Ippoh - tempura perfection from a 5th generation chef

http://www.ippoh.com/en/hongkong.html

You really do need to stop and look  at what's behind the curtain.

For over twelve months I walked down Aberdeen Street in SoHo, wandering by a little yellow restaurant that had it's door partially obscured by a heavy curtain.  Sure, I knew that it was a Japanese restaurant, the name gave it away.  A little research may have piqued my interest much sooner, but the name of that little restaurant really meant nothing to me.

Ippoh!

Boy has that changed!

It wasn't until a workmate, lets call her Zoe, wanted to help me celebrate my recent birthday with a special lunch time treat.  She'd been telling me for a long time that her favourite Japanese restaurant in Hong Kong was Ippoh, and wanted to see if I agreed; so we made our way through Central to SoHo and our midday booking.

It was a lightbulb moment for me.

Finally the curtain was pulled back and we entered the tiny little tempura style restaurant, and seated at one of the eight spots available at the bar style dining room.  All eight seats put diners right in the action where the Ippoh head chef (I never did get his name!) was busy preparing the tasty morsels that would be lightly tempura and fried right before out eyes.

There were a couple of options for lunch, the YUKI course which consisted of eight pieces of tempura or the OMAKASE lunch, which was a much more comprehensive journey.  No prizes for guessing which we chose.

The Drawing Room - was replacing Vasco a good idea?

http://www.tdr.com.hk/

Vasco Fine dining was one of my very favourite restaurants in Hong Kong (see post here and here).

When I found out that it was closing, I was devastated. Why hadn't I gone and supported it more!  I still remember so fondly the olive oil sommelier and the incredibly inventive and tasty Spanish cuisine.  

Sigh, that's Hong Kong for you!

Then, I found out that the space that Vasco occupied at historic PMQ was to be taken over by by The Drawing Room, a restaurant that held the hearts of Hong Kongers so well before closing down a few years back.  Not to mention having held a Michelin Star for many years also.

My excitement grew, when I found that, Drawing Room Concepts, the team behind Vasco were driving the new iteration of the Drawing Room.  In fact, the chef that had provided the taste sensations that delighted me at Vasco, Chef Gabriele Milani, would continue to be the driving force in the kitchen.

My acceptance was complete.  Spanish would make way for Italian.  Bring on The Drawing Room.

Like many new (or reborn) restaurants in Hong Kong, it was difficult to make a booking for TDR, so much so that Saturday nights were booked out more than a month in advance, so I had to make do with a Friday night spot - after work.

There was a very familiar feeling as we made our way from pre drinks at Aberdeen Street Social (see post here), up through PMQ to the very top floor.  It was almost a case of deja vu as we were met at the level six reception and were escorted upstairs.  As we were given our seats, it would be easy to forget that Vasco had demised and a new restaurant had taken it's place. In fact, the only real difference that I could see was the change of name; everything else remained the same.

It would be so easy for me to reflect and comment about the differences between Vasco and The Drawing Room, so I will try to refrain!

Zafran - Spanish Cooking Master Class

http://zafran.com.hk/

Those of you who know me would be familiar with my foodie adventures and be well aware that I'm not a great cook.  My Instagram feed is full of restaurant meals and the very, very rare photo of a home cooked meal.

So when I get the opportunity to participate in master classes and learn something new in a kitchen, I jump at the chance.  Chope Hong Kong had partnered with the Aqua Restaurant group and Zafran Spanish restaurant to have new Chef Pere run a small group of bloggers through his famous "Black Paella".  Interestingly, the last time I'd had a masterclass, it was at Mondo Organics in Brisbane and a Spanish feast fit for a king (see post here).  

Seemingly, I am destined to improve my Spanish cuisine repertoire, which is certainly ironic living in the heart of Hong Kong.

I'd always thought that Zafran was a nightclub in the few times I wandered down Wyndham Street, but was surprised to find a funky looking basement restaurant as I descended the stairs to the Masterclass.  We were met by Zafran's new chef, hot off the boat from his native Barcelona, who seemed a little nervous to be fronted by so many food bloggers and cameras.

Va Bene - from LKF to Sai Ying Pun

Va Bene: website 

I never managed to get to Va Bene when it was in its Lang Kwai Fung home, although it had very much been on my radar.  

