Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Le Soleil

This Vietnamese restaurant is located in Royal Garden Hotel in TST, and in fact is the branch of the award-winning San Francisco restaurant of the same name. On the mezzanine level overlooking the atrium, the environment is a bit of the lobby cafe ambiance but still fairly comfortable. Because it is close to Christmas there are some nice decorations and lighting which made the general mood much more festive and cozy.

On the night we ordered the Deluxe Set Menu, starting with the Appetizers Combination, including Crispy Fried Saigon Spring Roll, Steam Rice Flour Rolls with Minced Pork and Dried Shrimp, Rice Paper Roll with Roasted Pork Fillet, and Pomelo Salad with Seafood. The portion is appropriate, sufficient for one to enjoy while not over-taxing one's stomach for the coming main courses. All of the four appetizers are tasty also, combining a good contrast of texture from the crispy spring roll, soft steam roll, and chewy rice paper roll. The fillings are delicious, full of flavors and overall a great beginning of the meal indeed.

Next comes the Baked US Jumbo Scallop. The scallop is seasoned well, though the sauce is a bit too salty in my opinion. There are some young asparagus shoots accompanying as well, which are tender and delicious. It is a smart garnish as the asparagus gives a nice color to the dish and help to balance the richer flavors of the sauce. For some the scallops may look a bit over-baked, with some blackened surface but I personally did not find it offensive.

The second main course is Grilled King Prawn with Garlic Butter and Stir-Fried Vegetable. I personally like this dish the most among the others in this meal, with the prawn grilled perfectly, well-cooked but not drying up the prawn. It is also seasoned beautifully, with the garlic butter significantly enhancing and highlighting the flavors of the prawn. You can also squeeze in a few drops of lime juice which help to explode the flavors. The Chinese kale is also terrific in taste and very tender. A great dish!

The last main course is Crispy Beef Brisket in Curry Sauce and Garlic Bread. Maybe because it came after the wonderful prawn, I did not find this particularly appealing. The 'skin' of the beef brisket is crispy as expected, and the curry sauce is also decent. But as the beef is not cooked in the curry it could not absorb the flavors so I find the two did not integrate well. Maybe I am just too old-school but I still prefer the traditional way to cook the curry with the meat.

Next came the Seafood Rice Noodle in Tomato Soup. We opted for this instead of the beef pho. The soup is rich, and you can add the condiments provided like chili, onion, basil and bean sprout to create your own favorite taste. The seafood however are not particularly impressive and in a way is a bit of a let-down. Maybe the restaurant believed that the soup itself would be sufficiently satisfying?

There is also a Dessert Platter, which includes a dragon-fruit jelly, a coconut cake and a coffee creme brulee. All of the three are quite nice, refreshing and delicate for the jelly, while having a good bite and intense coconut flavor in the cake. The creme brulee got a crunchy burnt sugar on top of the creamy texture. It is a good wrap up to the meal.

In general the food quality is good, though I think the restaurant can certainly review the speed in which the dishes are served. Not sure why since the restaurant is not exactly full-house on the night, but we have to wait for quite a while between dishes. Considering that I could not stop wondering what would be the experience if we come next week during Christmas?

The bill on the night was $1,123 with the two deluxe set plus a bottle of water and a fresh lime soda. Not cheap for sure but not overly expensive. There are many elements I found the restaurant can further improve, and if those could be changed I am sure it would be at the higher notch in my ranking of top Vietnamese restaurants in town.

Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Ozone

This rooftop bar is located inside Ritz-Carlton Hotel, on the 118th floor of the tallest building of Hong Kong. Certainly the highest bar in town, and maybe the world, one has to first take the elevator to the 103th floor before switching to another lift to the roof.

Upon arriving the staff took us to our table. As the bar is popular we made the reservation in advance, but still we were seated right outside of the staff entrance, so throughout the night we were blown by the wind whenever someone open the door. With plenty of other tables not taken when we arrived, I cannot stop wondering how come we were so 'lucky'.

The decor was magnificent, providing a vibrant, luxurious and hip ambiance. There is also the famous outdoor section but the day was too windy and cold probably to sit outside. But I am sure the view was spectacular and worth the extravagant price of the drinks and food. I ordered the signature cocktail to begin with, Dragon's Back. It was nice but I would say it was a bit too sweet. Ivy ordered the mocktail Emerald which was refreshing and good too.

