Atelier Vivanda - Akrame's other global restaurant chain

http://www.ateliervivanda.com.hk

Akrame Benallal seems to be a man on a mission.  Not content with a Two Michelin starred restaurant in his native France, the young gun chef has been looking to expand and create a global culinary empire.

I'd been to his self titled restaurant, Akrame, located in the very hip Ship Street Wanchai, recipient of a Michelin Star in its own right and thought his take on French cuisine was nice (see post here).  So, when we were looking for an alternative to the steak frites dinners that we'd been consuming lately, Akrame's other global outlet sprang to mind.

Atelier Vivanda is located right next door to Akrame, but while Akrame is quite hidden from view, Atelier Vivanda is much more open and easy to find.  A bold and striking brand sits above an open window that brings the vibe of Ship Street right into the dining room, enlivening the feel of the restaurant.

We'd had quite an early reservation for dinner and arrived earlier still, so were the first diners to be seated at our table, in a prime position right in front of the open style kitchen.  The bold styling of the logo translated to a clean and modern fit out inside, with each of the tables created with spots to hold the specially made steak knives that are a feature at Atelier Vivanda.

The menu at chef Akrame's steak restaurant is quite simple and like many steak frites restaurants, is largely fixed.  I say largely, but there were quite a few options and combinations available on the menu, so for a set price, you were able to pick and choose from a wide variety of options.  At the crux of the menu however, you chose an entree and main, then get to select from the unlimited sides selection; which ran to five different styles of potato.

Rhoda - Nose to Tail cooking with bags of flavour

http://www.rhoda.hk

You can tell a lot about a chef by the way he sets up his kitchen.  Walking into Rhoda for the first time, I could tell that head chef and culinary director Nate Green was a confident man.  

The internationally renowned Joyce Wang designed restaurant has the kitchen as the centrepiece of the restaurant, with the highlight being an open fire grill.  My eye was drawn to the back of the room, where Chef Nate was overseeing the open flame and charcoal grill that was slowly cooking one the restaurant's signature dishes.

You might recognise the name Nate Green, having worked with the likes of Gordon Ramsey and Jason Atherton, Nate was most recently in charge of Wanchai's 22 Ships as well as Ham & Sherry.  Nate was also recently on local TV for the locally produced Hungry Foodies lifestyle program, a shared experience with Nate appearing on episode three, while I was a little later on episode eight.

The concept behind Rhoda is very much nose to tail dining, with very little of the 'beast' going to waste.  With a menu that changes daily, depending on which beast Nate can secure, the best local ingredients are used to create simple but delicious modern comfort food.  Comfort food is the heart of Nate's current style, drawing on memories of great conversations over a good meal.  Taking the vision one step further, there is a large communal table at the centre of the restaurant, aiming to mimic that homely feel.

The Crafty Cow - do I use the term hipsters too much?

http://www.craftycow.hk/

There's a little pocket of shops around Sheung Wan (a.k.a PoHo) that could quite comfortably be called hipster central in Hong Kong.  Cute little shops with arcane and weird offerings, more than one spot selling micro brewery ales and more beards per capita than I've seen anywhere else.  Who could forget the #HKWalls exhibition where you could walk down the many laneways and alleys and watch hip young things strut their stuff on the many brick walls canvases.

That little strip around Upper Station Street even held a little food festival last year, where masses of dressed-just-so-right locals and expats congregated to enjoy the many food options available.  I'm not gonna lie, I love that little strip and am guilty of tripping out to many of the aforementioned activities.....  I may even have a beard.

We'd been eying off the Crafty Cow ever since we first spotted it, the tiny little space looking like an awesome spot to enjoy a Sunday afternoon sippin' on a beer (if that's your thing) or enjoying a good little feed (which is my thing).  I'd had plenty of opportunities to get along before we did, we'd even grabbed a Lemmy from the Craft Cow one sunny and super crowded afternoon.  A Lemmy for those of you that have never heard of such a thing is a Kiwi lemonade, and they're pretty awesome.  It was a Lemmy that also won me a free feed at the Craft Cow based on an #Instagram competition - sadly, a feed I never collected.

