Mostaccioli Brothers

I had lunch with a bunch of girlfriends today at Mostaccioli Brothers up on Elgin Street. This restaurant is owned by El Grande Concepts, the same group at Grappa's. Even though it's on Elgin, the actual restaurant is down the stairs and in the back of the building, so look for a green sign and a set of stairs.

All lunch sets included a vegetable soup, and coffee/tea/Italian soda. Set lunch prices ranged from about $80 for paninis up to about $120 for pastas.

Minestrone

Risotto with Parma Ham and Rocket

I thought that the minestrone was decent, but a bit on the sweet side. The risotto was really salty though. Since the ham and rocket are laid on top, I feel like the restaurant has a pre-made risotto base, and just add the toppings and flavors accordingly. The problem here is that they don't realize that Parma ham is pretty salty already, and so is the shaved Parmesan cheese. The risotto could be creamier. 

Even though my risotto didn't come out as well as I hoped, some of the other pastas at the table looked good - there was a baked Mostaccioli pasta, one of their signature dishes. It was a garganelli pasta baked in a tomato-based sauce with Italian sausage and lots of cheese. Another friend ordered the pasta with fresh fish (I think today's fresh fish was salmon), and that was good because the seafood flavor really came through in that tomato sauce on top of spaghetti. They had a nice variety of pastas to pick from.

It's worth trying if you are up on Elgin Street, just make sure that unless you really like your dishes salty, don't order the risotto with Parma ham.

Mostaccioli Brothers

B/F & G/F, 16 Elgin Street, Central, 2525-5770

Slices Pizzeria

Was walking on Leighton Road in Causeway Bay and noticed a woman at the street crossing with a paper bag flat in her hand from "Slices Pizzeria". Around about then I was pretty hungry and was thinking of what to eat. Seeing that bag solved the problem!

Slices is just one shop down from Yogo (it seems both are owned by the same people). Luckily I got there and ordered my pizza just before the St. Paul's Convent student lunch crowd invaded the store.

They had four huge 22" pies in the heat box - 4 Cheese, Hawaiian, Sausage and Mushroom, and 4 Seasons. I wanted to try something different, and ordered the 4 Seasons (tomato, mozzarella, artichoke, mushroom, ham, olives). It had me at olives.

A huge slice of pizza at Slices

Yum...olives, artichokes, mushrooms, ham...

Once you pick the slice they reheat it for you in the oven (which does cause a bit of a line with too many students). You can actually add toppings for $5 each. A slice of 4 Seasons is $32. Their cheapest slice is a Margherita for $25.

Perhaps I've been back in Hong Kong for a while now and haven't had good New York pizza for a while, but Slices will take care of that from now on! The crust is thin, crispy but chewy, not overloaded with sauce or toppings, and did I mention that I love olives? It could, however, use a little more salt (maybe hard to control with olives and artichokes), and I did sprinkle it liberally with Italian seasoning after I took the photos of the slice. Much better :)

They also take create-your-own orders for whole pies, and there are 14" and 18" pies as well. The place was filled with students because they give student group discounts as well as a student lunch deal - $34 for a slice plus a drink. Not bad.

Slices Pizzeria

Shop 4 & 5, G/F, 128-132 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, 2895-6633

Butao Ramen

Butao Storefront

Finally I've tasted Butao Ramen. A source told me that there are no lines at Butao if you go around 4 in the afternoon (Butao now opens till 6pm). So C, K and I went to eat at around 4:30pm. We didn't even have to wait and sat down immediately! This place has just only a few more than a dozen seats - it's no wonder the wait can be so long.

Order sheet to choose your preferences

Everyone gets their own order sheet to tick their preferences. Butao has four ramen soup types on its menu - yellow (the plain pork bone broth) for $75, black (soup + squid ink) for $88, red (soup + spicy base) for $88, and green (soup + pesto) for $90. I've heard that there's a curry soup base off the menu, but I didn't ask about it.

