Margo (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

It’s so nice to see the local dining scene finally getting back on track with some highly anticipated new openings of late (Margo, Whey, Cultivate and next up, Radicalchic and Moxie).

With just 6 tables and around 20 seats, Margo easily becomes one of the toughest tables to book in Central and perhaps all of Hong Kong since its opening in July. Brought to us by Leading Nation who also champions culinary gems like Yakinikumafia, Wagyumafia and La Rambla as well as one of the city’s top coffee chains, Elephant Grounds, Margo is a small French brasserie serving up a cuisine reminiscent of the neo-bistro style of dining which has become very popular in France in the last decade.

 
Am I really reading this right? An expresso for just $30 in the heart of Central…..

  

I bet these would be perfect spots for solo diners!

 

It didn’t take long for me to spot Chef de cuisine Mario Paecke (former chef de cuisine at SOMM and former sous-chef at Amber) behind the kitchen.

 

Leading things off were a small cracker and onion baguette served with a homemade garden herb butter, made with parsley, dill and if I heard it right, chia.

 

Pan-seared Hokkaido scallops with cauliflower and Amalfi lemon jelly – My starter was beautifully plated Hokkaido scallops served with variations of cauliflower.

 

These scallops were pan-seared perfectly. Love the different textures of cauliflower but if I want to be picky, I thought the Amalfi lemon jelly could provide a bit more acidity for a more rounded finish.

 

Rainbow trout confit with potato salad, grilled leeks and pickled radish – The texture of the rainbow trout was pretty soft.

 

The pickled radish, grilled leeks, potato salad and cucumber marinated with wasabi added some lovely flavors and crunch to the fish.

 

Some oolong tea before dessert…

 
 
 
Margo Mille-Feuille – This tasted as if it’s freshly made.


 
The custard cream was really light and fluffy and the pastry super crisp. The lovely acidity from the diced mango really did a marvelous job cutting through the richness of the mille feuille. I have to admit, I am not a fan of mille feuille but this was nicely done and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm so glad I made it to Margo just before their kitchen closes this afternoon. It's definitely worth another look (perhaps with Jelloman and little nugget).

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: G06, 9 Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central

Tel: +852 2130-7731

Website: www.margohk.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 12:00am (Mon - Sat)

Red Bean Cafe Mong Kok 紅豆冰室 旺角 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I love visiting local tea restaurants and definitely can’t hold myself back when I see a new one.
So, when I saw this soft-opened cha chaan teng called Red Bean Café (紅豆冰室) in the heart of Mongkok, I knew I had to come in for a quick one.

 
A very clean and sleek design for a cha chaan teng. Not bad.

 
I went with their a la carte menu and looked at the plating of this. Not what I expected from a typical local tea restaurant.


 
Deep-fried sole with creamy sweet corn sauce and vegetables. I like the sole fillet with the crispy batter; but I thought the sauce could have been a bit more corny.

 
Look at these cute-looking bottled milk tea. Too bad I already had my caffeine fix today; otherwise, I would sure bring one home.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 2W & 2x Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Mongkok

Tel: +852 6221-1998

Opening Hours: 7:00am - 2:00am

Lady M Harbour City (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

The advantage of finishing dinner early (at Harbour City) was that it left us plenty of time for shopping not just for clothes but enough time to get ourselves some midnight snacks. Sweet ones too! 

Popcorn Mille Crêpes – I have been waiting for a long time to check this one out, the popcorn flavored mille crepes from Lady M. As usual, this features some 20 layers of paper-thin crepes layered with a buttery popcorn cream (what's popcorn cream anyways?). I had no idea what popcorn cream was but it sure tasted like having popcorn. And of cuz, the cake won't be complete without a couple of crispy and golden caramel popcorn on top. Apart from tasting like popcorn, I thought there were notes of caramel everywhere. Very addictive stuff.

Gâteau Nuage – This has creeped up slowly as one of my favorite cakes from Lady M. I thought it tasted a lot like a classic New York cheesecake. The cinnamon-kissed graham cracker crust, airy whipped cheesecake base, and I like the layer of sweetened sour cream on top of the cheese providing some great texture and contrasting flavor to the mix.

