Triple O's by White Spot Wanchai (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

When I first got the memo that we're going on pedal boats on a super hot and humid day like today, my facial expression was exactly the same as little nugget's from this photo. But beggars cannot be choosers and we all knew we had a job to do so it's time to tough it out.

I have never heard of this place near the Wanchai harbour front called Water Sports and Recreation Precinct (水上運動及康樂主題區) until today, when I learned that it's our battlefield this afternoon.

Little one and I getting ourselves cooled off before the pedaling starts...

We got a cookie and cream milkshake from Triple O's for him so at least he got something frosty to cool himself off during our ride...

I've tried my best to hang in there but under this nasty heat, only the mentally tough ones remain... 

At one point, Triple O's had nearly a dozen locations around the city but just two remained including the one we visited in Wanchai this afternoon. This is really a sad reality of Hong Kong's dining scene. Not many restaurant chains can stand the test of time.

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 121, 1/F, Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Wanchai

Tel: +852 2519-3000

Opening Hours: 8:00am - 8:45pm (Mon - Fri), 11:00am - 7:45pm (Sat - Sun)

Tenkichiya 天吉屋 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I have another busy Saturday to grind out today. After waiting an hour for little nugget to finish his singing lesson, we walked over to Langham Place and there was more waiting ahead, this time in front of Tenkichiya (天吉屋), a small Japanese restaurant known for their tendon (tempura rice bowl). Yeah, I promised little one some Japanese tempura for lunch this morning.

Reading from the menu, it looks like Tenkichiya is yet another Japanese import. Boy, we all miss traveling to Japan badly. 

Now, this was odd. Prior to having our tempura rice bowls, we were offered some coleslaw to start the meal. I thought coleslaw was traditionally served before tonkatsu (breaded deep-fried pork cutlets) but Japanese tendon too!?

Tenkichiya Don – Their namesake tendon.

The tiger prawn tempura (2 pieces) was obviously the star here. The rest? Pretty much a mixed bag.

Cuttlefish "steak" tempura: Looked like a piece of tofu at first glance. Very very bland.

Soft-boiled egg tempura: Just OK.

Eggplant: My personal favorite here. Very juicy. Reminds me of the eggplant we had in Fukuoka. 

Pumpkin: Not bad.

Green beans: A close second behind the eggplant. Very lovely bite. 

Groupa: Didn't try.

All-Star Don – I thought this would come with an "all-star" lineup (I know bad joke) but it's more or less the same ingredients except for the addition of soft-shell crab.

Another item that wasn't available with the Tenkichiya Don was the deep-fried onion ring. I imagine it would be a great addition for onion lover but certainly not for yours truly who's not very high on anything with onions.

This guy seems to like it but I guess he loves anything with a thin batter on it.

Every time we have Japanese tendon, we can't stop thinking about our time at Tendon Makino back in Kyoto.

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 25-29, 11/F, Langham Place Shopping Mall, 8 Argyle Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Mong Kok

Tel: +852 3105-0986

Opening Hours: 12:30pm - 10:00pm daily

Semua Semua So Bar 蘇媽.蘇媽 So Bar (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

After spending the entire day in different parts of the city (ie. Tsim Sha Tsui, Sai Ying Pun and Sheung Wan), I'm finally back at where I got started - Tsim Sha Tsui. It was another hot and humid day out there so a cold drink would be exactly what the doctor ordered. 

Out of the many options in the area, I decided to go back to Semua Semua (蘇媽.蘇媽) x So Bar for my butter kaya toast.

But first, an ice cold and thirst quenching teh tarik to start things off. I didn't know what exactly happened to the pulled tea here but the tea flavors were so light today. It's almost like drinking condensed milk with water! 

Unlike the pulled tea, the butter kaya toast was up to par this afternoon. The crispy toast combined well with the pandan flavored kaya jam and frozen butter.

This is exactly the reason why I always prefer going to Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus (捌哥.捌哥特色馬拉茶啡廳) rather than here. It's the consistency and little things do matter.

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F 10 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2362-8020

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm daily

Bâtard (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

One itch I've been wanting to scratch is Bâtard, which happens to be one of the hardest tables to book in recent memory. I was fortunate enough to have secured a table twice but both times, I had to do a last-minute cancellation due to various illness. I am hoping the third time will be a charm today.

I didn't realize that Bâtard is located inside The Fine Wine Experience, a retail shop that offers one of the largest selection of fine wines in the city. I had to walk back and forth a few times before finally locating the entrance of the restaurant.

This was what I was talking about, their wide variety of fine wines from different regions. Of course, I wasn't here for the wine. I'm here for the modern French dishes that had every foodie in town talking.

