Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - La Locanda

This restaurant is located in Harbour City, serving classic Italian dishes in a comfortable and quiet environment despite inside the busy shopping centre. The service was good with friendly staff greeting us and showing us to the table, before taking our orders.

For starters we opted for Polpo, Patate e Tartufo, which is Grilled Octopus, Mashed Potatoes, Tomato Confit, Chives and Truffle. The octopus is grilled perfectly, slicing easily with a knife while having a good bite on texture. It is seasoned well with the chives and truffle adding to the flavors of the mashed potatoes. A nice portion size too with three big pieces to allow this dish to be ideal for sharing.

We then had the Spaghetti Chitarra Acciughe, Capperi e Tartufo Nero, which is Homemade Spaghetti with Anchovies, Capers and Black Truffle. The spaghetti has a beautiful chewiness which without telling one can readily identify it being homemade and boiled to the right timing. There is also the nice sauce of the capers and anchovies providing some tartness and savory taste, and the black truffle sparkled on top further enhancing the overall satisfaction. A nice dish to enjoy on its own.

For the main course Ivy ordered the Grigliata di Pesce e Crostacei e Verdura, which is Grilled Fish, Shellfish and Vegetables. The portion is again very big, with quite a number of pieces of fish, including salmon, turbot, sea bass, plus some prawns, scallops and squid, as well as vegetables like zucchini, eggplant and tomato. The seafood are fairly good, though generally a bit salty for me, particularly the fish.

I had the Rombo alla Griglia, Cavolfiore Rape Rosse e Mayonnaise all' Acciuga, which is Grilled Turbot with Cauliflower Cream, Beetroot and Anchovies Mayonnaise. Like the other dish the fish is seasoned a bit too salty, but it was grilled very well with the fish skin crispy while the flesh is tender. The beetroot provides an interesting contrast in flavor and adding an extra dimension. The mayonnaise is blended with anchovies to give a savory taste which paired perfectly with the fish.

On dessert Ivy went for the Frutta, the Chef Selection of Fresh Fruit, which is fresh but not particularly impressive, with the grapes having too thick and tough skin. I had the Gelato e Sorbetto, which I had chosen the Homemade Kiwi Sorbet. It is quite bland though there is not much flavor, but on the other hand it is not sweet so overall it is an ideal dessert for the health-conscious.

With a bottle of water, and two glasses of white wine, the total bill on the night was $1,549 which is quite reasonable considering the quality of food, portion, service, environment and location.

My overall rating is 63/100.

Nutritionist Recipe - 13. Braised Fish Maw with Dried Mushroom and Dried Oyster

Ingredients (for 4):

• Fish maw - 2 (around 70g)
• Rice wine - 2 tsp
• Dried mushroom - 16 pcs
• Dried oyster - 12 pcs
• Spring onion - 6 pcs
• Ginger - 10 pcs
• Shallot - 3
• Rice wine -1 tsp
• Starch powder - 2 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Chinese yellow wine - 2 tsp
• Dark soy sauce - 4 tsp
• Soy sauce - 4 tsp
• Oyster sauce - 4 tsp
• Sugar - 2 tsp

Procedures:

1. Soak the fish maw in water overnight and then cut into pieces.

2. Heat a pot of water and put in 4 pcs of ginger and 4 pcs of spring onion. Once boiled then add the rice wine and fish maw pieces. When it boils again, cover the lid and turn off the heat to let it cool to room temperature. Then wash the fish maw and soak in clean water again.

3. Soak the dried mushroom till softened, remove the stem and drip dry.

4. Soak the dried oyster in water for 30 minutes, then wash and drip dry.

5. Wash the spring onion and cut into sections.

6. Peel the shallot and cut into halves.

7. Heat the wok with oil, then stir fry the ginger and shallot.

8. Add the fish maw, dried mushroom and dried oyster to continue stir fry for a short while.

9. Add the sauce mixture and three bowls of water to cook until the dried oyster is softened.

10. Add the spring onion sections and then add the starch powder with some water.

Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Xin Dau Ji

This Cantonese restaurant chain has now got several outlets, but after having tried at a few of them I would say the Jordan one is best in terms of food quality and comfort. With a number of floors, tonight we were seated on the third floor, having to go up from the lift of the commercial building entrance.

We had ordered the Blanched Squid, Dried Seafood and Mixed Vegetable Pot, Royal Chicken, plus the Slimy Spinefoot Porridge. The Blanched Squid is good, with the marinated sauce not too salty and adding the right flavors to the bean sprout and squid. The squid is also blanched beautifully so it is not rubbery in texture. A good appetizer to begin with.

The Dried Seafood and Mixed Vegetable Pot is a common dish found in many Cantonese restaurant. This one has also a nice taste with the vegetable absorbed the essence of the dried seafood and stock, at the same time well-boiled to completely break down the fiber to allow an easy bite. Another good dish, tasty and simple.