So, it was finally time to check out the Cow, one Sunday evening for a quick bite of dinner. Making our way down the hill from our Mid Levels apartment, we reflected that we'd miss wandering around Sheung Wan once our move to Wan Chai finally eventuated.  We'd made a booking, which probably wasn't necessary as we were guided to one of the many available seats in the tiny corner restaurant slash bar (or bar slash restaurant, you choose).

London - Smiths of Smithfield by John Torode

http://www.smithsofsmithfield.co.uk/

One of my foodie observations is how the zeitgeist has changed over the last decade, with the super star chef front and centre in people's consciousness.  This has almost certainly been driven by the transition of the chef moving out from the kitchen and into the television studio.  One cooking show in particular has taken the world by storm, and that show is Masterchef.  The original Masterchef kicked off in the UK before the concept was picked up by other markets and at last count, there were fifty countries that run a version of Masterchef!

While the concept started in the UK, the Australian version is credited with helping to transform the show, providing a more glamorous approach that, for me, was a little too heavy on the drama and was less about the food.  One of the great ironies of Masterchef is that the Australian version is hosted by an ex British chef living in Australia (Gary Mehigan) and the UK version has an ex Aussie hosting (John Torode) - go figure!

I was recently in the UK for work and looking for a place to check out, and my boss recommended a little place called Smiths of Smithfield, one of his favourite steak restaurants run by Jonty Rhodes.  I thought is strange that an ex South African cricket star would run a steak restaurant in London, but hey, the South Africans are well known meat lovers.  It wasn't until I made the reservation and had a look at the web site, that I realised that I'd heard wrong and that Smiths of Smithfield was actually run by none other than John Torode!  I felt like an idiot :)

While I'd done my fair share of solo dining in London (The Square, Marcus, Maze Grill), I was actually able to convince one of my colleagues to come along and check out Smiths with me. Hailing from the US and an avid meat lover, bringing KH along to visit a steak restaurant seemed like the right thing to do.  However, trying to find the place, especially for a couple of tourists, turned out to be a little harder than expected and there was a lot of walking involved to find the funky restaurant in Charterhouse Street.  Not an issue for me, but a huge one for KH, who'd been recovering for ankle surgery, who took a little extra time to find the joint.

Wagyu Takumi - as good as it gets

http://www.ginsai.com.hk/en/wagyu-takumi

Some of the best meals I've had have been eaten sitting at a bar. Now, that might sound a bit strange, but the type of bar I'm referring to are 'bar style seats' that wrap around a kitchen, taking the drama and theatre that happens in a kitchen and bringing it to the diner.  The fact that there are more and more restaurants that either have 'chef's tables' or have open kitchens is testament to the fact that diners want to have more than just a meal.  They want the whole experience and that includes interacting with a chef.

I had a suspicion that I was going to have a memorable meal, I mean the very fact that I was heading to a Two Michelin Starred restaurant was enough to almost guarantee a great meal.  The fact that a couple of my favourite cuisines were combined surely had something to do with my high expectations as well.  We were heading to Wan Chai and Chef Mitsuru Konishi's Wagyu Takumi and my expectations were skyrocketing!

Chef Konishi is no stranger to Michelin Starred restaurants, apart from running one of the few Two Starred restaurants in HK, he spent time at fellow Two Star restaurant, L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Tokyo, as well as a numerous Michelin restaurants in France, including Taillevent, Michael Rostand and L'Hotel De Carantec.  It's that type of pedigree that gets my heart aflutter!

In an amazing twist of good fortune, we were able to secure a table for two at Wagyu Takumi on the morning of our Saturday night reservation.  The food gods were indeed smiling down on us.  It was more remarkable when you consider the size of the restaurant, which seats a cozy twelve diners at a time.  As we arrived for our 7:30pm reservation, we almost got lost in the back streets of Wan Chai, but Google Maps had us at the slightly hidden front door just in time.  As we announced ourselves, the door slid open 'Star Trek' style and we made our way to one of those few precious seats.

