Le Pain Quotidien (Madrid, SPAIN) ☆☆☆☆☆

It has been an absolutely brutal day at the office but things were finally looking up when we arrived in Madrid, the last stop of our trip. We split up into two teams in El Retiro. Jelloman will try to do her final round of shopping while I bring mom and little nugget for some afternoon snacks.



Little nugget didn't have much to eat when we were in Toledo so I had to find him a place where he could have a quick bite. After turning down a couple of places, he ended up choosing Le Pain Quotidien on Calle de Serrano because he's familiar with their menu (I am guessing that's the reason).



Then things began to unfold. The rustic cafe was pretty full and just when we finally managed to find ourselves a table, we were thrown out of that area as the staff claimed it was "reserved". We moved to another table close to the toilet and were unable to find anyone who would serve us so I had to come all the way to the front and order from the take-away counter.

After waiting for another 10 minutes (server went away to replenish a few things after serving the guy in front of me), it was finally my turn. But as soon as I told her I was dining in, she gave me this silly grin and asked me to leave the line cuz she's responsible for take-aways only. I explained to her that I have been trying to get a server to take my order but no cigar, and my little one was starving but she insisted that she could only help if I order take-away. And so I did! I told her let's pack everything I order up and I'll just eat them here in their take-away boxes, if that's what she insisted. She obviously lost that argument and reluctantly took my order at the very end.

All the exchange has left a bad taste in my mouth. Coming from the other side of the world where customers are always right (especially one with a child), this wasn't acceptable at all. The biggest problem was the fact that right from the start, even before I told her I wasn't ordering take-away, she gave me the feeling that she wasn't happy to serve me. Was it because of the color of my skin, I would never find out (I would think it has something to do with it). It's been a while since I had a discriminatory treatment in Europe (last one was in Munich many years ago) but this was way different cuz I couldn't walk away like I did last time. Because I had a child who was freezing and at the same time, in desperate need of food.



So, I got this for little guy. Scrambled eggs, bacon, a small salad and sourdough toast. Surprisingly, it didn't arrive in a take-away box. I wonder why.



I got myself a small carrot cake. But I could feel this going down my spine (食咗背脊骨落)!



Some caffeine for Jelloman while I started my rant about what just happened.

These days, I found it more and more difficult to travel overseas with little ones unless you're in kids-friendly countries like Japan. Of course, it gets worse when you run into servers who are racists or places with discriminatory treatment. That's the worst experience one can ever get if you're a traveler.

Price: €€€
Address: Calle de Serrano 27, 28001 Madrid, Spain
Tel: +34 914-354358
Website: www.lepainquotidien.es
Opening Hours: 8:00am - 10:00pm (Mon - Fri), 9:00am - 10:00pm (Sat - Sun)

Taverna San Lio (Venice, ITALY) ☆☆☆☆☆

My apologies for the poor quality of tonight's photos. It's been a very long day (driving over from Verona with a couple of stopovers, dragging all the luggage to the hotel etc.) and we were stuck here having crappy food. The restaurant name is Taverna San Lio and my word of advice is very simple. Don't ever come in here.



As a matter of fact, we could have slept early tonight but since we haven't really eaten for about 7 hours, it justified having a very quick dinner. We ended up coming in by accident.



Spaghetti with squid and black ink (12 euro) - The color of the pasta suggested squid-ink but it didn't taste like squid ink at all. It was very salty and that's all I could taste from this dish.



Spaghetti carbonara (12 euro) - I have always said this to my friends - If you can't cook a carbonara right, then you shouldn't be a professional cook. Plain and simple. Again, this was way too salty and the pasta was a tad overcooked.



Large tagliatelle with curry and prawns (13 euro) - Just by looking at the presentation, I knew something was wrong. Terribly wrong. Strips of pappardelle were all sticking together and there were like two pieces of shrimp in there (Yes, I counted!). Very depressing.



This reminded me of all those awful meals we had on our tours to Turkey and Egypt. But on the bright side, things could only get better tomorrow coz honestly, this is rock bottom.





Food Rating: 1/10
Price: €€€
Address: Salizzada San Lio, 5547/46, 30122 Castello Venice, Italy
Tel: +39 041 277-0669

El Born (Hong Kong, CHINA) ☆☆☆☆☆

Numero 15,  the casual sister of Mesa 15 was once among my favorite Spanish eateries in the city so I was a little disappointed to see it folded when I swung by Hollywood Road a few weeks ago. But if there's any consolation, I was reading about the guys behind Mesa 15 launching a replacement for Numero 15 in Causeway Bay.