You can also choose the concentration of your soup base, the amount of oil and garlic, yes or no to roast pork and onion, how much spicy miso paste, and hardness of your noodle. You can tick for add-ins too. I wanted the half-cooked egg but it's currently unavailable.

Original Butao King (Yellow)

C and K both ordered the original. K described the soup as tasting like liquified cooked egg yolks. I agree!! The roasted pork was about normal.

Green Butao - with pesto and parmesan cheese

I thought this was pleasantly surprising. You can still taste the egg-yolky broth but the pesto works well with it! A Japanese and Italian fusion creation.

Noodles

Luckily I ordered the noodles hard, because these were thin noodles. C ordered his soft and said they were pretty soft. I think I actually might try extra hard noodles next time. Even though I'm a fast eater, the noodles in the last few bites were soft. I wouldn't mind a bit more firmness anyway.


I like Butao and I wouldn't mind going back to try the other soup varieties (I think I'll try the Red Butao next since I love spicy food). Having said that, C and I both think that this place is not worth a long wait while you starve yourself in line. 


Butao Ramen 豚王
G/F, Wo On Building, 8-13 On Lane Street, Central, 2530-0600

Nibbles - Macarons from Jean Paul Hévin

Was out in Central today and wanted to get some macarons while I was at IFC. The plan was to have them when I take a break from writing my paper this afternoon. I've had the macarons at Le Gouter Bernardaud and wanted to try the ones at Jean Paul Hévin. I ended up buying two - one raspberry and one bitter chocolate.

Frambois'in and Amer macarons

Couldn't help but take a bite!

Frambois'in:

Amer

I think the LGB macarons are a bit too sweet for me, but these JPH ones are good! It wasn't just sweet sweet sweet, like most macarons.

I love basically anything raspberry x chocolate, and the Frambois'in was well balanced. There was a good amount of tartness, the raspberry flavor came through, and the ganache was smooth. The dark chocolate one was yum too (after all, JPH is a chocolatier), and I do like how you can actually taste the nutty almond-ness of the cookie.

JPH has lunch and brunch too in the small seating area adjacent to the shop, but no reservations. Will try it some day, and their signature chocolate drinks!

Jean Paul Hévin Bar à Chocolat et Boutique

Shop 2045A, ifc mall, Central, Hong Kong, 2111-9770

http://www.jphevin.com.hk/

Hide-Chan Ramen

Last weekend I was in Central and wanted to see how ridiculous the queue was for Butao Ramen, the small ramen shop with less than two dozen seats on Wo On Lane in Lan Kwai Fong. I've long decided that I will wait until the hype is over to try it than waste a morning lining up. It was already 1pm and the line still looked like it was about 2hrs long. Butao closes after selling 200 bowls of ramen, so I was wondering if all those people at the end of the line actually thought they had a chance to eat a bowl of ramen that day.

Not to despair! Hide-Chan Ramen (serving Kyushu style ramen) just opened on Wellington Street and the line was only about 15 minutes. One of the servers came out every now and then to make sure the people in line had menus to look at and gave out an order form with clipboard and pencil so you can decide what you want to eat while in line.

Hide-Chan's menu

The order form - available in Chinese and English

A view from the noodle bar

While the noodles might be the heart of a bowl of ramen, the soup is definitely the soul. When it comes to the soup, my rule of thumb is to choose the most basic soup base. That way, you can taste the actual soup without interference from add-ins like miso or soy sauce. There were three choices of soup at Hide-Chan: White Hide (the basic pork bone soup), Black Hide (soup + special soy sauce), and Red Hide (soup + special spicy sauce). You also get to choose the texture of your noodles and whether you want your roast pork to be from the shoulder or belly. For additional $$, you can add extra anything to make a unique bowl of noodles. 

They also have tsukemen (mixed noodles, noodles and dipping sauce served separate) if you're not in the mood for something soupy, and gyoza with a choice of mayo (cheese, green onion, or tarako). The gyoza would probably be nice to share with a friend, but they run out of gyoza quick! The couple next to me wanted to order them but they were already sold out.


