Old Napa night

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The Prince of Napa is back in town as he spends time at Vinexpo. I haven't seen him since that morning when we drank a few bottles while watching TayTay at the Superbowl, so he invited me to join a dinner where the wine theme is "old Napa" - specifying that the wines have to be older than 1990. This isn't a theme that comes up often among the wine circles in Hong Kong, so I found myself a bottle and agreed to join in the fun.

I laughed out loud when my friend showed me that a booking was made at The Merchants (嘗申匯), the restaurant purportedly serving Shanghainese cuisine inside the complex known as Forty-Five. When this place launched more than a year ago, PR8 sent out a press release declaring it to be “Hong Kong's most exciting new food and beverage lifestyle destination in a generation". I laughed out back then and inched my friend about the hyperbole. Since then, feedback from friends who were invited to tastings have been pretty lukewarm, with comments like "might as well go to Shanghai Fraternity Association (上海總會)" being a common refrain. Most tellingly, I don't recall any of my friends returning to the restaurant after their initial visit. If they did, there haven't been any posts on social media gushing about their meals. Meanwhile, I have had zero desire to pay the place a visit on my own dime.

But hey, I'm not the host of the event so I just went along with it. I did share my reservations with the Prince of Napa, who has, in the past, accompanied me on a couple of "take down (踢館)" meals. While I have a reputation of being the Arrogant Prick, I do believe that the Prince of Napa is even worse when it comes to fine dining restaurants. So... this was going to be interesting.

Somewhere along the line, my friend asked me whether there was anything that I wanted to pre-order. NOOOOO... I wouldn't want to do anything to detract from a "real" experience at this here restaurant.

We were seated in one of the private rooms, with commanding views of the city. I suppose that's why people come here, although personally, the view during the meal is not one of the factors I use to judge a restaurant.

We started with a trio of appetizers, but as I don't normally touch raw crabs, I gave my portion of drunken crab with 25-year Hua Diao wine (廿五年花雕醉膏蟹) to my neighbor.

Crystal pork terrine served with vinegar (水晶肴肉) - this was pretty nice, and probably the best version I've had in a while.

Once a year

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It's been close to a year since I last came to Hansik Goo, and I figured we were long overdue for a visit. Foolishly, I had initially booked the private room without realizing that there would be a pretty high minimum charge. As there were only 6 of us tonight and the numbers didn't make sense, I asked the restaurant to seat us in the main dining room instead. I was, therefore, pleasantly surprised when the restaurant decided to seat us in the private room anyway without imposing the minimum charge.

While the tasting menu already offered a good range of dishes, I was greedy as usual... and ordered both of the optional add-ons.

Korean starters:

Clam juk (죽) with egg jjim and caviar - there was a layer of steamed egg at the bottom, and the porridge was made with clam stock as well as clams, along with some caviar and finely shredded laver.

All crows are black

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The Candidate has been wanting to visit Yong Fu (甬府) for the better part of last year, but somehow she had missed out on joining us for our last visit. When I felt it was time to return and try out their beautiful cuisine - following a break of a few months after a less-than-satisfying meal - I suggested that we meet here tonight for our little drinking session.

As usual, I asked the restaurant manager to get the kitchen to suggest a menu for us. Given what happened last time, I reminded myself to pay more attention to the dishes being proposed to make sure that they would be suitable for my palate. As it turns out, I still fell a liiiittle short on this.

We started dinner about a half-hour later than originally planned due to some late arrivals, but I figured we still had about 2½ hours until we had to vacate the premises. That should be plenty of time and we could still have a relaxing and enjoyable evening. I could not have been more wrong.

Sankala was munching on the snacks while we waited for the others to arrive. We were pretty hungry.

It is customary in Shanghainese/Jiangsu/Zhejiang cuisine to lay out the series of appetizers all in one go, or at least in quick succession. I'm used to that so no issues here.

Fresh walnuts with sun-dried shrimp (蝦皮拌鮮核桃) - this was surprisingly good. The sun-dried shrimps - about the size of sakura shrimp (桜海老) - were definitely tasty.

Disappointing Russian department store

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I haven't been so disappointed in a restaurant in a long, long time. 

After the start of the Year of the Ox, we finally stopped working from home and working life went back to "normal".  I decided to take the team - the ones who are in Hong Kong, anyway - to lunch to kick off the new year.  While I originally thought about going somewhere just across the street from our office, I decided to venture a few blocks further and booked ourselves into Restaurant de Chine (中華匯館).  It's been 3 years since my last visit, but these guys have always delivered.  