Yardbird - the bits of a chicken you'd normally not eat

http://yardbirdrestaurant.com

What are the chances, I mean seriously!  We're living in a city with over seven million inhabitants and more than 79,000 restaurants. So what were the chances of inadvertently sitting next to our dining companions from the previous week's dinner catch up? (see post here) 

Well, if you're talking about one of the hottest restaurants around, one so desirable, that it's almost impossible to get a table, I'd have thought pretty non existent.  Apparently not!

Yardbird is a tiny little yakitori place that SC had visited a few weeks back, while I'd been travelling OS for work.  She'd been so impressed with the place, she'd pretty much not stopped talking about it, so of course we needed to get along so I could write about it.  With a no reservations policy, you need to take your chances with Yardbird, and we'd had a couple of false starts before we eventually scored a table.

If you've not been to a yakitori restaurant before, they pretty much only serve the many different parts of a chicken, including the heart, liver, oyster, neck, skin etc.  Usually cooked over a traditional binchotan charcoal grill, Yardbird is perhaps the best example of the modern izikaya-style restaurant I'd come across.  Not surprising though, given that Yardbird is from the crew that run funky little Sunday's Grocery (see post here) and uber cool bar/restaurant Ronin.

Bo Innovation - X-treme Chinese perfection

http://www.boinnovation.com

We've been attending the 2015 'Chefs Talks', organised by the Fringe Club and Slow Food Hong Kong, where Hong Kong's best and most popular chefs come along and have a candid chat with an audience.  They've been really good.  One that I was really interested in getting along to was Bo Innovation's Alvin Leung Jnr, but fate wasn't on my side and I missed it due to work commitments.  SC on the other hand was able to get along and hear Alvin's view on the world, which was apparently quite amusing!

As fortune would have it, when I suggested that we book a table for arguably Hong Kong's best restaurant, we were able to secure a spot at the Chef's Table the following Saturday night.  With three Michelin Stars and a string of other accolades including appearing in the San Pellegrino Asia's Top 50 restaurants (#28) and the World's Top 50 restaurants (#97), restaurants don't get much better.

Fronted by a man that's been called the 'demon chef' (well, he calls himself the demon chef), Alvin Leung presents as quite the character.  Walking out of the elevator that took us from Ship Street in Wan Chai, we were greeted by a large wall mosaic of the demon chef himself.  Once we'd walked the dozen or so steps to the front of the restaurant, we'd been greeted warmly by many of the multitude of wait staff on hand to make our night's dining experience a memorable one.  

Sunday's Grocery - it's schnitzel time

http://sundaysgrocery.com

Yeah, there are a lot of cool dining spots to check out in Hong Kong, so many, that it's hard to keep track of them all.  So when we heard about a cool little spot out at Kennedy Town, we didn't muck about, plans were made and within days we were sitting out the front of Sunday's Grocery.

I'd never been to Kennedy Town, which is the end of the line on the MRT line that runs along the front of the island.  Our plan was to walk there from the Mid Levels, a tour that took us through the University of Hong Kong, which is just down the street (and around the corner) from where we live.  It was quite a pleasant walk, even though it was a little hot and sticky and there may have been some lost time in the Uni, trying to get our bearings.

We'd timed our walk perfectly, and by the time we were standing outside of the very hard to miss and brightly coloured Sunday's Grocery, it was very conveniently time for lunch.  Stepping inside, I was surprised by how tiny the space was, essentially just a shopfront and counter, with no room for loitering (or dining) within.  I wasn't too sure what to expect to be honest.

Created by Matt Abergele and Lindsay Jang, who've an eye for creating awesome little ventures (Yardbird and RONIN being their other hotspots), Sunday's Grocery is a liquor store, curated convenience store and a takeaway sandwich shop.  With our primary reason for visiting a bite of lunch, we ignored the wide variety of Japanese Whisky, sake, shochu beer and wine on offer and made a beeline for the short but interesting looking takeaway menu.

Bibo - where art and food combine

http://www.bibo.hk

Fine dining has often been compared to contemporary art, food displayed immaculately on a plate that is often (almost) too beautiful to eat.  I've eaten in restaurants where the Chef could only be described as an artist, and I'm sure you have too.  I've even had beautiful food in Australia's GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art), where the award winning GOMA restaurant produces food that would be better placed on the walls of the gallery.  I'd never been to a restaurant that would be more appropriately called a gallery of contemporary modern art, that was until I visited Bibo.