Food Rating: 6.5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Shop OT 215K, 2/F, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2873-2356
Website: www.ladymhk.com
Opening Hours: 11:00am - 7:00pm daily

Shiawase 幸匠燒 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Our eventful Sunday (Taekwondo class, Putonghua exam for little nugget etc.) just got a little more eventful this evening with an unexpected visit to Shiawase (幸匠燒) at Harbour City. Inspired by an authentic and traditional robatayaki restaurant, Shiawase offers a modern izakaya experience featuring some of the finest ingredients imported directly from Japan.

Not having our regular visits to Japan during the pandemic really makes us appreciate these dining experience even more. But first thing first, I am obviously very curious of what type of grill they are using behind the scene (charcoal grill vs electric).

Shiawase boasts an unobstructed harbour view from the window seats. It's not a panoramic view but.

I really like these curtains providing a great deal of privacy yet not blocking our view of the harbour.

Some snacks to start off the meal and this is a very nice one to whet our appetite with.

Asparagus – Not bad.

Silken tofu – Not really pillowy enough. The bonito flakes did help the flavors a bit.

Chicken wing – Very juicy and nicely charred. Love the fact that they didn't over-sprinkle the wings with salt like most yakitori restaurants usually do.

Fukuoka pork roll with strawberry – Interestingly, they offer a list of Fukuoka pork rolls on the menu including this one with strawberries, presumably from Fukuoka Prefecture (There are options with other types of fruits). Never had these before, I don't think.

The fresh strawberry wrapped with slice of paper-thin pork was slightly charred and served with a condensed milk dip. I thought interesting was the right word to describe this dish but the combination of flavors and textures wasn't as appealing as I first hoped.

Tsukune – Not the most "meaty" tsukune I had in my life but it worked pretty well with the homemade sweet soy.

Portobello – Pretty decent and the dried chili strings made it a bit more exciting thanks to the extra kick.

Japanese oyster – The best dish so far by a country mile. The oyster was still pretty raw inside with a nice burst of briny flavors. Very fresh and delicious.

Diced wagyu – Right after the best dish of the afternoon, here comes the worst dish. Not that it was really bad but I didn't expect Japanese wagyu to be this rubbery. Could definitely do without it.

Chicken thigh – Like the firm texture and it got even better with the crispy skin.

Mini sweet potato – Crispy on the outside with a soft centre inside (I'd assume that they were from Fukuoka too.). The oyster, wings, thigh and this one (in no particular order) I won't mind having an extra one at all.

Okra – Quite decent.

Udon soup – This arrived when we were almost done. Little nugget had waited long enough so he wasn't particularly thrilled. Personally, I thought the broth was a bit too salty for my liking.

Sea urchin tempura – Didn't expect this to come with an assortment of vegetable tempura. The sea urchin tempura was pretty nice, though I won't mind a bit more uni there inside those shiso leaves!

Japanese fig tempura – The figs were absolutely huge, combining well with the thin batter. What a bargain at $48! 

This was a much better experience than what we had encountered at its sister restaurant, Shiawase Yakitori (幸福鳥) at K11 Art Mall a few years ago. Food-wise, it was still an up and down affair for the majority of the night (thankfully more up than down), but both service and vibe more than made up for it. 

We ended up finishing dinner a little early and had just enough daylight to enjoy the view from the observation deck (only through the windows as the deck was temporarily closed).

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Shop OTE 402, 4/F, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, 3-27 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 3611-3014

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm (Mon - Fri), 11:30am - 3:30pm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm (Sat - Sun)

HeSheEat Café Mongkok (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Mongkok has always been an area I have great familiarity with, having grown up here since day one. I never got to go back and visit much since little nugget was borned but it was always nice to go down memory lane once in a while.

With some precious me-time to spend this afternoon, I decided to go back to my old neighborhood and check out a number of places. And of cuz, a short afternoon tea session by myself.



I miss this branch of HeSheEat so let's do a quick one, shall we?

Vanilla panna cotta with fresh strawberries, fresh sorbet and strawberry jelly.

Little nugget would love this since he's a strawberry and vanilla dessert freak! Too bad his dad isn't one...

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 4, G/F, Ngai Hing Mansion, 22 Pak Po Street Mong Kok, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Mong Kok
Tel: +852 5517-3056

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 1:00am (Wed - Sat), 12:00pm - 12:00am (Sun - Tue)

Belon Soho (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

After temporarily closing for more than six months, the highly anticipated re-opening of Belon finally took place in Q1 this year. Not only has the neo-Parisian bistro re-opened in a brand new Soho location, it has also revamped into more of a fine-dining French restaurant. 