What a mistake that was.

While I wanted to treat the team to a nice lunch, I was still a little conscious of budget since I'm not the boss, so I avoided any dish which charged per serving.  At a place like this, though, I still expected to come out happy without ordering anything really premium.

The trouble started when I began ordering.  A couple of dishes I wanted weren't available.  Then a couple more.  I got frustrated and asked our server point-blank which dishes I was able to order.  She didn't know.  After thinking that I was done ordering, she came back to the table to tell me that two more dishes were unavailable.

At this point I turned to specific menu pages and asked her to recommend substitutes for the dishes that weren't available.  On a particular page, only 2 or 3 options were available out of 10.  It was the same with another page.  She recommended dishes which were either charging by the serving (read: expensive) or completely uninteresting to me.  The restaurant manager, who undoubtedly was in a better position to help me order, was too chicken shit to come face the wrath that was building in me.  I was having déjà vu of this dinner from many years ago...

Barbecued Kagoshima Chami pork (鹿兒島茶美豚叉燒) - the best dish today.  At least they never disappoint with this one... The marbling just make it so tender and tasty.

Why I don't go to brand new restaurants, episode 2

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Mikacina is in town for a few days, and we figured we'd take her out for some Cantonese food.  The Great One had two new places she needed to review, and suggested that we tag along with her.  Apparently one of the hotels wasn't picking up the phone when she tried to call, so we ended up getting at table at Rùn (潤) in the brand new St. Regis Hong Kong.

Since I knew absolutely nothing about the restaurant, I did a quick search on the chef. Apparently Chef Hung Chi-Kwong (洪志光) was last at Man Wah (文華廳) in the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, and Cuisine Cuisine (國金軒) at the Mira before that.  Although neither are among my handful of favorites, both are quality establishments I've enjoyed dining in.  So I was very curious about the offerings.

Hello Kitty and I arrived a little after Mikacina and The Great One.  They had a welcome drink sitting in front of them, but I guess the staff just didn't remember to bring ours.  Or maybe you only get it when you're on time for your reservation.

The four of us tried to flip through the menu, but honestly at first glance it didn't look very inspiring.  As with a first visit to any decent Cantonese restaurant, we wanted to try out their char siu (叉燒).  We were told they had run out.  This was before 8 p.m. on a week night, and that's just not acceptable.  I had flashbacks of this meal from a few years ago...

We started with a couple of amuse bouche:

Green beans with sesame sauce

Deep-fried shrimp cake with spicy sauce - we were told that this was drenched in "Singaporean sauce (星洲汁)", but what the hell is that???

Droning Boy: snowy Hokkaido

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I dragged my ass out of bed a little after 6 a.m. in spite of my lack of sleep yesterday.  One of the things I wanted to accomplish on this trip was to take some shots of Lake Toya (洞爺湖) from the air, and I had gotten my drone fixed just in time before we flew here.

I went out the front door of the Hotel Windsor Toya, and after a short walk trying not to slip on compacted snow, I realized that the hotel parking lot would be a good spot for me to take off.  I unfolded my portable landing pad, tried to secure it on a pile of snow flattened by a bulldozer, and launched my drone into the sky.

This was my first time trying out the panoramic mode on the DJI Mavic Pro, and the functionality only came out about a year ago.  I was pretty excited to check out the spherical panorama mode, where the drone positions itself to take 34 pictures which can later be stitched together on the app itself.  I also took some wide, horizontal panorama shots.

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I focused on shooting video for my second flight, and pushed the drone towards Nakajima Island (中島) in the middle of Lake Toya.  I was almost over the edge of the lake, at a distance of around 2.5 km, when I decided to bring the drone home.  There still seemed to be a healthy buffer between the estimated time remaining on the battery and the minimum time for the drone to fly straight home.

Europe 2018 day 16: Champion du Monde

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It's Sunday in Paris where many outlets are closed, including your neighborhood boulangeries.  Since we can't get our caffeine fix at Eric Kayser and we were reluctant to patronize a touristy café with tables on the sidewalk, we decided to grab breakfast at... McDo!

Œuf McMuffin bacon et beef

McMuffin jambon Emmental fondu

We grabbed a taxi to visit Fondation Louis Vuitton, which is adjacent to the Jardin d'Acclimatation and not far from the apartment. It's an impressive structure designed by Frank Gehry, with terraces where one can relax while getting a view of the nearby parks and the skyscrapers in the distance.