In a sign that bohemia is alive and well in Sheung Wan, Bibo is quite unlike any restaurant you are likely to encounter, at least in this part of the world.  Bibo is short for 'bilingual bohemian' and is a mix of contemporary art and fine dining French restaurant.  Reminiscent of the speak-easy style of New York, the entrance to Bibo is a secret gold door on Hollywood Road and while you don't need a secret password to enter, you do need to get past the burly bouncer on the door. Once the Star Trek like sliding door opens, you descend steps that hint of what's to come.

An assault to the visual senses is probably the best way to describe those first few seconds in the restaurant, which was quite breathtaking.  Every spare inch of space in Bibo is taken up with contemporary art, visually stunning, it's not until you hear the story of some of the pieces that you understand the importance of Bibo - more on that later.

Lupa by Mario Batali - bringing a bit of the Big Apple to Hong Kong

http://www.luparestaurant.com/hongkong/home.cfm

Wandering around Central one evening we heard some pumping beats coming from somewhere overhead.  A closer inspection skywards revealed a small yellow sign above Theatre Lane, announcing the location of Lupa by Mario Batali.  As soon as FMUS saw the sign he knew we had to try it out.  We had previously dined at Eataly, one of Batali's many NYC establishments while on our Manhattan odyssey (see post here), and were keen to try out another of his ventures.  

Everyone knows the myth surrounding the foundation of Rome - Romulus and Remus, originally left for dead but suckled by a she-wolf on the banks of the Tiber, rose to form the new city of Rome.  Remus was killed by Romulus over a dispute about whether to build on the Palantine Hill or Aventine Hill, but the iconic image of the twins suckling on the lupa (Latin for she-wolf) has remained as steadfast as the great city herself.  It was only fitting that an Italian restaurant should take the name of the she-wolf, as a symbol of simple Roman style dining.  It helps that the restauranteur in question, Mario Batali, is one of the biggest names on the US and now international dining scene....

Cheap Eats - Fringe Vault

http://www.hkfringeclub.com/en/venues/6-Fringe+Vault.html

There are simply too many restaurants in Hong Kong and sometimes wandering around, it's a matter of analysis paralysis on where to eat, especially for lunch.  I've taken to exploring the little part of HK near my work at Central, trying to find a great little place where I can fall back to when needed.  

I thought I'd found just the right spot when walking up the first part of Wyndham Street.  Fringe Vault looks pretty cool, located in a red brick building, it reminded me of the cool little cafes that you'd stumble across in Melbourne.  A sneaky look through the window reinforced that view, and a quick look at the all day breakfast menu convinced me that I was onto a winner.

Inside was cool, really cool.  Exposed brick walls with cool artwork abounding along with polished cement floors had me convinced my meal to come would be the goods.  I ordered my 'lusty big breakfast' and a hot chocolate at the counter, then made my way into the dining area for a seat to await my meal.  The tables and chairs further added to the feeling of cool, all were outdoor furniture pieces that combined to give a great vibe...  I felt really comfortable while sitting there, I really did.

Casual Dining - The Schonell Pizza Cafe

http://www.schonell.com/pizza-cafe

This one might take you back!  We were feeling pretty lazy and in need of some pizza, so immediately set about looking for the latest and greatest pizza places in town.  There were a few contenders, places that we'd not been to before but were starting to get reputations as the pizza joints to check out.  Then it struck me, why not look back, way back to a time when pizza was a mainstay in our diets, a time when getting pizza was the only dining out we did.

Why not go back and check out the Schonell Pizza Cafe!  Genius!

It has been a very, very long time since we'd even thought about the Pizza Cafe and even longer since we'd been.  We were taking a bit of a risk really, when you revisit a memory you need to consider that it might not live up to expectations.  But then I thought about why we stopped getting pizzas from the Schonell and it all came back to me, my last pizza there was literally inedible, in fact it tasted like axle grease.

