A Preview of MIST

I wrote in my Wakayama post that I was looking forward to trying out MIST, the high-end ramen counterpart in Causeway Bay. What I didn't realize was that I didn't have to go out to MIST, but it came to me. MIST has been invited by the Jockey Club to do a ramen promotion this week at the Happy Valley Clubhouse's Food Plaza (4/F).



When I got to the Food Plaza at 12:00pm, there was already a mass of people waiting around just to get their order in. I was told I would need to wait for 30 mins for my bowl of ramen. It's no surprise - it was $85 for a bowl of ramen with Japanese BBQ pork, or $108 for ramen + side salad + BBQ pork rice or chicken gyoza. Pictured is the shio (salt) soup ramen with the BBQ pork rice and side salad.


















I didn't care much for the salad or the BBQ pork rice - I went straight for the ramen. The ramen looked good, but, as my sister also pointed out, there could be a bit more soup. It had the standard topping of bamboo, BBQ pork, green onion and chives. My first bite of the noodle - unfortunately disappointing. It was like the noodles were covered in a thin layer of slime, and the noodles were overcooked.

I have a habit of ordering the shio soup because that's the best way to taste the quality of the broth. If you get the miso or shoyu soups, the miso/shoyu mask the essence of the ingredients. MIST puts 25+ ingredients and more than 12hrs of stove time into their soup. The soup was clean and delicate, but not enough to redeem the noodles. The egg was not as remarkable as the Wakayama egg because the yolk was cooked through, and I like having a slightly runny yolk.

The BBQ pork rice was plain. It was just the pork on top of rice, so it felt like to separate components in the same bowl. The pork was a bit on the dry side too. There was nothing noteworthy about the salad.

Having written this blog post, I have not ruled out going to MIST in the near future. I have a feeling that not being on home base and the overwhelming number of orders may have thrown Mr. Morizumi and his staff off their game. This won't be a reason next time; look out for a future MIST blog post!

Lunch at Grappa's

Had lunch with some friends at Grappa's in Pacific Place on Tuesday. As expected, the restaurant was really busy with the office lunch crowd from the offices upstairs. There was a three course set lunch menu plus coffee and tea, prices ranged from $168-$198 + 10% depending on your main course.

For the first course, you had a choice of Caesar Salad, Cream of Asparagus Soup, and a Smoked Tuna Tartar with Fennel and Orange (pictured). It was a nice salad, but I probably would have preferred a little more orange (I only had two segments). The salad mix was mostly arugula, which balanced well with the smoked tuna. A friend ordered the same starter but strangely enough she didn't have any cherry tomatoes.






For the main course there were four choices for the main course - an Angel Hair Pasta with Crab, Pine Nuts, Tomatoes; Oven Roasted Salmon with Cous-cous; Pasta Tricolore Salad (vegetarian), and this US Prime striploin with oven roasted vegetables. I did request for the steak to come out medium rare but it came medium. It's not a big deal, but the steak was slightly tougher and drier. I expected a little more of the roasted vegetable though - it was a lot of bell pepper with the occasional squished cherry tomato and a few chunks of potato. There were some whole cloves of garlic in the mix, but I wish it were roasted a little longer to soften and sweeten - the garlic was firm and had the texture of an undercooked potato.

Onto dessert - choice between a yogurt parfait (which, from appearance, looked like you could make for breakfast at home), or the panna cotta. It was a decent panna cotta - creamy, but slightly firm {maybe a little too much gelatin in the mix}.









Grappa's is okay for lunch. Service wasn't great, which is expected during the packed lunch hour, but you could tell the servers were a bit strained. Food was fine and price point was about right for a sit-down lunch at Pacific Place. It did get noisy though, so it's not really the place for quiet conversation with friends.