I must say, I like this Tsim Sha Tsui branch much more than the Causeway Bay one. It's much more airy and lively contrary to the dark and uninviting interior in Causeway Bay.
Again they've got graffiti walls everywhere although with a slightly different theme. No more
dragon and "pearl on the island", thank goodness.
The best part about coming here for the second time was that I didn't have to go through the food menu again. Even before I arrived, I knew exactly what I would be getting - and that's all the dishes I didn't order last time around!
Italian spiced chicken wings ($75), 4/10
Free-range wings with a smoked and spicy tomato sauce. I'm a sucker for chicken wings. Just gimme a dozen of them any day. But this was just decent and I thought the seasoning was a little too heavy.
Portobello mushroom fritti ($68), 6/10
Crispy breadcrumbed portobello mushrooms served with a garlicky mayo. I love portobello mushrooms too and this was very good. Lovely bite with the crispy breadcrumbs and the portobello mushrooms were soft and spongy as always. It was nicely complemented by a homemade garlic mayo.
Chicken Caesar salad ($148), 5/10
A nicely presented chicken Caesar with crisp romaine lettuce, roasted chicken breast and crunchy croutons in a creamy lemon dressing. Not bad.
Porcini Fettuccine ($158), 5/10
I was really looking forward to the two pastas, both of which were not on our radar screen last August.
First up was the porcini fettuccine. I thought the texture of the fettucine was nice but the flavors were slightly too complicated with mascarpone, garlic, white wine, lemon gremolata, parmesan and herbs all having a hand in it. That's a lot of stuff in there!
Fresh Crab Spaghettini ($155), 5/10
Our server warned us about the crab spaghettini when she was taking our order. She said it would taste substantially "salty" coz the chefs would be cooking the pasta along with the fresh sea water from the fresh crab meat.
Indeed it was salty and heavy flavored. Of course, the capers, chilli, fennel, parsley, anchovies and lemon all had a little something to do with it.
Fiorentina pizza ($158), 5/10
As our server explained, this is one of the 6 Jamie's Italian in the world with a pizza oven and not even the Causeway Bay branch has pizza on this menu. That being said, it would be unwise not to try one of their 4 pizzas.
The "Hong Kong Hot" pizza with tomato, cheddar cheese, fennel, salami, spicy meatballs, chillies and buffalo mozzarella was the natural choice but with everybody claiming to be on diet, we opted for a vegetarian pizza instead. Lemony ricotta, buffalo mozzarella, free-range egg, spinach, broccoli and anchovies rounded out the toppings of this reasonably good pizza.
Chocolate, pear and honeycomb pavlova ($68), 5.5/10
Despite our disastrous experience last time, I thought dessert was much better this time around. Of course we did well to dance around some of their offerings including tiramisu.
For those of us in need of something refreshing, we found our comfort zone with this chocolate, pear and honeycomb pavlova which has the wonderful combination of light meringue, poached pear, whipped mascarpone, honeycomb and a drizzle of dark chocolate.
Lemon meringue cheesecake ($68), 5/10
Others wanted something a little more heavy and went with the mascarpone and lemon cheesecake topped with Italian meringue, lemon curd and mixed berry compote. Again not bad. The layers of lemon and meringue worked fairly well together and neither one was too dominant for the other.
Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 412, Level 4, Ocean Centre, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 3758-3333
Website: www.jamieoliver.com/italian/hongkong
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