Amaroni's New York Italian Restaurant & Café (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I wasn't planning to do much celebration for this year's Mother's day but the social unrest and COVID-19 had everybody in the family a little down the last few months so I wanted to do something to cheer them up. The first family gathering since January would be a nice start. It wasn't a tough task finding a place for the celebration at all. In fact, I called a number of restaurants a week before Mother's day and most places still have a table for me. The only question was whether we could enjoy the lunch as a party of 4 or 7.

Amaroni's is one of the few stalwarts left standing at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong. They seem to be around for ages (despite changing hands a couple of times) but we were disappointed to see our favorite muffins replaced by these focaccia bread.

Calamari ($123) - I knew all the way Jelloman was going to order this. Have to admit it ain't a bad choice. These were nicely coated with crispy Parmesan and Italian herbed bread crumbs, finished off brilliantly with spicy dried basil salt. I like the red bell pepper aioli bringing a lovely extra kick to the mix.

Stuffed mushroom ($108) - Entirely opposite to the calamari, this was met with mixed reviews. We all remembered these butter-stuffed shiitake mushrooms with Parmesan shavings, spinach, pine nuts and Italian herbs to be  little more delicious when we were here last time but I guess the kitchen could be having a day off at the wrong time.

Amaroni's Homemade Lasagna ($152) - Amaroni's all-time favorite dish. This came with layers of baked pasta sheets, Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese smothered with meaty Bolognese-style Amaroni's signature Marinara sauce. Yum~

Penne Rustica ($168) - We ordered this for little nugget who always enjoys having grilled shrimp and chicken, Prosciutto ham and Parmesan cheese with his penne. A little boring but little one seemed to like it.

Roasted chicken "Scarpiella" family style ($298) - For main dish, I always order this when I have a big group. The roasted rosemary, garlic marinated chicken with oven roasted potatoes was once again very tasty.

All 6 pieces of chicken were smothered with mama's pepperonata and fresh Italian herbs, which explained why they were a little spicier than usual (thanks to those chili peppers!) but they were really meaty and very tender. What a very nice way to finish off the savory part of our meal.

Amaroni's Famous Tiramisu ($130) - One of my favorite tiramisu in town has gone smaller in size but most importantly, it tasted a little different!

The biggest difference I noticed was perhaps its texture. The layers of marsala scented mascarpone mousse with espresso and Kahlua soaked ladyfingers biscuits were noticeably more custardy than before (where it was more foamy). And the balance of espresso and marsala seemed to be a little off as well (a little too much marsala).

Despite some of the hits and misses, everybody seems to be happy with the meal. Perhaps, we're all just thrilled to be finally dining out again without restrictions.

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 32, LG1, Festival Walk, 80 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong Closest Metro Station: Kowloon Tong
Tel: +852 2265-8818
Website: www.amaronis.com

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 11:00pm (Sun - Thu), 11:00am - 12:00am (Fri - Sat)



 

Toilet Paper Cake from Saint Honore

While an astonishing number of restaurants have closed down during the pandemic, the global lockdown has also given rise to coronavirus themed desserts worldwide. Last month, toilet paper cakes went viral on the social media, with different versions coming out of Helsinki, Sydney and Los Angeles. As one of the culinary capitals of the world, of course local cake shops in Hong Kong got into the act. Longtime bakery and cake shop Saint Honore joined the party in April offering their own take of the toilet paper cake.

Honestly, I haven’t bought anything from Saint Honore for over a decade. I wasn’t all that interested when their toilet paper cake was first rolled out either but Jelloman tried to get it a few times online and failed. Then I learned they were going to discontinue this limited-time-only cake on 6th May so I decided to act fast.

This was more of a IG moment than culinary experience if you ask me. I read it being a chiffon cake but it turned out to be just a sponge cake with dried raisins on the bottom and an exterior wall of white fondant.

Looks exactly like a roll of toilet paper 🧻. Tasted awful though as many would tell you! 

I hope we have all seen the last of coronavirus and its desserts this summer. Let's have some happy themed desserts like smiley faces instead.

Cafe Deco Pizzeria at Elements (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

I'm going to keep this very brief since it wasn't a very good meal. But I thought I still need to write a few words about it. After all, it's my mom's lunar birthday. This dinner really came out of left field. I already had mom's birthday covered (and it's 4 weeks from now!) but early this morning, I got a message in one of my group chats from my sister wishing mom a very happy birthday. Then, I realized it's her birthday on the lunar calendar. In fact, mom said she will have three birthdays this year. How crazy is that!? It caught me totally off guard.

But I was going to have dinner at Elements Shopping Centre anyways so I called mom up and invited her to join us at Cafe Deco Pizzeria.

Roasted octopus ($125) - The Spanish-style roasted octopus was very tender with a little crunch but the Romesco sauce was way over the top. In fact, everyone decided to give up on it except yours truly who loves to eat spicy.

Chicken wings ($85) - The house spices were again a little heavy-handed but the biggest problem came from the sesame crumbs which was a bit too thick for me. 

Japanese free-range egg with smoked tuna belly pizza ($168) - This wasn't bad. My slice didn't have any smoked tuna belly on it but the sunny-side-up egg was pretty nice. I don't think I've ever had that on my pizza before.

Prawn linguine lobster cream ($172) - This was a no-brainer and for the most part, it got the job done. The tomato, fennel, asparagus and lobster cream worked fairly well with the linguine (which could be more al dente in my opinion).

Hickory BBQ pork ribs ($258) - This was probably the least successful dish of the night if you ask me. The BBQ sauce on top of the ribs was so gluey (in fact, a bit grose) which was why I never ordered this dish in my life (the birthday girl ordered it). I thought it ruined the ribs, 

cajun fries and grilled watermelon.

After the meal, little one wanted to have the ice-cream marshmallow from the Dolce 2/3 counter (which was sitting at the entrance of Cafe Deco) and he finally got his wish.

Obviously, it wasn't all that tasty judging by his facial expression.

For the price we paid, we certainly have much better choices within the mall.

Food Rating: 4/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 2133, 2/F, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon
Tel: +852 2196-8099
Opening Hours: 11:30pm - 11:00pm daily