While the bar provided some truffle-flavored popcorn we could not just survive with those, so we also had a few tapas. The Deep Fried Prawn Popcorn with Sweet and Sour Sauce is essentially deep frying the prawn with batter, and then paired with a Thai-style sweet and sour sauce. Well, without the sauce the prawn is simply tasteless, but honestly I remind myself that this is a bar and not a restaurant so we should not be rating it on the same scale.

Hoping the next one would be better in quality, the Braised Pork Taco in Mexican Style didn't disappoint. The pork is shredded and seasoned with chili sauce to give a kick to the taste, and it was wrapped in a taco and put on top of a lime cut in a way to hold it nicely. The portion is of bite-size making it easy to manage without creating a lot of messiness eating them. This tapas managed to savage some of my faith in their food.

The last tapas is the Omakase Sushi Selection, including five different sushi: salmon, yellowtail, scallops, tuna and snapper. The fish are fresh and tasty, and overall they are surprisingly good. I like the scallops the most as it got great texture and rich in flavors. My only criticism is that the size is just too small, and even as finger food they were a bit too tiny.

The service was good with the staff attentive, friendly and courteous. And I also ordered a half-pint Stella Artois in addition to the cocktail, with the final bill of $1,503 which honestly is expensive. Even considering the really phenomenal view the overall experience would not justify the price in my opinion. Maybe it is more for those bankers having their offices in the same building rather than commoners like me.

Chinese Home Cooking Recipe - 6. Three-color Vegetables, Two Ways

Ingredients (for 4):

• Garlic sprout - 1 bunch
• Pumpkin - 1
• Bamboo shoots - 3
• Ginger - 1, to mash and get the juice
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Chicken stock - 1/4 cup

Procedures:

1. Break the garlic sprout into stripes of about 4 cm, until the section where the fiber is too tough.

2.  Use only the top part of the pumpkin, peel the skin off and cut into slices of 5 cm long, 0.4 cm thick. Then further cut into stripes of 0.4 cm.

3. Peel the bamboo shoots and cut into 5 cm sections, then cut further into 0.4 cm slices, then further into 0.4 cm stripes.

4. Heat the pan to medium heat, then add the bamboo shoots to toast until softened.

5. Add 1/2 tbsp of oil and then add the garlic sprout, continue to stir fry.

6. Season with salt and then add 1/4 cup of chicken stock, continue to stir fry.

7. Add 1/2 tbsp of oil and the pumpkin stripes.

8. Add the squashed ginger juice and stir well.

Ingredients (for 4): 

• Lotus root - 1 section
• Asparagus lettuce - 1
• Carrot - 1
• Oil -  1 tbsp
• Garlic - 1 clove
• Salt - dashes
• Fish sauce - 2 tsp
• Sugar - 1/4 tsp

Procedures:

1. Peel the lotus root and cut into halves. Then cut into thin slices.

2. Peel the carrot and cut into 0.3 cm slices, then cut into two halves.

3. Peel the asparagus lettuce and cut into diamond shapes.

4. Boil a pot of water and when boiling, add the lotus root and carrot. When the water is re-boiled again, remove the vegetable and drip dry.

5. Heat the pan over medium-high heat, then add the oil and garlic slices to stir fry until fragrant.

6. Add the lotus root and carrot and continue to stir fry.

7. Season with the fish sauce, salt and sugar, then continue to stir fry.

8. Add the asparagus lettuce, stir well and serve. 

Chinese Home Cooking Recipe - 5. Stir-fried Salted Fish

Ingredients (for 4):

• White small salted fish - 75 g
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Bean sprout - 350 g
• Ginger - 20 g
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Long red chili - 1
• Small red chili - 1
• Sugar and salt - dashes
• Spring onion - 2

Procedures:

1. Wash the salted fish and drip dry. Use kitchen tissue paper to wipe it dry. This is to reduce the saltiness of the fish.

2. Wash the bean sprout and drip dry. Then cut the red chili (both the long and small one) into thin strips.

3. Peel the ginger and cut into thin stripes.

4. Cut the green onion into thin stripes.

5. Chop the garlic finely.

6. Heat the pan to medium-high heat, then add 2 tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot, add the salted fish and constantly stir-fry. Turn the heat to medium.

7. Remove the salted fish.

8. With half a tbsp of oil, add the ginger stripes and stir fry until fragrant.

9. Add the chopped garlic, then add the bean sprout and continue to stir fry.

10. When the bean sprout is cooked, add the salted fish to continue to stir fry.

11. Add the red chili and continue to stir fry.

12. Season with sugar and salt.

13.Add the green onion and stir well.