My choice: White Hide, medium textured noodles (al dente), roast pork shoulder, +$10 for a whole soft-boiled egg.

White Hide Ramen

The soup was thick, white and creamy, perhaps even a bit too thick, as if they reduced the soup a bit too much. I read somewhere that they simmer 120kg of pork bones for 400 bowls of soup for a whole day. If you're not one for intense flavors, this place is definitely not for you. The soup was borderline salty for me (probably because it's so concentrated). I'm glad I didn't choose the Black Hide because that would be even saltier!

The noodles were cooked just right. I think if you chose soft noodles they might be a bit mushy, since the noodles are on the thin side. Even though I ordered the roast pork shoulder (the less fatty option), the meat was still very delicate and not dry at all. You can also order a plate of roast pork, which they torch just before serving to give it a little bit of a char.

Soft boiled egg

I think the egg was a bit disappointing because for a soft boiled egg I was expecting the center to be slightly runny, like the eggs at Wakayama. I cut the egg open right after my first bite of noodles so I know it wasn't because I let the egg sit in the hot soup for too long.

Done!!

For about $80 a bowl of ramen and a shorter wait time, Hide-Chan is worth trying if you're in the Central area. Note that I waited about 15 minutes on a Sunday afternoon at around 2pm, so the wait could potentially be much longer.

Like: customizable ramen, roast pork
Dislike: egg, soup base might have been too concentrated


Any other ramen places worth trying? I still have plans for Mist and Ippei-An - stay tuned!

Hide-Chan Ramen

Upper Ground Floor, The Loop, 33 Wellington Street, Central , 2522-5990  
http://www.hide-chan.hk/eng/index.html

Kiriyaki

Coming across Kiriyaki was an accident - a friend and I had a lunch date in Causeway Bay, but we didn't know where to go. She wanted Japanese food, and suggested trying Kiriyaki. Since that lunch date about two years ago, I've been visiting Kiriyaki regularly for their minced tuna, salmon roe and sea urchin rice set lunch ($148 +10%). I just can't seem to order anything else!

Minced tuna, salmon roe and sea urchin rice set

The set includes Japanese steamed egg custard, miso soup, pickles, a small side dish, and coffee or tea.

Kiriyaki's pretty big on the portions, and doesn't skimp on the fish. They pile on the salmon roe, and are fair with the sea urchin. Sometimes instead of getting these smaller sea urchins, I got two or three large pieces. It depends on what they have in stock.

Kiriyaki has their set lunch menu every day except on Sundays and public holidays. There are at least 20 choices of set lunch, with pricing ranging from $80-$148. Some other noteworthy choices is the kimchi stone pot rice, the wagyu beef set, and the mixed grill set.

A decent, not-too-crowded choice for lunch. Dinner's a chunk more expensive though.

Kiriyaki

Room 1302, 13/F, World Trade Centre, 280 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, 2895-1313

Cheap Korean Eats - Azumma

Last week C and I went to Kimberly Street (aka Korean Street) in TST for some Korean groceries and a quick lunch. I noticed a new restaurant had opened a few doors down from New World Mart (my favorite place for home-made kimchi) across from Hansung (another place for an cheap bite). We saw on the menu that the some of the rice dishes had a $10 discount (so dishes that were $50 became $40), and it looked busy, so we decided to have a try. We ordered a stone bowl mixed rice (bibimbap), a kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap), and a cold buckwheat noodle (mul naengmyun). It only cost us $170 total.

Beef Bibimbap - Stone Bowl Mixed Rice

Mul Naengmyun - Cold Buckwheat Noodle

Kimchi Bokkeumbap - Kimchi Fried Rice

The bibimbap was okay, and there was nothing spectacular about the naengmyun, but the fried rice was surprisingly good. It was lightly spicy, tangy from the kimchi, and although you could see the oil on your plate it didn't feel greasy in the mouth. There were also bits of pork and onion in the fried rice, and some seaweed was sprinkled on top to finish it off. Sure, it might not be the healthiest thing to eat but it was pretty tasty! 

