Sunday, September 18, 2022

Fini's Italian American Elements (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

From what I've previously seen from Fini's Italian American, I was more than happy to see them expand to Elements Shopping Mall, a place my family and I visit quite regularly on the weekend.



I was really excited to introduce this place to Jelloman and little nugget but obviously, the restaurant is still in its soft-opening stage so pretty unorganized on the day of our visit. The service team looked a little out of sync. They said the upper level wasn't open cuz of shortage of staff and even the food menu took a dive with them limiting the variety of dishes being offered. 



Caesar Salad – The little gem lettuce was dusted with toasted garlic and dried shrimp breadcrumbs.


I thought the dressing was a real letdown. Way too strong for a dish that was supposed to be healthy and clean. Not good.


Fini's popcorn shrimp – Nobody could say no to popcorn shrimp; at least I couldn't but too bad the Sichuan mala "dip" played the role of culprit here. When they said dip on the menu, I immediately thought it was served on the side but well, not really. So, little guy had one less dish to eat.

And if I want to be picky, I thought the Sichuan mala dip wasn't really mala flavored. It has the flavors of the sauce from Kung Pao chicken (宮保雞丁) but without the sweetness. So, not exactly mala to me.


Penne alla Vodka – This was very good. The penne was perfectly al dente and every piece was completely drizzled with the creamy tomato sauce. I could probably live without the chili oil.


Truffled shrimp and lobster tagliatelle – The tricky part of this dish here was its name. It said lobster but it was referring to the sauce only.

The ribbon pasta was slightly overcooked so it came very tender but without the al dente texture. The creamy buttered shrimp and lobster sauce was a little strong with black truffle and the flavors of lobster really didn't register. Not even in the color.



But that didn't stop this guy from wolfing down his pasta. 


It was a bit of a disaster. The servers didn't seem to think they were ready for the soft-opening and that was evident in their facial expression. From a customer's view, we didn't get the feeling that we were welcome here at all. 





Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: R001, 3/F & Roof, Civic Square, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon Station
Tel: +852 2736-4887
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:00pm daily



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