Carbone (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I was keen to check out Carbone and its “red sauce Italian” style dishes when the 1-star Michelin restaurant from New York first opened in Central a few months ago. But November and December are always busy months for restaurant openings and I ended up waiting a little longer than I originally thought before paying them my first visit.

Located on the eighth floor of the LKF Tower, Carbone has quickly established itself as a fan favorite in Hong Kong. On the day of our visit, the restaurant was totally packed at around 7pm and even the bar at the entrance area was completely full of customers waiting to be seated.



And who could resist a hearty Italian fare in an authentic throwback vibe like this? I heard the setting here is almost a carbon copy of what they have in Greenwich Village, NY.




Some nibbles to start us off courtesy of the kitchen. First up was a spicy salami that was very good.



Even more amazing was the garlic bread. 

 

The parmesan cheese was also of very good quality.



I am naturally not a carpaccio person but having heard so much about Carbone's Carpaccio Piemontese ($198), it's impossible to pass on this gem and I was glad I didn't.

Thin sheets of wagyu beef was perfectly marinated with olive oil and black truffle and served with some rocket leaves and mushrooms. I love the crushed walnuts which was the key to that absolutely irresistible bite (8.5/10).


 
The signature dish, spicy rigatoni vodka ($198) was another masterpiece that should not be missed here. The handmade rigatoni had just the perfect bite and equal to the task was the pink cream sauce with tomato, onion and Calabrian chili (8/10).



I was supposed to have their veal parmigiana as my main course as it has always been touted as the most iconic dish in the “red sauce Italian” cuisine. But I have never really paid much attention to signature dishes and went with my own choice of pork chop and peppers ($428).

As recommended by our server, we had it at medium but slightly more on the medium-well side. It ended up to be a decent dish. The Iberico pork had good texture and was nicely complemented by vinegar peppers and braised onion (5.5/10).



Despite the limited choices from a small menu, Carbone showed exactly why the restaurant managed to capture its first Michelin star and cemented itself as one of the best Italian restaurants in New York in just a little over a year.




Food Rating: 7.3/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 9/F, 33 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Central
Tel: +852 2593-2593
Website: carbone.com.hk 

Le Bistro Winebeast (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

It's been a while since I last read so many positive reviews about a small little bistro in Wanchai so I decided to act quickly this time.

One of our offices is located very close to Le Bistro Winebeast so I swear that I have walked by this place a zillion times by now. But all along I have seen it as a wine store and never realize it doubles as a French bistro too.

And there's head chef Johan Ducroquet. I've heard he's working magic. It's also noteworthy that he has a solid resume having trained at a number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris (including le Chateaubriand) and worked extensively in France, Spain and South America before.

 

At lunch, they are offering their a la carte menu as well as a 4-course tasting menu at $448. An optional wine pairing is available for another $100. But we are having a 5-hour meeting in the next hour so the set lunch at $150 suits me just fine.



Everything started in a promising manner beginning with a silky smooth pumpkin soup. I like the modern twist of adding fresh squid and lemongrass cream to the equation to make the taste richer (6.5/10).



But the wheels began to fall off from here. The grilled mackerel with sautéed carrots and seasonal mushrooms was a little fishy and lacking flavors (3.5/10).



Almost equally uninspiring was the pork tenderloin with virtually the same supporting cast. The pork, which was about half-cooked, was desperately lacking some seasoning.

I was peeking over my shoulder to see if my neighbours' pork tenderloin were also as undercooked as mine but only to find that theirs were mostly well-cooked. So why such a big discrepancy there (3/10)?



There's a black coffee or lemon (or berry) green tea that came with the set.



Obviously disappointed as I was expecting something comparable to Serge et le phoque but that never happened.


Food Rating: 4/10
Price: $$$
Address: 15 McGregor Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Wan Chai
Tel: +852 2479-6833
Website: www.wine-beast.com/le-bistro

Royal Plaza Hotel Cake Shop (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

As someone who was born with a sweet tooth, I am always on the lookout for desserts and cakes to sweeten up my life. Today I was just in the Prince Edward neighborhood to meet my parents. Before meeting up with my folks, I decided to drop by Royal Plaza Hotel's cake shop and see what they have in store for me.



Apart from the usual suspects, they've added some funky ones to the mix.




The newest additions include Hong Kong cha chaan teng's (茶餐廳) all-time favorite - rice with fried egg and red sausage as well as Japanese ramen!



The bowl of rice with fried egg and red sausage was in fact chestnut cake with crispy rice and sausage cookie ($58). It did look like the real deal at first glance but taste-wise, didn't exactly blow me away.



Slightly better was the mango custard ramen cake ($58).

Ramen cakes have actually been around for a long time in Japan and we came across a place called "Machi no Kuma-san" in Tokyo where they also offer soba cakes and tonkatsu cakes on top of their famous ramen cakes. So these really are nothing new at all except in Hong Kong.

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: $$$

Address: Royal Plaza Hotel, 193 Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Mongkok East
Tel:+852 2622-6256 
Website: www.royalplaza.com.hk/dining/cakeshop

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