I think Azumma is better than Hansung. Even though Hansung is okay, I think the flavors at Azumma were more on point. It's worth trying if you're in the area, and you should pick up some Korean groceries while you're at it!

Azumma Korean Restaurant

G/F, 3B Kimberley Street, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2311 - 3983

Some like it hot...and tongue numbing! Sichuan Food at 渝酸辣粉

This post is long overdue! I'm always game for Sichuan spicy food at 渝酸辣粉 (Yu), especially when it's hot and humid during the summer, or cold and windy during the winter. Tucked away on Yiu Wah Street behind Times Square, this little restaurant serves some of the best Sichuan food in town at affordable prices. You'll know what to expect when you walk in - the aromas from all the Sichuan spices hit your nose with a punch.

9 times out of 10 I go there at eat the Tasting Set Menu ($76). It has a bowl of their hot and sour Chongqing potato starch noodles (I love the bouncy, chewy texture), a serving of Sichuan chilled spicy chicken (in Chinese, it's called 口水雞 meaning "mouthwatering chicken"), and a trio of marinated black fungus, marinated cucumber, and marinated beef tendon (they've changed it to marinated chicken feet for the current menu). On top of this, you get a choice of a drink and still have dessert - a bowl of clear jelly with osmanthus syrup to cool your mouth down after a fiery meal. Try their cucumber soy milk (+$6 to change your set menu drink) - it's a refreshing combination of the cool from the cucumber and the sweet from the soy milk.

Tasting Menu at Yu

Hot and Sour Potato Noodles

Mouthwatering Chicken

Dessert - Sichuan Pepper Panna Cotta (left) and Osmanthus Jelly (right)

Their signature dessert is the Sichuan Pepper Panna Cotta. The owner told me that a friend of hers helped develop the recipe (he's a dessert chef at the Four Seasons). They've turned your normal, creamy panna cotta up a notch by infusing the cream with Sichuan Pepper, which gives you that tongue-numbing sensation. You might not taste it at first, especially if you ate from the restaurant's spicy selection, but after a while you'll notice a numbness at the back of your throat. Some restaurants have tried to re-create this but no success.

For diners who can't take spicy food, no need to fret. They have a set menu of soy-sauce based marinated meat (choice of one between beef shank, tripe, chicken wings, goose wings, and pork spare-ribs) paired with a shredded chicken noodle soup ($54). The soup base of the noodles is a creamy white color, obtained only by simmering a stock of chicken and pork bones for 5+ hours.

Shredded Chicken Noodle in Soup + Sichuan Marinated Beef Tendon (not spicy)

Straying away from the sets, you can order your marinated veggies and meats a la carte. Here are some of the dishes I've ordered:

Sichuan Beef Noodle in Soup

Chilled Sliced Pork Belly with Cucumber in Garlic Sauce ($48)

Sichuan Spicy Bean Jelly Noodle (Cold Dish) ($32)

Spicy Marinated Cucumber ($30)

Sichuan Spicy Marinated Beef Shank and Tendon ($48)

All the spicy dishes uses the same Sichuan pepper oil (made a few times a week by the chef on site, none of that manufactured stuff from China), salt, sugar, sesame oil, pepper, garlic, and a myriad of other Sichuan spices, but the chef is able to make different kinds of spicy. Pretty neat, and one of the main reasons why the owner decided to hire him!

I haven't tasted everything on the menu, but so far I love what I've eaten. I have to say I think the non-spicy marinated meats are average compared to the other items, but worth a try and a decent option for people who don't like burning their mouths off.

Yu offers spiciness options, such as not spicy, very little spicy, all the way up to additional spicy (5 options). However, some dishes, such as the Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup Noodle, don't have options. The servers will let you know.

For those who can't make the trek out to Causeway Bay because your office is in Central, not to fret! Yu has a take-out store on Queens Road Central closer to the Sheung Wan side, but will do deliveries.