Recognised as the original Italian trattoria in Hong Kong, the famous restaurant was one of the few places in the notorious LKF where you could escape the madness at any time of the night for a more-than-decent-meal.

Located just off Queens Road West in Sai Ying Pun, the new Va Bene seems just a little out of the way, and while not too far from PoHo, it required a little bit of an effort to find the place. Veering off QRW and down Wilmer Street, I was surprised by the size of the very sleek and modern looking facade.  There was no missing the place, bright neon pulled us in like a beacon!

Our penchant for arriving early saw us as the first diners to be seated, and we were placed strategically at one of the tables that were visible from the huge plate glass window that ran the length of the street frontage.  Our theory for many restaurants, is that the better dressed diners are always placed within sight of the street, with scruffy diners hidden out back.  This seemed to be on the money, over the course of our meal, we continually paid attention to where diners were being seated.

Prego Italian - simple ingredients but full flavour

http://www.diningconcepts.com/Prego

Sometimes you just want something simple to eat.  I've been feasting on a lot of French fine dining recently, including stints at two and three Michelin starred establishments with incredibly rich food.  Fun for a while, but boy, you can get over that pretty quickly!

When you want nice simple food that tastes great, then you really can't go past great Italian food, where the whole philosophy is to use as few ingredients as possible to extract maximum flavour.  We've only recently started to find some great little Italian restaurants in Hong Kong, after finding a few shockers initially.

One of the better Italian diners we'd loved was Dining Concepts Cecconi's, which was really conveniently located in Soho, a place that we walked past most nights on the way home from work.  It would have been a perfect foil for the rich French food we'd been consuming in the last month, but it had moved out it's Elgin Street home to Wyndham Street - just a little too far out of our way.  

Luckily, the team at Dining Concepts had done the old 'switcharoo', replacing one great Italian restaurant with another.  I'm not really sure why, but Cecconi's was replaced with Prego Italian, a more relaxed style of Italian more closely resembling 'Mama's home-style cooking, from kitchen to table'.  

It sounded perfect!

Dessert bar by Sift - My Valentine's concession

http://www.siftdesserts.com/

Valentine's Day is the one day of the year that I avoid booking at a fancy restaurant like the plague! I'm not sure what you think, but in my experience, it's the one day of the year where there is so much pressure on a restaurant to get it right, and people's expectations are way too high.  You have desperate couples looking for that perfect meal to celebrate their (sometimes) perfect relationships. I also really don't love the set menu options filled with crap that I'd normally not love to eat, all shaped like love hearts - blergh!

So we grabbed a quick pizza for Valentines day!

But this post isn't about pizza or even Valentines day, although I will admit, that it's a funny coincidence that we hit up a specialist dessert bar on that one day of the year where there is a special connection with desserts!

We were walking home from our cheep and cheerful pizza dinner, when we decided that we wanted some dessert to finish off the evening.  Now, I love the pizzas at Pizza Express (see post here), but their desserts leave a lot to be desired.  So, it was onto my trusty Open Rice iPhone app to see where the closest dessert bar was to our SoHo location.  As luck would have it, we were only 150 meters away from Sift, and so began our decent into a sugary induced coma!

ISONO Eatery and Bar - the more casual Spanish spot

http://www.isono.com.hk/

One of my top rated restaurants from 2015 was Vasco, Spanish fine dining.  You can read all about it here in my Top 10 of 2015. While Vasco is the ultimate in fine dining, there is a much more relaxed and casual feel about ISONO, the Spanish style tapas restaurant run by Drawing Room Concepts, the team behind Vasco and numerous other restaurants around Hong Kong.

Located on the sixth floor of Soho's very own arts precent, PMQ, ISONO eatery and bar shares many of the same traits as its more distinguished older brother.  The menu was created by Executive Chef Paolo Casagrande, drawn from his memories and experiences as a child in the Mediterranean.  If you're not familiar with Paolo Casagrande, his main game is at the Two Michelin starred Lasarte in Barcelona, but he lends his expertise and name to both Vasco and ISONO.

