Die Weisse (Salzburg, AUSTRIA) ★★★☆☆

Getting our rental car at Munich’s main station took much longer than we originally thought. Since we had a lot of ground to make up, we decided to scrap our original plan to visit Hallstatt and go straight to Salzburg instead.

It’s my second visit to Salzburg, but to be brutally honest, I don’t remember much from my first trip other than the meal at Hangar-7.

By the time we crossed the Austrian border, it was well past 2:30pm. Since we haven’t had time for lunch yet, I decided to swap our planned dinner venue for a late lunch.

Die Weisse is Salzburg’s oldest wheat beer brewery and a highly popular, traditional Austrian tavern (Wirtshaus). 

Known for its historic charm, vibrant neighborhood atmosphere, and excellent home-brewed beers, it’s a staple for both locals and travelers looking for authentic Salzburg beer culture.

At 3pm, the restaurant was still buzzing with customers, so we knew the news about its popularity was true (even despite the recent change of ownership).

Die Weisse non-alcoholic wheat beer (€5.9) — A meal at a brewery wouldn’t be complete without trying one of their beers, so since I was driving, I went with the non-alcoholic version. It tasted more like a soft drink!

Small pretzel 🥨 (€3.20) — So this was the small size, huh?

Ladies and gentlemen, The Pretzel Man!

Variation of dumplings (€16.9) — Die Weisse is said to have some of the best Austrian dumplings in town, so it was on our bucket list.

For anyone Chinese who knows anything about dumplings, we like the skin to be a little thinner but the wrapper here was noticeably thicker. With crumbs, bacon, and minced meat in the fillings, it came with little surprise that there was a little crunch to go with the meat. Pretty interesting texture.

Grilled chicken fillet supreme (€14.9) — The chicken fillet was reasonably tender working well with the peppery creamy sauce.

This was a pretty satisfying first meal in Austria. We were just glad we decided to pass on Hallstatt. With the amount of rain we’ve been getting so far today, it wouldn’t have made for a pleasant drive.

Food Rating: 5.9/10

Price: €€€

Address: Rupertgasse 10, 5020 Salzburg, Austria

Tel: +43 662 872-246

Website: https://www.dieweisse-wirtshaus.at/

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 12:00am (Mon - Sat)

Refine Garosugil 리파인 가로수길점 (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★☆☆

After having Korean barbecued meat, fried chicken, and fine dining over the past few days, I was ready for a change of pace. 

I decided to go on an exploration of fusion pasta dishes at Refine Garosugil (리파인 가로수길점), a place I didn't know much about before this trip. It describes itself as a "Korean fine-dining pub", a term that had me a little curious. Perhaps it’s a fancy name for gastropub?

Octopus salad (₩18,900) – This came with a generous mix of lettuce, tomatoes, octopus, and parmesan cheese. A pretty refreshing and healthy choice to kick off the meal.

Seafood and green onion pancake (₩21,900) – The texture reminded me of our Chaozhou-style oyster pancakes. se were looking a lot like the Chao zhou style oyster pancakes. Crispy on the outside and soft inside with a ton of green onion and guess what, octopus!

Scallop rose pasta (₩21,900) – I love Korean-style pasta dishes. My experience with them goes way back to my university days when there were a couple of pasta bars in Vancouver helmed by Korean chefs (on Robson Street), and I swear they made the best sauces in town. 

As always, our Korean-style pasta was a little soupy with the seafood bisque (infused by rose flavor?) coating the noodles nicely. Not surprisingly, little nugget loves it!

The food here was pretty decent but like most pubs, the noise level made it a little challenging to fully enjoy our family meal.

Food Rating: 5.6/10

Price: ₩₩₩

Address: 517-29 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Closest Metro Station: Sinsa

Tel: +82 507-1381-4225

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

Rosana (Cannes, FRANCE) ★★★☆☆

We didn't have a lot of time to spend in Cannes. Only a few hours last night and despite we woke up early this morning, it was already lunch hour when I began checking my watch. 



This was when we stumbled upon Rosana, a Californian-style restaurant in the heart of the city's touristy district. We had a choice to simply eat at the airport but an American-style all day menu was too good to pass after a run of French food the past two weeks.



