Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Mama San

This restaurant specialized in the SE Asian cuisines, and is started by Will Meyrick, a Scot who grew up in Australia and spending considerable amount of time in Indonesia. The restaurant is located at Wyndham Street in Central, with an exotic Bali decor, a bar plus comfortable seats in a hip and cozy environment.

With the beverage promotions we each ordered a mocktail to start. My Balicolada ($38) is a mix of fresh coconut water with coconut milk, citrus syrup, pineapple juice and cranberry juice. It has a beautiful pink color, with the signature coconut notes of the cocktail permeating. It is not overly sweet and refreshing, and is a good aperitif for our dinner.

For starter we had a Grilled King Prawns with Pomelo, mixed with Asian Celery, Garlic, Cherry Tomatoes and Red Nahm Jim ($168). This is a Thai dish with a twist, featuring an abundance of herbs, including basil, mint, ginger, lemongrass, making the salad highly fragrant. The dipping sauce (nahm jim) is a spicy chili with fish sauce mix, really appetizing. Even though for some it might be a bit too hot, the sweetness of the pomelo helps to balance the overall taste. The prawns are grilled with a great charcoal aroma too. Among the dishes on the night I like this one the most.

We also ordered two main dishes, with the first being the Hanoi Steamed Fillet of Barramundi with Miso, Lime, Chili, Green Shallot and Sesame Seed ($178). It has an interesting flavor, reminding me of the Chinese bean paste on first bite. The texture of the fish meat is a bit too mushy for my liking, and honestly the other ingredients like lime and green shallot were too overshadowed by the miso. It is not bad, though I have to say it is not my favorite type.

The other main dish is 'Ayam Merah' Slow Cooked Chicken in Tomato Cumin, Green Cardamon, Fresh Coriander, Coconut Milk and Fried Shallot ($178). This is a traditional Malaysian delicacy, with the sauce rich but the coriander did provide a balance. However it is just a bit salty for me, even pairing with Steamed Rice ($30). The chicken is decent but if they are slow cooked I would expect it to be more tender in texture.

Wrapping up we had a dessert, and I decided to sample the Black Sticky Rice with Mango and Coconut Milk, served with Mango Ice-cream ($78). The portion of the sticky rice is big, though there is only two thin slices of mango, by all standards it is just too little. Fortunately there is a scoop of mango ice-cream which compensates for that. Overall it is not bad, just a bit too sweet.

On a positive note, the service is quite nice, and when asked the staff tried to recommend the best dishes to me. Throughout the meal she came to check in with us, with all smiles and friendliness. The price for the dinner is $780 which is fairly reasonable also. I applaud the effort of Will trying to create all these SE Asian dishes in a nice setting to customers, and with just some tiny improvements on flavors of some dishes I am sure the restaurant would reach another level.