Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - The Coffee Academics

This coffee house has several outlets in HK, and this time we went to the flagship in CWB Yiu Wa Street. Arriving early in the evening, we got a table looking out to the street. But as we were having dinner, the table and setting was a bit small when the dishes arrived.

Obviously coffee is the signature product and we ordered a standard Cappuccino with Skimmed Milk along with a Ice-Dripped Ethiopia Yirgacheffe to start. The ice-drip coffee was in fact quite nice, with good citrus and fruity aromas, and the ice-drip was also served using wine glass to allow the aromas to be better appreciated. The price was quite high though at $82 per glass.

The Cappuccino was served with a beautiful latte art. While I didn't get to sample, from the overall aromas I believed it should be quite good. From the coffee front the café did deliver its owner's promise when starting this café.

For the food, we ordered the Crab and Avocado Salad to share. The salad was fairly good, with fresh green vegetable on top of crab meat, and on the sides there were crab sticks, supplemented further with some crab roe and pomegranate seeds, which gave a nice bite texture to the creamy crab meat. The salad dressing was tasty too.

Next I ordered the Iberico Ham and Porcini Mushrooms Spaghetti. With some expectation from the salad, this however was quite a big let down. The ham were in tiny pieces which did not resemble the ham at all, but quite tough and tasted more like bacon. The mushroom looked like it was soaked in water for a long while, not having much flavor, nor any bite. Moreover, when I finished the spaghetti there was a thick layer of watery sauce remaining. It was frankly quite disappointing in quality.

My wife had ordered the Baked Halibut Fillet, with baked potatoes and yellow zucchini for the side. While it was presented quite beautifully on the plate, the main problem was the seasoning of the fish. It was simply too bland, without any flavor. In fact the vegetable on the side tasted better than the fillet itself. Also quite a big disappointment.

Another big issue came up in the restroom. There was no flushing water and so overall it was quite filthy and unpleasant. Fortunately we went to the restaurant before checking the bill otherwise it might ruin further our whole dining experience.

The service overall was decent, but the price for the dinner was quite high at $628, particularly considering the quality.

My overall rating is 40/100.