We'd been eyeing off checking out ISONO for a while, but it took one of those serendipitous moments to eventually get us in for dinner.  We were at a genuine loss one night walking home from work....  We simply had no idea about what we felt like for dinner and were getting a little frustrated trying to pin down one restaurant to visit.  It just so happened that we were walking along Hollywood Road and only a few steps away from the PMQ.  With no reservation, we hedged our bets that we'd be able to score a table as a walk in.

Lobster and Mussels by Paul's Kitchen - the best lobster rolls outside of New York

http://www.pauls-kitchen.com/

I'm forever being surprised by the sights and sounds of Hong Kong, around every corner is something new or different, even areas you think you know well.  It's amazing how many times we'd walked down Aberdeen Street to visit Sheung Wan, never detouring down the many side streets to see what other exciting adventures we might enjoy.  Little did we realise that perhaps one of the coolest streets in Hong Kong was right at our finger tips, all we had to do was veer left.

Gough Street is right at the end of Aberdeen Street and walking past in a hurry, you'd never guess that the street was home to a veritable hive of little shops full of knickknacks and funky dining spots.  It was only leading up to Christmas and some promised Christmas markets that ensured we did veer left, a direction that opened up a world of funky shops and would ultimately lead us to Lobster and Mussels by Paul's Kitchen.  

Formerly just plain old Paul's Kitchen, the tiny 'hole in the wall' dining spot would be easy to miss if you were not paying attention.  Paul's Kitchen had been around for eight years before a move necessitated opening up a few doors down from it's original location.  The move also led to a change of concept and name, hence Lobster and Mussels by Paul's Kitchen was born.

Tartine - very fancy toasted sandwiches

http://thetartine.com/

There are so many new restaurants opening in Hong Kong that it's hard to keep up.  Sure, I have my regular sources of information to keep abreast of the changes, but it's nearly impossible to track them all.  I didn't have any such problems with recently opened Tartine, I'd been keeping a close eye on it's development each night on my walk home.  I love watching restaurants go from empty spaces to fully fledged establishments, mainly because I know that soon enough I'll be trying them out for myself!

That I was going to check out Tartine was a foregone conclusion, not just because it looked quite different from everything else around SoHo, but because of the involvement of Michelin-starrred Philippe Orrico, the man behind On Dining (see post here) and Upper Modern Bistro (see post here). Orrico is noted as consulting chef, which I assume is just helping with the menu and attributing his name to help the restaurant along, never the less, it got my attention.

Just in case you didn't know, a tartine is a fancy French toasted sandwich and Tartine has combined the humble toasty and spruced them up with high quality ingredients and a farm-to-table philosophy.

We'd planned to hit up Tartine on the way home from work one night and figured that as a brand new restaurant, we'd not need to make a booking.  It was a solid plan, especially since we'd walked by a few times since opening and not seen a soul inside so far.  It was also flawed, unbeknownst to our morning plans, Tartine had gone on an advertising blitz with an article in just about every food publication available in Hong Kong!

Blue Butcher - Superb Steaks in Funky Soho

http://www.bluebutcher.com/

I'm forever surprised by the hidden gem restaurants dotted around Hong Kong, more so when I walk by a spot, not realising that an absolute cracker of a restaurant is nearby.  But then, to be fair, sometimes I walk around with my head in the clouds!

The girl has mentioned the name Blue Butcher to me a couple of times as we've walked down Hollywood Road in the Mid Levels, but it never connected with me that the dark little bar front was actually hiding something more my style!  It wasn't until a mate from work said his favourite steak place in HK was the Blue Butcher that I had the light bulb moment - we booked a table immediately.

I'd arranged to meet the girl at the restaurant and when I rocked up out the front, SC was finishing up with a beer at the downstairs bar.  It was still a mystery to me that there was a steak restaurant around, especially looking at the facade, but after we walked up the stairs, it all became clear.  A huge space opened up that was equal measures dark pub and funky industrial style kitchen.  

We were initially booked in for a seat at the bar, which we were very comfortable with, but as we were being seated, our waitress indicated that a table had opened up, as long as we were out by 8pm - easily done!  We were seated by the window, which overlooked Hollywood Road and gave me a great view of the kitchen.  