Yu 渝酸辣粉

4 Yiu Wah Street, Causeway Bay, 2838-8198

Central take-out address: 
Shop C1, Ground Floor, Siu Ying Commercial Building, 151-155 Queen's Road Central, 2544-8885 

Nibbles - Hooray Bar and Restaurant

A friend took me to lunch at Hooray Bar & Restaurant, on the 5th floor patio at World Trade Center, Causeway Bay. It was a nice day today, so we had lunch outside. It also has a nice view of the harbor, like most of the restaurants at WTC.


Hooray has a lunch set menu, and you can choose the number of courses. I went for Set Menu A, which was a choice of starter or pasta or main course, with dessert and coffee or tea for $108 + 10%. There were three choices for starters (soup, salad, choice from the salad bar), two choices for pasta, and four choices for main course (tuna tataki, roast of the day, BBQ spare ribs, sunny side up egg with vegetables and mushrooms). If you get a set with all the courses it's $198+10%.

Tuna Tataki, Avocado, Red Onion, Tomatoes and Ginger Soy Lime Vinaigrette

I was pleasantly surprised by the salad - the tuna is nicely seared, marinated in a teriyaki sauce, and the salad was light and fresh. Didn't spot any tomatoes in my salad though. The guacamole was a bit disappointing. I love guacamole, and this one wasn't good. They made it with a waxy variety of avocado, so the chunky bits of avocado were raw and firm.


Dessert was a selection from the buffet, but the buffet selection was limited in choices and not maintained well. The woman in front of me in the buffet line just kept picking the blueberries and raspberries out of the mixed fruit salad; so rude!


Finished off the meal with a nice cup of peppermint tea. The toothpicks they put down had a red 'H' on them, which reminded both me and my friend of Harlan's. I just googled it and turns out Hooray is part of the same group as Harlan's.


It was a nice place to chat and eat while the weather isn't too warm, and the set menu is decently priced. The service could have been managed better (they didn't operate the large patio space well, and broke a lot of dishes today). 

Worth a try, but if you're getting the set menu, I wouldn't get the BBQ spare ribs - saw them at another table and they looked like they were on the dry side.


Hooray Bar and Restaurant 
P502, World Trade Center, 280 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, 2895-0885
http://www.jcgroup.hk/restaurant.php?name=Hooray

Okinawa Dining Bridges

Okinawa Dining Bridges opened recently in the new Cubus building on Hoi Ping Road in Causeway Bay. Also part of the En Group, Bridges brings in Okinawan fine dining to Hong Kong (the other En restaurants are more on the casual side or are izakayas). They also have a small store specializing in Okinawan products just at the entrance of the restaurant - this is a collaboration with the Okinawan government and the Antenna Group in Okinawa.

Bridges has set lunches ranging from $150 - $280. Set lunches such as Goya Champuru (Stir-fried Pork and Bitter Gourd) and Okinawa Soba Noodles are at the $150 mark, whereas a sashimi rice bowl set lunch and a sashimi set lunch are priced at $260 and $280 respectively. The other sets feature tempura, pork cutlet, sushi, beef, grilled cod, etc, and are priced in between. They also have a Shokado Bento (Lunch Box set) at $280 (limited to 15 sets a day) and a Grilled Fish set for $180 (limited to 5 sets a day). I ordered the Shokado set. 

After a light salad with sesame dressing, they brought the lunch box out.

Clockwise from top left: Sea Grapes and Mozuku (a type of seaweed native to Okinawa) in Vinegar Sauce, Stewed Okinawa Aged Pork, Grilled Okinawa Motobu Wagyu Beef with Miso and Goya Champuru, Deep-fried Prawn and Shallots (Tempura).