Judging by the décor, this place likely turns into a bar at night.

None of us expressed the feeling that they were hungry so just a few small dishes to share among us.

Calamari (€?) – Always a crowd pleaser. The thin batter was a pretty nice touch and so was the hint of lemon.

Fish and chips (€21) – For a main dish, small pieces of breaded cod fish fillets certainly looked a bit small in portion but thankfully, we had the French fries to go with them.

French fries – These were kind of like the shoestring fries we used to have in Vancouver. 

Spicy rigatoni alla vodka and straciatella (€20) – I love rigatoni tossed with creamy tomato sauce and vodka! This also came with chilli, parmesan and fresh basil.

Clubhouse sandwich (€?) – Jelloman had a lot of salad on this trip but today, she opted for a small clubhouse with lettuce, tomato and bacon.

Time is almost up, ladies and gentlemen. It's been a fun couple of weeks exploring the South of France but time to get behind the wheels and drive down to Nice for our flight back to Paris.

Food Rating: 5.9/10

Price: €€€

Address: 13 Rue des Belges, 06400 Cannes, France

Tel: +33 (0)4 9338-8860

Website: www.rosanacannes.com

Opening Hours: 9:00am - 12:00am (Mon - Sat)

Restaurant Almacita (Valence, FRANCE) ★★★★☆

We knew we would be stopping by Valence on our way to Avignon, but what we didn’t know was how late we ended up getting there. It was 1:50pm when I finished parking our car! 🚗

We were supposed to have lunch in Valence’s Old Town but with most restaurants already wrapping up their lunch service, it was going to be slim picking. Fortunately for us, we were able to find Restaurant Almacita, a South American casual dining restaurant and gastro bar on Grande Rue, just a few steps off the shopping street of Rue Emile Augier.

While we were still bragging about our luck for finding this hidden gem, our server came up to take our orders and she speaks fluent English! Another huge bonus! 👍🏻👍🏻

Salmon, citrus, herbs, zucchini (€13.6) – Little nugget had the grilled salmon fillet served with citrus butter, garden herbs and zucchini. This was no ordinary Joe though as the dish came with really nice presentation including a generous portion of salmon roes. The flavors? Just really well-balanced and very delicious.

Cod, coconut milk, carrot, patatas bravas (€25) – I had the grilled cod fish myself. This was served in a creamy shellfish sauce flavored with coconut milk, along with crispy carrots and my favorite patatas bravas. Another outstanding dish from the kitchen.

Amazonian salad (€13) – Jelloman thought she had too much to eat just five days into our trip and she decided to have this really boring salad with mango, tomatoes, purple onions and garden green served in a citrusy dressing. Yawn~! 

After the meal, we spent some time trotting around the streets of Valence. La Maison des Têtes which was just next door to our lunch spot was certainly worth a visit for its architectural excellence and rich heritage.

The Cathedral of Valence built in 1850 was another landmark in the city, which was just a stone’s throw away. Unfortunately, it was currently under renovation.

We have one final stop to make before leaving Valence, Patisserie Guillet, a popular patisserie in the area which we had the pleasure of visiting back in 2016. Eight years later, we’re bringing little one along with us to experience their exquisitely crafted French pastries.

Food Rating: 6.6/10

Price: €€

Address: 51 Grande Rue, 26000 Valence, France

Tel: +33 (0)4 7555-0647

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:00pm (Wed - Thu), 12:00pm - 11:30pm (Fri - Sat), 7:00pm - 10:00pm (Tue)

MOS PUB Bellecour - Bar à bières, Cocktails & Brasserie (Lyon, FRANCE) ★★★☆☆

Lyon is about a two-hour drive from where we were staying in Dijon. We got here really late because some of us slept in this morning. At 2:45pm, I thought our hotel room would be ready when we arrived (I know check-in time is supposed to be 3pm) but the front desk guys wanted to be sure. So, they politely asked us to come back at 3. After not having a good night of sleep and then the long drive from Dijon to Lyon (pardon us who don't really get to drive for 2 hours straight much in Hong Kong), having the room ready for a quick refresher would have been nice but rules are rules.

