I'm happily calling the shots today. Since some of us have been telling me how tired they were with Greyhound IFC, I decided to keep the Asian theme while switching to a different place.
Located on the podium level of the IFC mall, Glasshouse has been kind of in my doghouse since my last visit. Pretty decent food but sloppy service. I hope things will turn around on this occasion.
They have a pretty refreshing harbour view, which is always nice.
Let's see if they have the food to match the view.
Nicoise salad, grilled tuna, anchovies, French beans ($138) - Something healthy to kick off the meal. This wasn't bad, a classic Nicoise with lightly seared tuna, crisp lettuce, tomato, French beans and purple cabbage. No sign of the anchovy though.
Spaghetti Bolognese ($108) - Something for our little guy. This was slightly disappointing though. The crispy cheese on top wasn't working with the spaghetti and tomato sauce at all. Should have stuck with the Asian/fusion dishes I guess.
BBQ pork ribs, baked potato, homemade kimchi BBQ sauce ($228) - Pretty tasty. The ribs were well marinated without going over the top (like most American diners). I like the Korean twist there from the kimchi BBQ sauce.
Roasted salted spring chicken with ginger ($208) - Another fusion dish taking a page out of the Chinese steamed chicken with "sand ginger powder" (沙薑雞). Here they use a spring chicken, grilled to "medium" and have it served a sizzling hot pan. We then put the finishing touch on ourselves with the homemade sauce which I thought was made of ginger, garlic and coconut milk.
This smelt really good! And the chicken was so tender and juicy. Only one problem though, it was a little pink in the middle. But after checking with our server, they promptly replaced it with a new one, so a happy ending for us.
Grilled fresh salmon steak ($168) - Perhaps we should've stuck with the Asian theme but I wanted some Omega-III. This was probably the worst dish of the afternoon (along with the spaghetti). Look at that salmon steak and tell me it looked like something from a professional kitchen.
Well, this was how it looked like on the menu.
I thought the fusion dishes (ribs, chicken) were pretty decent but the rest (spaghetti, salmon) were a little off. I took part of the blame for not sticking with the Asian theme so its' partially on me.
Verdict: Stick with the Asian fusion dishes and don't try your luck on the others. You will definitely get burnt (like us).
Food Rating: 4.5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 4009, Level 4, IFC, 1 Harbour View Street, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Hong Kong Station
Tel: +852 2383-4008
Website: www.glasshousehongkong.com
My sister is back in town to spend Christmas with the family. Mom really wanted to impress her with a nice meal to kick off her stay but since she's still very much jetlagged, I thought we better do an "ordinary" meal instead. By ordinary, I mean some "not-so-fancy" Chinese dim sum at Prince Restaurant (王子飯店) in Elements shopping mall.
My memory has been so poor of late. I forgot to bring my camera once again resulting in the poor qualities of these photos (Who said smartphones take very good pictures?).
Steamed crystal prawn dumplings (王子蝦餅皇) ($60) - Quite decent. I always love it in bite-size which was the good part. But the prawns could've been more tasty.
Steamed pork dumplings with crab roes (公主燒賣) ($60) - Slightly better than the prawn dumplings. I was still wondering why their steamed prawn dumplings and pork dumplings cost twice as much as the rest of the dim sum. Signature dish? No way.
Steamed wild mushroom dumplings (雲南野菌山珍餃) ($38) - There were tons of diced wild mushrooms packed inside the wrapper. But more doesn't always mean better! Meh~
Steamed rice flour rolls with barbecued pork (蜜汁叉燒腸) ($60) - One of the better dishes this afternoon. The barbecued pork was pretty tasty.
Steamed rice flour rolls with homemade sauce (醬皇布拉腸) ($45) - Pretty disappointing. I think most congee shops would have a better steamed rice flour rolls than this one.
Steamed tripe with satay sauce (沙爹金錢肚) ($48) - Very nice and spongy. Seasoning was spot on.
Puff pastry with wagyu beef (一口和牛酥) ($78) - Again mixed bag. The puff pastry was done reasonably well but the diced wagyu beef didn't fare as well.
Fried glutinous rice with preserved sausage and meat (生炒臘味糯米飯) ($178) - If it's any consolation, I thought the rice and noodle we ordered were much better than the dim sum. Take the glutinous rice as an example, it was reasonably good with lots of preserved sausage and meat in it. A little heavy handed with salt but that's okay.
Hometown style fried rice vermicelli (家鄉炒米粉) ($138) - The fried rice vermicelli wasn't bad either. It came with the shrimps, barbecued pork, egg, onion and bean sprouts. Should probably be a little easy on the salt as well (same chef who made the fried glutinous rice I presume?).
I remembered Prince Restaurant used to be a big deal when they first landed in Hong Kong more than a decade ago (at One Peking Road). Touted as an upscale Cantonese restaurant, it was very much focused on selling abalones and shark's fin back then but it's been all downhill ever since. The quality we've seen here today, we could easily find it at places like Maxim's but at a fraction of the price we paid. Sad.
Food Rating: 4/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Shop 1028C, 1/F., Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon Station
Tel: +852 2577-4888