La Vache - steak frites Parisian style

http://lavache.com.hk/

There has been a long standing battle for the ownership of a national cuisine!  No, I'm not talking about the stoush between Australia and New Zealand over the beloved pavlova, I'm talking about something much more serious.

Steak-frites is a very common and popular dish served in brasseries throughout Europe, most notably in Belgium and France, where both lay claim as its birthplace.  Simply translated, it is a combination of steak and fries and in reality, many countries could probably lay claim to the dish.  Typically using entrecôte, French for the premium cut or rib eye, the fatty steak is usually cooked medium rare and served with golden fries and topped with a béarnaise sauce.

It's somewhat surprising to learn that Hong Kong has adopted the steak-frites revolution, with a serious number of players in the space.  In fact, SoHo in the Midlevels has more steak-frites restaurant than you can count, with Peel Street housing three within sight of each other!  I'd been eyeing off many of these brasseries and decided it was high time to check on out! 

With so many to choose from, I simply picked one that had the coolest name and best looking web site.  Conveniently located in Peel Street, stepping into La Vache was like being transported to Paris, the staff and the fit-out screamed chic Parisian charm.  We didn't have a reservation, but were informed that there was a table available, as long as we were out by 8pm - not a problem we assured our maitre 'd.

Mrs Pound - Secret entrance was the highlight

http://www.mrspound.com/

What happens when you come across a place that promises so much, but delivers so little? Somewhere that should be memorable but is almost instantly forgettable?  Well, I for one get pretty disappointed and tell a few of my friends.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. There has been a movement in many cities around the world to the speakeasy style of restaurant and bar.  I've written about a few before and usually they are pretty cool and mysterious.  The concept of the speakeasy was spawned in the early 1920's as a reaction to the completely ridiculous prohibition on alcohol, which to be honest also created the modern concept of organised crime - bootleggers anyone?  Anyway, before I get too political, the speakeasy also went when prohibition ended, but they are back, and in a big way.

A speakeasy is essentially a secret bar, now often a secret restaurant but the irony is that they are often the most popular of places and hardly secret!

One speakeasy that's been garnering a lot of attention, both here and overseas is a little spot called Mrs Pound.  Located in Sheung Wan, Mrs Pound has an interesting back story (found here in full), which includes a sordid but illustrious career of a burlesque dancer who was rumoured to have many lovers but eventually ran away with a conservative and reserved Hong Kong gentleman called Mr Ming.  So enamoured with Mrs Pound was Mr Ming that he gave her his favourite stamp shop, which she promptly turned in to her personal playground, resplendent with secret entrance!

Craftsteak - Open fire cooking

http://www.diningconcepts.com/craftsteak

One of the most famous names in steak restaurants is Tom Colicchio, who is better known in his role as head jude go Top Chef (one of my favourite cooking shows).  I was pretty excited when I was wandering around Soho in Hong Kong one day and saw that there was a Craftsteak in Hong Kong. Upon further investigation though, I was disappointed to find out that it was in no way associated with it's more famous namesake.

I wasn't surprised though to find out that Craftsteak HK was actually part of Dining Concepts, arguably the most prolific restaurant group in this part of the world.  While I was mildly disappointed that I wouldn't get the quality and styings of a global celebrity chef, I knew that at least Craftsteak HK would be the real deal (or at least I hoped).

We'd not made a reservation but managed to easily score a table for a mid week on-the-way-home-from-work dinner.  Securing a table down near the open plan kitchen, I was able to get a view of the open fire custom made charcoal fired grill.  We were given a couple of menus to look over and it became clear quite quickly that Craftsteak was the king of meats, with a good selection of cuts of beef and lamb from the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Quick Bites - Beer and Fish (where's the beer)

Beer & Fish HK

One of the things I miss most about my former home, a country that is one big island where most of the population lives on the coastline, is the variety of fish available when visiting a fish and chip shop.  In most fish and chipperies in Australia, you have a myriad of options available, all of it amazing quality.  So far, I've discovered that there is a distinct lack of fish and chip joints, and the few good ones I've found, there are limited options available.

My favourite so far has been Hooked in Soho (see post here), but even this New Zealand run little joint has very few options for an adventurous diner.  So, it was with a little trepidation that we visited the new the SoHo fish and chip joint, Beer & Fish.  We'd had a few false starts over the last few weeks, walking by  a couple of Saturday afternoons in a row, only to find that Beer & Fish was 'not quite open' yet.  Then, one day, it was open!