Born and raised in Singapore, young head chef Aven Lau brings an impressive resume to the helm, having worked under Julien Royer at Odette in Singapore before coming to Hong Kong to work alongside chef Daniel Calvert at Belon and chef Edward Voon at Le Pan.

Beef tartare Cannelloni – The crispy cannelloni was stuffed with beef tartare seasoned with olive oil and finished off nicely with fresh chives and what I thought was feta cheese. A pretty nice start to the meal.

A slice of homemade sourdough bread was served at this point while I waited for my starter to show up.

Mushroom chawanmushi – My second amuse bouche was mushroom flavored chawanmushi, or Japanese steamed egg custard with French button mushrooms. The texture of the steamed egg was somewhat softer than our typical chawanmushi. 

Raviolo, squid, crustacean sauce – I like the crustacean sauce made with sea urchin and olive oil. 

But less successful was the raviolo stuffed with squid mousse. There wasn't a whole lot of contrasting textures and flavors inside the raviolo. Very one-dimensional and not much surprise there. (Could have added some diced squid for the bite?).

Signature roast yellow chicken, warm pilaf rice – I was hoping that monkfish en croute would be today's main course but after reading from the menu posted on their website earlier, I knew that wasn't going to be the case.

The roast yellow chicken was indeed wonderfully prepared and not surprisingly, pretty tasty especially the crispy skin.

The rice pilaf cooked in chicken oil and flavored with ginger and lemongrass, was I thought a little heavy-handed with seasoning. But from what I've heard from my neighbours, everybody seemed to be enjoying it. I did agree that it's a pretty delicious dish but as a fan of French cuisine, I would rather have a French dish than a Chinese/Asian one coming out of a presumably French kitchen.

Before dessert, I was offered a small cup of mint tea to clean up my palate.

Fresh baked madeleines – Like most restaurants serving refined French comfort food, the sweet end would come courtesy of these freshly baked madeleines. 

After waiting for more than a year for this booking (with two cancellations in between), I was a little disappointed to be brutally honest. I got that Bâtard's French bistro food was supposed to be simple, unpretentious and delicious. Today's meal checked all those boxes but there was zero wow factor from any of my dishes today that would bring me back for more. One of Asia's best restaurants huh?

 

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Portion A of Shop E1 & E2, G/F, Viking Court, 165-166 Connaught Road West, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Sai Ying Pun

Tel: +852 2318-1802

Website: www.batardhk.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:00pm (Fri - Sun), 6:00pm - 10:30pm (Mon - Sun)

S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 82nd (2022)

NINETYs Star House (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I was hoping this day would never come; at least not when I am still living in Hong Kong. Last month, my food buddy Agent-I announced that she would be leaving us and the city we loved dearly soon. I still remembered our first lunch together when she started her first-ever job in Hong Kong. That was almost 20 years ago and coincidentally, I was also working my first job in Hong Kong. You never forget about your first job.

And over the next two decades, Agent-I and I teamed up a lot on exploring new restaurants in town. She's also my mahjong leg for the longest time. I always tell her it's difficult to find someone crazy enough to fork out a couple thousand bucks to have a lousy meal together but we both have a soft spot for epic meals. In recent years, we had less time to hang out with the arrival of my little nugget; and of course, both of us were more tied up with work. She had stints working in Singapore and then SZ.

When she first broke the news that she's leaving town, I was in the middle of a busy schedule at work. It took me a while to digest the news and get back to her with a proposed date for a farewell. Like I said many times before, I always hate farewells and I hate it more than ever.

It turns out that she's leaving this Sunday and we almost ran out of time to do a catch-up before her departure. Instead of having another epic meal, we decided to do a quick catch-up, this time over breakfast. She wanted to enjoy a cup of coffee with the harbour view in the background one last time so we agreed to meet up at NINETYs which is located on the second floor of Star House (星光行) inside the Eslite Book Store in Harbour City.

I tried to arrive early to get ourselves a table by the window.

The weather was again pretty dismal today. I guess it matches my mood seeing my good friend one last time before she leaves over the weekend.

Instead of coffee, I'm getting myself a cup of silky smooth milk chocolate. This was very light compared to the one served at places like Dalloyau and not surprisingly, much easier on the palate. I thought the drops of honey provided the perfect icing on the cake with some additional sweetness.

My friend had the avocado toast with smashed avocado, poached eggs, pomegranate and ricotta cheese.