Located inside Festival Walk on Paterson Street, El Born is a casual tapas bar and restaurant with a modern vibe and we were keen to come and check this place out.



The interior of this new joint looks more or less the same as Numero 15 but has added a little more "industrial chic" to the mix.



But unlike the décor, the menu was nothing similar to Numero 15's although I could still find the usual suspects of paella, suckling pig and mini-burgers (but no ox tongue etc.).



I tried calling this place up one night in advance to secure a table but was distinctly told by the lady that they have a no-reservation policy here (only walk-ins). So when I stepped in here at 6pm, I was surprised to see all these empty tables with "Reserved" signs on them. Perhaps these reservations are for close friends, business partners etc. which are not open to the general public? I guess I would never find out.



After going thru the menu a number of times, we still had a little trouble deciding what to order so we had our server over to get his 2 cents' advice. I first asked about the crab meat spring roll to see if it's Asian style. Fair enough question I thought. But obviously he knew very little about his own menu (or perhaps he's not keen to serve us) so he decided to dodge my question. "Well, it's a very good one. Very tasty." he said.

Well, that didn't answer my question, did it? So I asked the very same question again. He kinda danced around the question again so instead of further testing my patience, I decided I would just order something else.

Deep fried calamari, aioli ($55)
The batter was very bland and so was the calamari itself. A touch of salt or spice would have done this dish some justice. Not a very good start.



Iberico ham croquette ($55)
I had this dish on a number of occasions in Numero 15 and it used to be one of my preferred starter there. This one was definitely not as good as Numero 15's but it's OK.



5-spice crispy wings ($55)
It's perhaps my own fault of ordering 3 deep fried snacks. Of course, if I were visiting a good restaurant with an attentive server, perhaps just perhaps he or she might remind me of such mistake but it wasn't the case here.

Anyways, the batter here was very thick making the texture a little dissatifying. Out of the 5 spices whatever they were, I could only taste spicy and nothing else. This dish just didn't work for me at all. 

 

Prawns and Iberico pancetta linguini ($155)
This was the dish that prompted me to stop eating and went straight for the bill. 

The taste was way too heavy and there was a very strong flavor of garlic but nothing more. On top of that, where was the Iberico pancetta? So we called the same male server who had taken our order over and asked him about the missing pancetta. I was polite in engaging him in the conversation but what I got was three words "Already in there!" (落左啦!). The tone was arrogant, despised and impatient (He just doesn't fucxxng care! Just don't bother him.). If he were working for Australia Dairy Company or a local cha chaan teng (traditional tea restaurant), that would have pretty much worked but the last time I checked, this is supposed to be a decent restaurant. 

Of course if it was some 5 years ago, I would've asked to speak with his manager but as I've gotten older and wiser, I knew I would never ever visit this restaurant in my life again so I shared his same attitude (who cares!). Let's get the bill and get the heck out of here.

But getting back to my earlier question - could it be the fault of the kitchen missing out on a particular ingredient? Well, I guess I would never find out.



I felt sorry for our male server. Obviously he was in the wrong business and he should seriously reconsider his career in the hospitality industry because this kinda of attitude and EQ would get himself nowhere.

I've often said here that I was blessed to be living in Hong Kong where good food is never in short supply but this for one, was an outlier. And we all know about the imminent fate of restaurants with the combination of poor food (according to my taste buds) and horrible service. 


Food Rating: 2/10
Price: $$$
Address: Flat 1E Vienna Mansion, 58-64 Paterson Street, Fashion Walk, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Causeway Bay
Tel: +852 2341-0380

Barlow Bar & Restaurant (Den Haag, THE NETHERLANDS) ☆☆☆☆☆

Despite the cold, damp, and windy weather at night, we decided to take a walk around Den Haag’s city centre after arriving late from Ghent. We managed to tick off a few more spots from our bucket list.

The Binnenhof in The Hague is the political heart of the Netherlands and the oldest parliament building complex in the world still in use (Credit: Wikipedia).

King Willem II Equestrian Statue

The Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights)

Our next mission was to grab a quick (and very late) supper. Barlow — a bar and restaurant just steps from the attractions we’d seen, seemed like the perfect place to have dinner. Instead, it turned into a bit of a nightmare.

After being shown to a table in the farthest corner of the dining area, we were effectively stuck “no man’s land”. We kept waving our hands to get someone’s attention, but after more than half an hour, not a single server came over to take our orders. I’m sure at least a few of them saw us waving so that was hard to swallow.