Undeterred from that last experience, we pressed on and hopped in the car to drive out to the St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland, the home of the Schonell Pizza Cafe.  It's funny how the mind plays tricks on you.  We used to get pizza from the Shonell all of the time, but after we parked our car and went search of the Pizza Cafe, we actually got lost....  We couldn't believe it, lost wandering around UQ looking for pizza, it was quite funny really.  Luckily, we had Google Maps on our phones and soon had ourselves sorted out and before too long we were standing in the food courtyard considering our pizza options.

85 Miskin Street - the best thing I've ever eaten

http://www.85miskinst.com.au/

I was terribly sad when I found out that one of my favourite restaurants was going to shut down and re-open under a new identity.  For a very long time, Brent's at Toowong was one of my favourite special occasion restaurants, a dining spot where I had spent many an anniversary, birthday or general special occasion (see post here).  Brent's had been open for such a long time and had been producing such amazing fine dining French cuisine, I just assumed that it would always be there.

I needn't have worried too much, owner and head chef Brent Farrell was still at the helm and had just decided to freshen up the fine diner and give it a more contemporary look and feel and with a more relaxed and accessible menu.  Where Brent's was white linen and silver service, the reborn 85 Miskin Street would run with a more modern and edgier feel, which included ripping up the carpets exposing the floor boards in the wonderful old Queenslander.

After we'd parked our car in the valley of Miskin Street and made our way to number 85, we noticed that there the wild bushes that had been outside the diner had been cleared away and there was a feeling of space on the deck outside the restaurant.  It was the first of the 'same-same but different' moments that we'd have over the next few minutes as we made our way inside.  The next was the much improved and sleeker entry to the dining room, which included a lovely new door that led us into the restaurant.  Our last surprise was the feeling of deja vu that I experienced as we were led to our table, the feeling that I'd been there and experienced that very same moment.

Bee One Third - Neighbourhood honey

http://beeonethird.com.au/

One of the things I love about blogging is that I've had some amazing opportunities come my way which have led to some super interesting situations.  So when an email arrived for me one day marked 'An invitation to something special', it was an opportunity that was way too good to pass up.

I'd recently been in Melbourne on a foodie safari and while we were wandering around, we'd come across a sustainable living 'green fair', which was pretty awesome.  There were a range of speakers on sustainable topics, but one that got us to stay still long enough to listen was about bee collectives and how cities around the world are now creating bee hives.  The speaker went on to mention that the diversity of pollen in a city far outstrips the level of pollen in farms.  Apparently there is a bee collective at Federation Square in Melbourne where the honey collected has been tested for over 200 pollen types.

Fast forward to my invitation that was too good to pass up and I was off to visit one of Brisbane's burgeoning bee collectives - Bee One Third.  The day was meticulously planned out with a group of bloggers where we would get to tour the beehives on top of the Gerard's building, before heading over to Jocelyn's Provisions for a 'deliciously honeyed' morning tea, followed by a demonstration of a honey extraction.  I was pretty excited.

Alfred & Constance - A change of seasons and a change of menu!

http://www.alfredandconstance.com.au/

Not just satisfied with changing the Valley forever by introducing some of the coolest spots to eat in Brisbane, the team behind Alfred and Constance continue to evolve and stay fresh. Damian Griffiths and his team know they are onto a winner with the very funky Gastro Pub on the corner of Constance and Alfred Streets in the Valley, but never rest on their laurels.  

For those of you who haven't checked out Alfred and Constance, it's probably about time you thought about it.  A&C is known as a Gastro Pub serving tasty and down to earth food, but it's also so much more.  After lovingly restoring two old Queenslanders, Damien and his team set about creating a series of spaces that so completely fit into the vibe of Fortitude Valley, you would be surprised to know the place has only been open since November 2012.  Since opening, A&C has become a favourite drinking spot in its Tiki bar and a favourite local to hit your sweet tooth with its late night dessert cafe. 