Being brand new, Beer & Fish had that shiny new feeling about it, everything was shiny and clean and it looked pretty cool.  Exposed light fittings gave it a slightly industrial feel, as did the metal benches that doubled as serving benches.  Like a lot of dining spots in SoHo, Beer & Fish took up very little room, in fact it was tiny, and would probably only hold half a dozen diners at any one time.

Linguini Fini - biggest pizza ever!

http://www.linguinifini.com

Always on the lookout for a quick and cheap dining option on the way home from work, we've had our eye on Linguini Fini for the last few months.  Located on the corner of Elgin and Shelley Streets in Soho, Linguini Fini immediately met one of our two requirements for a regular dining haunt, we walked by it every day on our way home from work, so convenient: Check!  There was only one way for us to find out if it met our other criteria, great tasting food, and that was to finally check it out.

Ironically, we went to Linguini Fini on a Sunday evening for dinner, so even though it was conveniently located on our walk home, we ended up coming at it from the wrong direction. Being a Sunday, we didn't think it would have been necessary to make a booking, and while the restaurant was quite busy with Sunday afternoon/evening expat drinkers, there were still tables available for diners.

If you've walked up the escalators through Soho, then you'd have seen Linguini Fini before, it's pretty hard to miss.  What makes it stand out so much is its open facade and its bright red neon sign, shining like a beacon calling in weary travellers for a beer and a pizza.  We were led around the back of the restaurant and given a seat that had a prime view of the kitchen, which gave me a bit of a sense of Linguini Fini.  Know for it's fresh produce that's locally sourced, I could see fresh pasta hanging from the ceiling and one of the chefs handling a huge fish that looked like it was squirming about, it was so fresh.

Cecconi's - their meatballs are amazing!

http://www.diningconcepts.com/cecconis/index.php

If you've been living in Hong Kong for any length of time, chances are, you've been to one of the restaurants that makes up the DiningConcepts stable.  In what has to be one of the most diverse portfolios of restaurants in HK, DiningConcepts has so many dining spots that they run a frequent diners club loyalty program.  With over over twenty different concepts, the team run such favourites as Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen (see post here) and Mario Batali's Lupa (see post here).

We've rather enjoyed most of our visits to the DiningConcepts restaurants, so have recently been keeping an eye out for one of their restaurants when looking for dinner.  Over the last few months, we'd had some pretty ordinary Italian cuisine, which is always disappointing given our love of Italian food.  So, when we spotted a little restaurant in Expat territory (Elgin Street), we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw it on the list managed by the group.

The front of Cecconi's is quite deceiving, it's hard to see into the restaurant, so it would be easy to miss the casual elegance of the white linen tables and the classy, yet understated dining room. Walking through the front door located under the slightly garish neon sign and into the quiet tranquility of the completely empty restaurant, completely removed us from bustling Soho and the heat of a typical Hong Kong evening.  We were taken directly to our table, which was located in a very comfy booth at the back of the restaurant, which gave me fantastic views of the pass.

NOM - Not Only Meatballs, sure, but totally delicious

http://www.nom.com.hk/

When writing a food blog, I usually like to tell a little bit of a story that leads into the meal, sometimes it's pretty easy and other times, well, it can be more challenging.  Very rarely do I have a few tales to tell, but it just so happened that with NOM, I had a couple.  So, instead of wracking my head to cut it down to one, I'll tell both!

NOM stands for Not Only Meatballs, which is ostensibly a specialist meatball restaurant that does serve considerably more than delicious little balls of meat.  I'd developed a little bit of a fetish in 2013, when I spent a month in Manhattan and went on a meatball finding odyssey (see post here).  New York is often considered one of the central spots globally (Italians would have something to say about that) when looking for meatballs and I have to say, I found some spectacular little spots, often in unusual circumstances.  

So, when the girl suggested we check out NOM, I was pretty darn excited, I wanted to see what the Hong Kong version of meatballs would be like.  Look, I know that HK is a global city and there is an amazing array of western style restaurants, but I can tell you now that there is a gulf between the good and the bad.  