The Royal Chicken is quite tender and marinated well, full of flavors and yet not salty. The ginger and spring onion dipping sauce adds further to the overall enjoyment of the dish, The chicken is not too fat too, which is important as I cannot accept those you would find having a layer of fat under the skin.

However, the porridge is quite a disappointment. The amount of spinefoot is decent and there is also some dried mandarin peel to add the fragrances to the porridge, but it is simply too salty, with a high dose of MSG one can feel. Though strong in taste, for someone who is sensitive to MSG like myself it brought headache and thirsty sensation which is not pleasant. I even had to drink a bottle of coke to lessen the effects.

The service is quite good with attentive and friendly staff responsible for serving our table. He also offered to provide a dessert free when we finished our dinner. But the price is a bit higher than normal, with the four dishes costing a total of $597. In fact we did not order their signature dishes on the night.

My overall rating is 50/100.

Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Chesa

This Swiss restaurant is located in The Peninsula, decorated like a small cottage on the Swiss Alps, offering a cozy and comfortable environment as well as good food to customers looking for a romantic and comfortable dinner.

Seated on a couch we ordered the dishes recommended by Maitre D' Lau for sharing. For starter, we had the Crab Meat Pancake with Lobster-Armagnac Cappuccino. One of the signature of the restaurant, this crepe is really good, with a soft pancake wrapping a good filling of crab meat, with the sauce prepared from lobster bisque and Armagnac, adding further flavors to the crab meat and enhancing the overall enjoyment to the next level. Certainly the best start for dinner on the night.

The other starter is Garden Fresh Tossed Mixed Salad with Hard-Boiled Quail Eggs. Very fresh mixed vegetable, with tomato, lettuce, cucumber, avocado and mushroom, the salad has different dressings for you to choose, which we opted for French dressing as it paired well with the garden green. It is a good and healthy salad which balanced the richness of the other dishes.

Originally I planned to order two main courses plus the fondue, but per the recommendation by Lau that would be too much so we only went for Seared Scallops and Shrimps with Seaweed Mashed Potato and Noilly Prat Sauce. The scallops are beautifully seared, tender and juicy, though I would say the shrimps are a bit salty on the seasoning. The mashed potatoes is rich and creamy and a perfect complement to the seafood with the seaweed and vermouth added.

Then we had the famous Fondue Montagnarde, with Emmentaler, Appenzeller and Gruyere finished with Parmesan and smoked mountain bacon, served with Marconi and Boiled Potatoes. This fondue is not as pungent as Fondue Moitie-Moitie, which is to our liking. The bacon provided the savory notes to the fondue and dipping the marconi and potatoes into it, is truly a fantastic treat in a cold evening in the Swiss cottage, and I have to say this whole experience brought us to that scene.

To wrap up I also ordered a dessert, Ballon Chesa, which is Schnapps-marinated Mixed Berries with Redberry Yoghurt and Raspberry Sherbet. With good acidity on the berries, the fruit got the right balance with the sweetness of the sauce and yoghurt. The sherbet also is a palate cleanser and removed the heaviness of the fondue we had earlier.

The service of Chesa offers a further enrichment to the whole evening, with Lau not only friendly and funny, he had that passion on the hotel that one can easily feel and resonate. And regarding the price it is also very reasonable, and considering the fame of the hotel and restaurant, it is close to being 'inexpensive'. With all the dishes I mentioned, two bottles of water, and a cup of coffee, the bill was $1827.

My overall rating is 83/100.

Nutritionist Recipe - 12. Roast Spring Chicken

Ingredients (for 2):

• Spring chicken -1
• Potato - 1
• Broccoli - 1
• Onion - 1/2
• Celery - 2 stalks
• Shallot - 3
• Carrot - 1
• Lemon - 1/2
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Garlic salt - 2 tsp
• Black pepper finely - 2 tsp
• Rosemary - 3 sprigs

Procedures:

1. Wash the rosemary and then take the leaves off.

2. Marinate the spring chicken with garlic salt, black pepper finely and rosemary, and keep in fridge overnight.

3. Peel the potato and cut into pieces.

4. Wash the broccoli and cut into pieces.

5. Peel the onion and cut into pieces.

6. Remove the tough fiber from the celery and cut into small dices.

7. Peel the shallot and cut into pieces.

8. Peel the carrot and cut into slices.

9. Wash the lemon and cut into slices.

10. Stuff half the onion, celery, shallot and lemon into the chicken. Use the toothpick to skewer.

11. Heat a pan with the oil and sautee the onion, carrot, potato and shallot. Season with salt.

12. Put the vegetables in a baking tray and then put the spring chicken on top. Bake in pre-heated oven at 200 degree Celsius for 30 minutes. 

13. Add the broccoli to the tray and cook for another 8 minutes.