Just a few more close-ups

If I had to pick a favorite amongst the four dishes, it would have to be the Motobu wagyu beef. It was so tender and delicious, and sweet with the miso. In reality, this is actually 5 dishes, since there's some champuru underneath the beef. I really liked the vinegared mozuku seaweed too - it's clean and refreshing, and the half scallop was fresh and sweet. The tempura was light and crunchy. Aside from the shrimp, there was also tempura yam, bitter gourd, squid, and shallots. The piece of tofu next to the pork was surprisingly good too! It had a clumpy texture, like rough tofu, and the soy bean taste was there (which you don't find in the mass produced stuff). The pork itself was okay.

Clockwise from top left: Steamed Egg, Sashimi, Clear Soup, Okinawa Rice (Takikomi Gohan, steamed rice with mushrooms, vegetables and meat), pickles in the middle

And a few more close-ups.

The sashimi was super fresh! There was a piece of salmon, a piece of octopus, and two pieces of snapper. It was great that instead of plain white rice they served the takikomi steamed rice. The egg was like silk in your mouth, with bits of chicken, mushroom, and a ginko on the bottom.

The set comes with tea/coffee and dessert. 

Today's dessert was a yuzu sorbet and a frozen orange jelly.

Even though this was described as a bento (or lunch box) on the menu, this was more like a tasting menu with samplings of Okinawan cuisine. I love how this one set lunch puts forward all the food highlights I had in Okinawa (the seaweed, the champuru, the pork and the beef). Presentation was beautiful and delicate, following the Japanese tradition.

If you plan to eat this whole bento, come hungry! Like a tasting menu, the fullness creeps up on you.

Okinawa Dining Bridges
6/F Cubus, 1 Hoi Ping Road, Causeway Bay, 3428-2131

Teppanyaki at Wa San Mai

I love teppanyaki - it's the display of fresh ingredients in its simplest form possible and a demonstration of honed culinary skill rolled into one dining experience.

Wa San Mai is great - the food is fresh, service is good, and it's in the heart of Causeway Bay. It offers both teppanyaki dining and Japanese 'Wa Shoku 和食' dining. Reservations for the teppanyaki dining are definitely recommended.

Teppanyaki is like a tasting menu in the sense that the portions may be small, but that the end you'll have your hands on your stomach wondering how all those small bites managed to fill you up. We had five people, but we ordered a dinner set for three people and an abalone and beef set for one person and it came out to be just right.

  
In the dinner set for three, there was an appetizer, Australian abalone, Hokkaido scallop or king prawn, boiled clams in sake, fois gras, seasonal vegetables, sliced beef and steak. It's $2080 for the US beef, $2500 for Australian Kobe beef, or $2980 for Japanese Saga A4 beef. In the abalone and beef set, there was an appetizer, South African abalone, cod, king prawn, beef (thin or steak) and vegetables (US Beef steak $510). All sets include a salad, fried rice, pickles, fried vegetables, miso soup, ice cream, and coffee or tea.



An appetizer of a fried dumpling and pomelo salad, as well as a house salad with sesame dressing.

The fois gras - quickly seared on the teppan and served on toast.

The Australian abalone - it was huge, still alive when it was put on the teppan, carved out of its shell and sliced. The chef seasoned it with salt, pepper, and made a sauce from butter, white wine and lemon juice.

 

The scallops, cod, and king prawn 

being prepared by the chef.

The boiled clams in sake - the chef takes out a 'bowl' made by pleated sturdy foil, pours some sake into it, and then lights it up once it comes to a boil to remove the harsh alcohol. He adds the clams and some aromatics like garlic and spring onion.

Steak - the chef will ask for your preference. It's served with some fried garlic slices, which turn out like chips. The other form of beef you can choose is the thin beef, where the chef will roll up some finely diced onion and carrot with a thin slice of beef.

The fried rice and vegetables - the rice has beef, egg, onion, carrot and spring onion in it.

Wa San Mai is a nice treat. Set lunches are a bit cheaper (about $250-$300 a set) if you want to try it out. With 5 people splitting 4 dinner sets, it came about to be about $500 per head.

Wa San Mai
22/F East Point Center, 555 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, 2831-8989