hot potato with roasted skin, and cheesy sauce.

Potato Mochi Cheese: Just tastes the same as Cheese new year cake, but adding a dash of black pepper, spices it up.

Juicy sausage combo:
Was pleased with the sauces that came with it, grain mustard, and honey.

Salmon cheese:
Light pockets of crunchy salmon oozing with cheese.

Deep fried Puri Ebi with Cheese: Very salty, but the fishy sort of salty.

PASTA’s

Pasta with seaweed sauce and octopus: (not served anymore)
My favorite, strong in seaweed tones, with chewy octopus.

Prawn spicy carbonara: not very spicy, with tender prawns, and rich sauce, I chose spaghetti, which was just right, not too soft, and not too hard. Poached egg on top, delicious.

Salad pasta:
Wasn’t a good choice, either because the sauce was vinaigrette, which is very watery, so the pasta didn’t soak up the sauce, maybe if it was thicker such as mayonnaise, it would have a better flavour.