After breakfast, we took the connecting passage to the mall together. I bid farewell to my good friend and food buddy one final time before she disappeared into the crowd. This is my third farewell gathering in May and by far, the least comfortable one. Seriously, I think it's time to find some new food buddies soon.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop L202 & 203, Eslite Book Store, 2/F, Star Annex, Star House, 3 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 3419-1090

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 9:30pm daily

Nan Ei Sui San 南瀛水產 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Last time J.E.R.K. met up for a dinner gathering was a fateful night back in December 2021. It's been almost six months now and we have been joking about having a gathering before the sixth wave hit us. It didn't take long before someone actually finalized a date and venue. It's always good news that I don't have to fix the venue cuz frankly speaking, I have done too much of that for the family already.

Our dinner venue was Nan Ei Sui San (南瀛水產), a Japanese izakaya that I have never had the pleasure of visiting in the past. It was surprisingly full on a Wednesday evening so I trust that it must be a pretty good restaurant.

Our good friend here has reserved a private room for us and that's important considering how loud Hanger Jack gets when we meet up. Especially when he's telling his dirty jokes.

Some snacks to start our dinner with, first some edamame that usually goes well with beer. But most of us didn't drink tonight.

The dried bonito strips were fairly decent but didn't do much to whet our appetite.

I like their tamagoyaki mainly because of the grated daikon radish on top. This came with some pretty rich flavors from the homemade dashi.

I have never said no to deep-fried oysters before but these ones were......well, not all that tasty.

The crab roes dish was supposed to be their signature dish and they actually prepared it tableside. Not bad.

At this point, most of us were still starving so we got ourselves some assorted sushi including this maki platter to share among the four of us.

It was another fun night for us joking about our past and future. Good news was that none of us would be skipping town any time soon so we could do this all over again, hopefully in a couple of months. 

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: 5/F, Tern Plaza, 3A-3C Cameron Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2368-8028

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 11:45pm daily

Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel Harbour City 當文歷餅店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Happy birthday to Dominque Ansel’s cronut! It turns 9 this month (not sure what’s the exact date though).

Yes, it was nine years ago that the world renowned baker from NYC took the world by storm with the hybrid of a flaky croissant and a pillowy doughnut. I was surprised that it didn’t exactly become a hit in Asia but its huge success worldwide did set off a domino effect that would later bring us inventions like cruffins, croffles just to name a few. Model and part-time owner-chef Amanda Strang also got into the act with her Ooonuts which I thought was pretty cool and innovative. 

Obviously, the crowd here was looking for the cronut. It was the expiry date of the Harbour City shopping coupons again!

Back to the cronuts for a moment here. So ever since Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel arrives in Hong Kong a few years ago, they have been doing special promotions in May to celebrate the “birthday” (or birth-month) of the cronut. Every year, they have a different theme with a mix of exciting flavors (sometimes local flavors). This year, it’s the Mango & Pomelo (芒果沙田柚) Cronut.

Mango & Pomelo Cronut ($48) – The presentation, I thought, was way off. A perfect cronut was supposed to be very fluffy and pillowy but this looks like it has deflated (collapsed)! Not looking good.

Luckily, there was nothing wrong with the texture and flavors. Despite the subpar presentation, it was perfectly chewy and the filling of mango whipped ganache and homemade pomelo jam was a pretty good match of sweetness and acidity that worked well together.

Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop OT G63A, G/F, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, 3-27 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2613-8618
Website: www.dangwenli.com
Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm daily

Check In Taipei 臺北棧 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I have been keeping a close eye on the soft opening date of modern Taiwanese bistro, Check In Taipei (臺北棧) at Harbour City for months. The progress has been relatively slow but I got some good news three weeks ago that they were finally ready for prime time!

The last time I visited Check In Taipei's flagship on Hollywood Road dated back to my birthday dinner with V in 2014. That seemed like a long long time ago.

I saw trouble the moment I arrived at Harbour City in front of the new restaurant. Huge lineup! The wait would last around an hour before we finally got ourselves a table. That's not much fun. As soon as we got seated, the first order of business would be to get something to quench our thirst.

Signature beef noodles (招牌牛肉麵) – We just had Taiwanese beef noodles at Tristar Kitchen (三星台菜食堂) last week so it would be a good measuring stick.

It turned out to be a one-horse race. Wasn't even close. The beef bone broth here was so umami rich and flavorful. In fact, once I got my first sip, I already had the urge to finish the entire bowl. The sliced noodles (刀削麵) were equally nice and perfectly chewy the way it's supposed to be, not surprisingly, working well with the beef, tofu and cordyceps (蟲草花).

Soft-shell crab mapo tofu noodles (軟殼蟹麻婆豆腐撈麵) – Soft-shell crab and mapo tofu weren't exactly as good a match as we first thought. 