Since we didn't know how long they would take to make sure our room was ready, I thought we might as well head out for our late lunch. Yeah, we haven't really eaten for a while.

Not surprisingly, most restaurants were in the midst of wrapping up their lunch service so none of them was keen to take on new customers. Our only hope was a bar or cafe, and we were excited to bump into MOS PUB Bellecour, a cocktail bar and brasserie who welcomed us with open arms (well, a gentleman there did).

MOS, situated on buzzy Rue de la Barre is just a few steps from the iconic Place Bellecour. The plan was to finish this meal quickly and spend some time at the popular square and Rue Edouard Herriot, one of the most major shopping streets of Lyon immediately after.

Little one made a new friend when he was going to the toilet! I heard someone yelled "I knew it!!!" but wasn't sure what exactly happened. 😆😆😆

We only ordered two dishes to share since we would be having an early dinner. Starting things off for us was this duck leg confit served with French fries and a small salad. I thought the gravy tasted a little funny. It tasted kinda like the sweet soy from Chinese cuisine.

The fish and chips was next. The shoestring fries were pretty nice but less successful was the deep-fried fish fillet. The one we had a few days ago at La Vallée Village was quite a bit better than this one. It's never a good sign when the food from the outlet mall was better.

Following a brief stop at Rue Edouard Herriot, we decided to head back to the hotel. We spent some time checking out the church next to the Hotel Dieu on our way back. I am assuming that this used to be a church connected to the former hospital?

Service was attentive and we could tell the staff here was enthusiastic and courteous. That's always a good sign, especially for our tourists.

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: €€

Address: 4 Rue de la Barre, 69002 Lyon, France

Tel: +33 (0)3 6967-2471

Website: www.mos-pub.com/mos-bellecour

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 1:00am (Mon - Thu), 9:00am - 1:00am (Fri - Sat), 10:00am - 12:00am (Sun)

Nihonbashi Brewery T.S. (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

To cap off our very long day in the heart of the Tokyo Metropolis, we are going to have dinner at gastropub, Nihonbashi Brewery T.S. only a few blocks from Tokyo Station.



This was a gathering organized by the family of little nugget's classmates and I was only too happy to be joining as a participant rather than an organizer. 

Of course, dinner at a gastropub won't be complete without some draft beer.

The kids got a round of free fruit juices but not that they care or anything. They were too busy with their online games.



Bismarck pizza – Dinner got off to a fast start with one of the restaurant's most popular pizza, Bismarck made with truffle and diced mushrooms.

Chicken wings with herb salt – Wings were next. I thought the batter was a little thick here but no one would say no to deep-fried chicken wings, especially when you haven't had any savory food for eight hours.

French fries with porcini cheese and bonito flakes – The ball of porcini cheese was quite an interesting match to the sizzling hot fries.

Pasta, snow crab and asparagus – The pasta came with very nice and firm bite. Wouldn't mind a bit more asparagus and creamy tomato sauce though.

Pasta, shrimp, scallop and sudachi citrus pesto sauce – The pasta was nicely tossed in a pesto sauce that has been flavored with sauachi citrus (酸橘) so a bit of acidity there to go with the earthy notes. Not bad.

BBQ pork spare ribs – The ribs were reasonably tender but the mashed potatoes could be a lot more buttery smooth.

Homemade pudding – Dessert turned out to be a real highlight here. I was most impressed with the eggy homemade pudding served with a huge scoop of vanilla ice-cream. A shower of salted caramel sauce provided the finishing touch.

Stout beer tiramisu – I was a little disappointed with this. Thought the tiramisu would be equally tasty when they replaced the marsala with stout beer but the stout beer really failed to mimic marsala's characteristics especially the sweetness here. 



It was nice to meet up with the gang in Tokyo and catch up over dinner. After tonight, we're going to go our separate ways. One family is heading to Mount Fuji while another one starts their exploration in Yokohama. And for us, we are just going to lay low and spend some quality time as a family in Tokyo. 

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1-11-1 Marunouchi , Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Tokyo

Tel: +81 3-6256-0056

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 11:00pm (Mon - Sat), 11:00am - 10:00pm (Sun)