Bread Street Kitchen - Gordon Ramsay in Hong Kong

http://diningconcepts.com/breadstreetkitchenbar/

Gordon Ramsay is arguably the biggest name in the food industry. With a catalogue of restaurants that span the globe, as well as a number of well known TV programs such as Hell's Kitchen and Masterchef USA, Ramsey seems to be everywhere.  But Chef Gordon Ramsay is a polarising figure, his huge popularity is matched by his detractors, including another famous UK chef, Jamie Oliver.

With an incredibly interesting background that included time as a (semi) professional football player that culminated,  then ended when injuries took a toll while trialling for Scottish powerhouse Rangers.  Ramsay started his cooking career by accident after initially enrolling in Hotel Management.  It wasn't until Ramsay found himself cooking for culinary legend Marco Pierre White that a passion was ignited that would one day take him to the top of the culinary heap.

After almost three years of equal parts learning and terror, Ramsay tired of the 'rages and bullying' from Pierre White, which ironically would become the most recognisable traits in Ramsay himself, and moved on.  It was time spent with legendary French chefs Albert Roux, Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon and a number of years in France that really honed Ramsay's skills in the kitchen.  Further enhancing his skills as a restauranteur, Ramsay went into several partnerships for a few years that helped directly gain Michelin Stars, but it wasn't until 1998 when Gordon opened his own restaurant, called Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, that things really started to heat up and by 2001 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay had gained it's third Michelin Star.

You know how the saying goes - the rest of course, is history!  So now I've caught you up with stuff you probably already knew.  

SEPA - the Venetian Experience

http://www.sepa.com.hk/

While I was away on business, my better half had snuck into a little Venetian restaurant on the edge of SoHo that delighted her.  How did I come to this conclusion?  Well, she didn't stop talking about the cute little restaurant and the amazing food on offer.  Of course, I needed to check out a place that left such an indelible mark my girl.

SEPA: Bacaro Veneziano, is a cute little bar & restaurant located on Caine Road, just underneath the escalators in SoHo.  It's hard to miss from the street, from an amazing looking wall mural along the side of the building to the stone fronted facade that could easily have been transported from Italy.  The distinctive blue stones and the style windows that remind me of an old tavern, SEPA certainly stands out.

There is a stand out in the kitchen of SEPA too, with world recognised Italian chef Erico Bartolini at the helm.  With a history that included the issuing of two Michelin Stars, the youngest Italian chef to do so for his restaurant Devero in Milan, the lure of Hong Kong became too much.  Like a number of European Michelin Starred chefs, Erico made the move to front Hong Kong's first Venetian style restaurant.

Drunken Duck - Gastro Pub re-imagined?

http://enotecagroup.com/thedrunkenduck/thedrunkenduck.html

I'd normally get really excited about a restaurant opening, walking by the construction and keeping an eye out on its progress. I don't really have the same level of excitement in Hong Kong, it's not possible; there are so many new restaurant openings in HK that I'd be walking around in a perpetual state of excitement.  But, for some reason, the Drunken Duck was one new restaurant that we'd been keeping tabs on, with a view to checking it out ASAP.

The latest in a number of British style Gastro Pubs that have opened in the last twelve months in HK, the Drunken Duck is the most recent creation of the Enoteca group. who also run a couple of Enoteca restaurants, as well as Iberico & Co in Soho.  

David Tamlyn, who was the head chef of Iberico & Co has moved over to the new venture.  David is one of the multitude of chefs who trained under culinary legend Marco Pierre White then went on to work in a number of well known Michelin Starred restaurants such as Pied-a-Terre and The Square.  David then took a bit of a change of direction to run Michelin rated Gastro Pubs The Bridge and the Salt House, before moving to hot and steamy Honkers.

With pretty high expectations, we braved a wet and stormy Sunday evening to wander along to the Drunken Duck (without reservation, of course) and found ourselves seated at a table right in front of the kitchen.  Like a lot of English style gastro pubs, the Drunken Duck has quite a warm and welcoming feel to it, and it was a lovely refuge from the stormy weather outside.  You could tell that the restaurant was still brand new, it had that new building smell and feel about it, everything was still shiny and new.