Little nugget loves to eat spicy these days but he found the mapo tofu a little too spicy for his palate.

Salted egg taro ball (鹹蛋黃芋泥球) – Some snacks to go with our noodles and first up, the salted egg taro balls. These were beautifully decorated with taro dust and yellow taro cream on top.

There was a layer of delicate mashed taro underneath the crispy batter but what made this so damn good was the centre of salted egg and yellow taro custard. A crossover of savory and sweet flavors. Absolutely delish! Mom and little guy just couldn't stop eating them.

Sweet potato fries (話梅地瓜薯條) – The sweet potato fries wasn't the story here. The dip made with chili and flavored with salty plums was. Trust me, this was very addictive.

Taro-misu (芋泥提拉米蘇) – Look at the size of our taro flavored tiramisu! I have to admit, this wasn't our first choice for dessert. Their signature pineapple puff egg tart (鳳梨酥蛋撻) was but they were unfortunately all sold out.

I had a couple of wracks at it and it was really nice. The multi-layered dessert came with the usual ingredients one would expect from a proper tiramisu including mascarpone cream, marsala and ladyfingers but the chefs have substituted the cocoa powder with taro powder (thus the purple color) and there was a layer of creamy taro purée on top of the ladyfingers to give this an extra kick (of taro flavors). Impressive!

Mom and little one couldn't get enough of the taro balls so we decided to order another round of these to stop their crave.

These weren't as tasty as the ones from the first round (both the crust and mashed taro were a little on the hard side) but they served the purpose of stopping someone's craving.

I thought Check In Taipei's fusion dishes have taken a huge step forward since my last encounter in 2014 (too bad they don't have the drinks to back up the food menu). It was so good that we've already booked our second visit in a few weeks' time.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 2204-6, 2/F, Harbour City, Gateway Arcade, 5 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 3595-0995

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 9:00pm daily

Sawadee Chef (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

The LUBUDS group continues to add to their portfolio of restaurants this month with the opening of Sawadee Chef, a modern Thai restaurant with a unique Sichuan twist. That Sichuan twist came courtesy of chef Ronald Shao, a Sichuan native currently helming the kitchen of fine-dining Chinese restaurant MIÁN at The Murray which we had the pleasure of visiting a few months ago. With his latest venture, Chef Shao has incorporated elements of Sichuan cuisine into the Thai food menu bringing the two cuisines together in harmony.

I've had my moments with service provided by the LUBUD team in the past (with different restaurants) and it happened again here at Sawadee Chef. I just think they should seriously engage a training consultant to have their service team work on their manners on how to greet customers. It makes a world of difference! 

Thai iced milk tea (泰式凍奶茶) ($48) – My favorite drink on earth to start the meal with, Thai iced milk tea. This was as good as it gets when it comes to Thai iced milk tea. Very rich tea flavors with tons of condensed milk. Excellent start.

Deep-fried prawn cake (泰式炸蝦餅) ($88) – This came with its usual companion of plum sauce. Pretty decent but one we could probably do without this afternoon.

Hainanese chicken (海南雞) ($188) – I was curious of what the portion would be like. Considering the heavy price tag, I was hoping it won't be a miniature sized one like what we had at Sing La, but from my experience with LUBUD restaurants, they were known for small portions.

Chef Shao uses yellow-hair chicken for his Hainanese chicken and it was indeed soft and juicy. And to my pleasant surprise, the portion was pretty generous.

There were three homemade sauces served with the chicken – a traditional black dark soy-based sauce, a Singaporean-style red chili sauce and a Thai green chili sauce, all served on a boat-shaped soy plate. I thought that was pretty thoughtful.

Bangkok Pork Knuckle rice (曼谷豬手飯) ($138) – The Thai-style pork knuckle came with a Cantonese twist thanks to the bed of preserved vegetables underneath.

I thought the sauce would be full of heat but to my surprise, there wasn't a bit of spiciness there.

Sawadee noodle in soup (Sawadee 湯河) ($128) – Little nugget had the noodle soup with sliced ribs, beef balls and bean sprouts. I have asked our server not to put chili in it so not surprisingly, it was a little bland plain.

The overall damage was a bit on the high side for a Thai-style lunch but we were just grateful to have the opportunity to dine out together as a family. Let's hope the next wave (COVID-19) would never come like the experts warned.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Shop G21-G23, G25-G27, G/F, Olympian City 2, 18 Hoi Ting Road, Tai Kok Tsui, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2881-8803

Closest Metro Station: Olympic

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:30pm daily