Taking over from former chef Daniel Calvert (who recently opened his own restaurant Sezanne in Tokyo) is new head chef Matthew Kirkley, a Baltimore native who has worked at some of the world's most renowned restaurants, including Le Gavroche (London), Le Meurice (Paris), L20 (Chicago) and Coi (San Francisco).

It is definitely one of the most sought-after dining experience in town right now. We have waited more than two months for this and honestly, I couldn't wait to get started.

Aged comté cheese Gruyère – I remembered having this when Chef Calvert was at the helm. The cheese puff was again very very tasty, with runny comté cheese Gruyère oozing from the centre. I won't mind having another one of these if my server elects to offer me one.  

Sourdough bread with salted butter – It wasn't bad but we were caught at a bad time when this was served up. At the time, we were busy dealing with our trout roe tartlet and stroopwafel.

Trout roe tartlet – Very nice again. The buttery tartlet was very crisp working well with the explosive trout roes.

Carrot stroopwafel with dill pistou – The carrot-blended wafer shell sandwiched with dill pistou was aromatic and full of flavors thanks to the garlic, parmesan, butter and dill. Jelloman didn't like it but I love its clean and refreshing flavors.

Shima aji nicoise – We went with the 5-course omakase menu and the first course was shima aji, or Japanese striped horse mackerel served on a bed of baby gems, tomatoes, potatoes and soft-boiled egg. A pretty refreshing start. 

Salade Gourmande – Next up was our second starter, a beautifully designed terrine dish featuring an impressive layering of ox tongue and foie gras combined with a mix of salad leaves and herbs. It was finished off with some lovely acidity from a light truffle vinaigrette dressing. I thought our server described it the best, some sort of "unhealthy" salad!

Crêpes Soufflée – Our final starter was spinach crepe sandwiched with turbot mousse in the middle. It was served with a creamy caviar-laced beurre blanc.

This was probably my favorite starter out of the three. The mousse-like, bouncy texture of turbot was an interesting (thanks to the eggs, heavy cream and butter) match with the light and airy crepe while the caviar-laced beurre blanc provided a powerful finish.

Lobster with artichoke – I was hoping to have the chef's signature pigeon pithivier as our main dish but this seasonal lobster dish was more than just a consolation prize.

The juicy Maine lobster was paired with a gentle sauce made with lobster head and coral. I like the supporting cast too, with poached artichokes and artichoke flavored pasta tubes. 

Stuffed inside the pasta tubes was something like a lobster mousse of some sort.

Ile Flottante with almond and caramel – Our first dessert was another house specialty. In fact, we have seen it featured in different online magazines and social media reports. It was undoubtedly a visually stunning dessert featuring a pillow soft and super fluffy Swiss meringue with a molten caramel centre and beautifully decorated with different colors of almond tuile flowers, floating on top of a brandy-infused crème anglaise. It was delicate, light and well-balanced.

Easily the best dessert we had this year (Little nugget seems to agree LOL!).

Chocolate hazelnut cake - I was offered something much richer, a layered chocolate cake with milk chocolate, dark chocolate and hazelnut praline. Love the bitter notes from the occasional orange zest to cut through the richness of the chocolate and hazelnut praline. 

A small petite four of almond cake to finish us off on a sweet note.

Well, not so fast. A finish sweet treat in the form of a choux cream pastry. This came with refreshing mint custard cream in the middle. Frankly speaking, I was stuffed at this point.

This was certainly worth the months-long wait. As a fan of both classic and modern French cuisine, I am far more impressed with the work Chef Kirkley has done with the menu. Comparing to the Parisian bistro food by his predecessor, Belon's new menu shows off more finesse and creativity with delightful and photogenic plating (and less heavy on seasoning!). Service was good but not great, which was perhaps the only blemish of an otherwise perfect evening.

Food Rating: 8/10

Price: $$$$

Address: 1/F, 1-5 Elgin Street, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central

Tel: +852 2152-2872

Website: https://belonsoho.com

S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 25th (2021)

S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants: 88th (2021)

Opening Hours: 6:00pm - 12:00am (Wed - Sun)