Knowing that you need to evolve to stay ahead in Brisbane's ultra competitive casual dining scene, Damien, along with Patron Chef Jocelyn Hancock have again made some tweaks to the A&C menu.  As we move away from Summer (Noooooooo) and head into Autumn, its no surprise that the new Autumn A&C menu takes on a more earthy feel, yet still adhering to their basic principles of honest, full flavoured food.

Breakfast Series - The Corner Store Cafe

http://www.cornerstorecafe.com/

A couple of months ago on one of our infrequent forays into the suburbs, we stumbled across a little cafe as we made our way home.  We didn't have time to stop in and check it out but made a mental note to check it out sometime.  As often happens with a 'mental note', it was soon forgotten and the Corner Store Cafe faded quickly from memory.

Fast forward a few months and we had to again go on a field trip to the suburbs, this time to hit our preferred medical centre at Taringa.  I was there to get a blood tests done and had been fasting from the day before, so we thought that grabbing a breakfast out in the 'burbs would be a good idea (I know, its not really that far away from the CBD).  With not much of an idea of where to eat in the western suburbs, I checked out urbanspoon and quickly spotted a name that was familiar, you guessed it the Corner Store Cafe.  

We thought it might be touch and go to get a table, mainly because our trip to the doctor wouldn't finish until about 9:15am, which would have put us right in the peak hour for breakfast.  Our real hope was that we would have been finished with the early risers crowd and not quite yet hit the brunch crew.  As we wound through the back streets of Toowong from our medical centre, I started to have doubts that SC's usual back street approach to driving through the suburbs would actually get us to out destination.   I needn't have worried as SC's internal GPS had us pulling up out the front of the Corner Cafe with nary a wrong turn.  And when I say pulling up out front, I mean right out front, SC managed to score a street park right in front of the cafe!

Breakfast Series - Pablo of Newfarm

www.pablonewfarm.com/

It's no secret that I eat out a lot, I mean my blog is like a personal journal of how much food I've eaten in the last twelve months.  As a food blogger, I'm always looking for an excuse to go out for dinner or breakfast or lunch, well, any time or reason in fact.  You would think this amount or rich restaurant food would take its toll on a body and I've been pretty luck, up until recently that is...

I recently went and had my eyes tested and apart from getting the news that I now needed glasses, the optometrist dropped a bombshell for me, I had cholesterol rings in my eyes and she recommended a doctors visit.  Crap, it seemed as if my lavish eating out lifestyle had finally caught up with me.  Timing is a funny thing but the day my glasses arrived I watched a documentary called "Eat Fast and Live Longer" by a guy called Dr Michael Mosley (see documentary here).  Talk about serendipity, were was a solution to all of my problems, a way to reduce my cholesterol and solve a myriad of other potential health problems and a way to possibly live longer!!  All I had to do was fast for two days a week, then I could eat whatever I wanted for the other five days - a bloggers dream.

You may ask why I am telling you this?  Well apart from now being completely sold on the idea and have been recommending it to everyone, its the first time I have typed up a post while fasting.  I'm not sure how it's going to go.

The Depo - where design and food collide

http://the-depo.com/

I knew I was in for something special when I approached new restaurant Depo just as dusk was falling.  It had been a bit of a journey for me, I had decided it was a nice enough evening to walk from the CBD over to West End.  I figured a 30 minute walk would be a fantastic way to begin an evening with about a dozen other Food Bloggers, Lifestyle Bloggers and Food Journalists to check out West End's latest offering, Depo.

I wasn't too sure what to expect when I wandered up Horan Street, which is just a little bit 'off the beaten path' at West End, but I was amazed as I walked to the entrance of the restaurant.  I use the term restaurant loosely here as Deop is so much more.  Horan Street is pretty much just a normal suburban street, all-be-it a pretty nice street near the CBD, but Depo is both out of place and perfectly aligned with the street.

I was one of the first to arrive so had the opportunity to marvel at the layout and interior of Depo, which has been put together by design maestro Alexander Lotersztain, who was also responsible for designing the iconic Limes Hotel and super gastro pub Alfred & Constance.  It's instantly a comforting space, with a semi industrial feel but with a layer of plushness that makes you feel welcome, especially if you seat yourself in one of the many comfy looking couches that are a feature.