And it was Saturday, which meant that at this late hour, it didn’t seem like any other restaurants nearby were open. So we just kept trying and trying...

I didn't know whether we were still furious or what, but it has obviously affected our mood to eat so consequentally, we found the dishes to be underwhelming to say the least.

Pumpkin soup

Tuna salad — The tuna just looked awful.

Fettuccini with chicken and tomato

Prawns

This meal certainly didn’t go down as one of the highlights of our trip. I’ll leave it at that.

Price: $$$

Address: Plein 15-16, 2511 CR Den Haag, Netherlands

Tel: +31 70 392-3655

Website: http://www.barlowdenhaag.nl/

Café Rottenhofer (Munich, GERMANY) ☆☆☆☆☆

Following our ill fated dinner at Restaurant Red late last night, we thought our luck probably won't get any worse but this was really testing our limits now.



We walked past Café Rottenhofer and couldn't help to notice that attractive tea salon vibe so we decided to go in. But after we sat down for nearly 15-20 minutes, nobody came up to serve us regardless of how hard we tried to get the servers' attention. There were quite a number of times when we did make eye contacts with the waiters and waitresses but still they chose not to come up and serve us. That was horrendous!




But just when we were about to storm out, someone dressed like a senior staff finally came to take our orders although her voice was far from apologetic. So after a coffee and tiramisu, we put down the exact change on the table, not a penny more, and left.



I've always enjoyed visiting Munich as it is such a lovely city with a great deal of history. It's a shame that places like these were putting a dent on our travel experience.

Food Rating: 3.5/10
Price: €€€

Address: Residenzstrasse 25-26, 80333 Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Tel: +49 (0)89 222915

Restaurant Red (Munich, GERMANY) ☆☆☆☆☆

By the time we arrived at Munich from Zurich, it was already 7pm. After checking into the Eurostars Grand Central Hotel, we realized that it was getting a bit late to go into the city centre for dinner. Perhaps it would be better to simply grab a quick bite nearby.

Walking by the hotel lobby, we saw this hotel restaurant by the name of Restaurant Red. Nice contemporary design and cozy atmosphere, decision was made.



After being seated at a quiet corner of the restaurant, we quickly picked our courses from the menu and quietly prayed that our food came fast. There were only 3 tables (including us) occupied in this relatively big restaurant so things would come fast, right!? Wrong.

We waited and waited.....more than half an hour had passed but still no sign of food coming out of the kitchen. We got our server to look into it but another 45 minutes had elapsed without reporting back to us with the progress.



This was totally unacceptable. Just when we finally lost our patience and started leaving, and our food finally came.

First up was a codfish served in strawberry and red wine sauce. The "udon noodles" shown in the photo were actually slices of squid.

I gave them an "A" for creativity but "F" for taste. The strawberry and red wine sauce was really blant. It was sort of marinating the cod fish with water.



The other main course, baby lamb chops with assorted nuts, was also disappointing. And look at the portion there. Could have been a bit more generous with the lamb chops, don't you think?

It's amazing how a hotel restaurant like this couldn't handle 3 small groups of customers. More sad was the fact that the servers here failed to report back that things had gone wrong in the kitchen and chose to hide it till the very end. That was totally unacceptable.

Food Rating: 2.5/10

Price: €€€
Address: Eurostars Grand Central Hotel, Arnulfstrasse 35, Munich, Germany
Closest Metro Station: München Hackerbrücke

Website: www.eurostarsgrandcentral.com/EN/restaurants.html

Café Cathedral (Oslo, NORWAY) ☆☆☆☆☆

Following the conclusion of our 7-hour drive from Stockholm, we finally made it to Oslo, the capital city of Norway. It was already 8PM when we dropped off our luggage at the hotel so we figured it's better to just have a quick dinner nearby.

After a quick visit to the cathedral, we spotted Café Cathedral on our way out and that's where we decided to have dinner tonight. Big mistake!

It took us a good 15-20 minutes because no one cared enough to take our orders (The waiters and waitresses all saw us waving at them). That was ridiculous. Apart from the poor service, I thought the food was pretty crappy. I can definitely cook a better pasta than that.



The salmon burger was slightly better but again, any home cook could do a better job than that.

It took 45 minutes for our dishes to arrive and 15 minutes for us to wash them down with coke and fanta. What a waste of time!

Food Rating: 2/10
Price: €€€
Address: Dronningens gate 27, 0154 Oslo, Norway
Tel: +47 2233-0035
Website: www.cafecathedral.no