Shelter Italian Bar & Restaurant (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Our Plan A today was to have lunch at Tsuta Ramen, the Michelin starred ramen shop from Tokyo which has just been opened for 3 days but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. So we retreated to Hysan Place after checking out the crowd in front of Tsuta and at this point in time, we were less picky about where to have our late lunch. We simply wanted to get it over with. It was my call all the way and I went with Shelter Italian Bar and Restaurant which I haven't had the pleasure of visiting for almost 2 years already.



You know what my circle of friends used to say about Shelter - you have to pick the day to go visit them because the space is not air conditioned (since it's located in the terrace of the shopping mall). So if it's a super hot day or rainy day, that's a no go.



We were a little fortunate to find ourselves arriving a little early. Obviously, there's an event happening here in late afternoon so the staff has already cleared up the space for the event. Even the kitchen staff was taking an early break from work so the folks who arrived after 1:30PM (just a few minutes after us) found themselves outside looking in.



So while we were still feeling pretty good about ourselves that we got in just in the nick of time, our starter was already comfortably waiting on deck. I was feeling a little health-conscious this afternoon so I got myself a small Classic Caesar salad. The romaine lettuce was nice and crisp without too much salad dressing on it. Pretty nice.



I haven't had a nice piece of steak for a while so I went with their char-grilled USDA ribeye steak ($238) as my main course. The steak was nicely charred with a flavorful crust and the smoky meat was working pretty well with the red wine sauce too.



I was hoping for some tiramisu or panna cotta for dessert but they threw us a curveball offering us a small bowl of mango pudding. What was a mango pudding doing in an Italian restaurant anyways!?



It looks like their (now former?) executive chef Simonetta Garelli is no longer with the Shelter group. News had her working somewhere in Europe as a consultant now. But whether that's true or not, it didn't have an (adverse) effect on our lunch this afternoon. Everything I ordered was pretty delicious today.

Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: $$$
Address: 718-719 (Open Terrace), 7/F Hysan Place, 500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Causeway Bay
Tel: +852 2778-8398
Website: www.shelterhk.com