Europe 2018 day 13: 10 white men

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There's an outlet of Eric Kayser just around the corner from the apartment we are staying in, so naturally this became our go-to place for coffee and viennoiserie in the morning.  It won't be the best in Paris, but it's good enough to keep us happy.
This morning, though, I had something else to sample: the Pierre Hermé x L'Occitane macarons I bought from 68 Champs yesterday.

Pamplemousse and rhubarbe - fruity, but dominated by cloves.

Jasmin, néroli, immortelle - could clearly taste the jasmine, but overall it tastes like L'Occitane hand cream... so I guess that would be the immortelle.

Miel, immortelle and mandarine - much more orange, very sweet.

Slaughtering fat sheep, part 3

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This is a rant.  I'm not going to describe all the delicious food I had tonight at one of my (former) favorite restaurants.  I'm too pissed off by the unprofessional service to care.

I was really pissed off about the way our orders were taken for our dinner at Above and Beyond (天外天) in Hotel ICON.  To be fair, we were partly to blame for the problem.  Hello Kitty had pre-ordered 1½ roast Peking ducks for the 12 of us, as well as the restaurant's signature steamed coral crab with glutinous rice.  She was too busy at work when someone at the restaurant got her on the phone and tried to discuss tonight's menu.

So the task of ordering the rest of the dishes fell on our shoulders.  I was feeling lazy and kicked the ball over to A, who had never been here before.  He proceeded to order a few dishes, then passed the menu back to me so I could finish ordering the dishes.

This is where we ran into trouble.

Korea Michelin tour day 4: one star food, WTF Korean service

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Our eating tour continues with our first foray across the Hangang to Gangnam.  I thought it would be easier for us to take the MRT and walk to the restaurant, but failed to measure how long the walk would be...  So we arrived at Jungsik Dang (정식당) for our lunch a little late, and a little sweaty.

I know I can be a pain-in-the-ass customer, and have been known to have been pissed off by restaurants for one reason or another.  But it's still quite a rare feat for a restaurant to piss me off before I even took a single bite.

Slip and slide

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Ninja's making her move out of town, and Hello Kitty and I met up with her tonight to catch up.  Not surprisingly, she wanted some "real Cantonese" food... and preferred to go to Fook Lam Moon (福臨門) even though I suggested several alternatives.  I did understand her rationale, though, as she associates most of the other places I suggested with work-related meals.

Since there were only three of us, I didn't think we needed to pre-order anything special.  So we picked out a few simple dishes we thought would be representative of the place.

But our evening started with a surprising disappointment.  At 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night, when the 2nd floor of the restaurant (read: the floor where stragglers and nobodies get seated) is only half full, we were told that the kitchen had run out of barbecued pork (叉燒).  SERIOUSLY?!  A top Cantonese restaurant, with no char siu?!  AT PEAK DINNER HOUR?!  And all they have is roast pork belly...

I am instantly reminded of my disastrous dinner at Lei Garden (利苑) in the International Finance Centre all those years ago, when nothing I wanted was available.  And I never spent another dime of my money at that restaurant ever again...

Deep-fried frogs' legs (椒鹽田雞腿) - these were crispy and delicious as always, with that nice sprinkling of deep-fried minced garlic and chopped chili.

One star food, WTF service

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WARNING: this is a long rant piece about why the service pissed me off so much that I won't return to a restaurant with good food.  If you have no interest in my rant, skip ahead to where the pictures start showing up and I actually talk about the food.  For the few of you who already have your bowls of popcorn or bags of peanuts ready... read on!

*BEGIN RANT*

It's been a while since we caught up with Winnie the Chew, and I was pretty happy we could figure out a date that worked for everyone.  To my great surprise (NOT!) she requested that I take her to Neighborhood... but as I was already scheduled to dine there 3 nights ago, I turned down the request and looked for an alternative.  When Hello Kitty suggested that we try out Tate Dining Room and Bar at their new location, I thought it was a great idea.  Vicky Lau has been getting some love in the press lately about her move to the brand-spanking-new digs, most notably from Hong Kong Tatler.  Both of my meals at the previous location were reasonably enjoyable, and after reading such a flattering piece in Tatler, along with Da Jam's restaurant review, there was no reason not to check out Vicky's new "All the Odes" menu...

It had been raining heavily only hours before dinner, so I carried my umbrella to the restaurant.  I was surprised that there wasn't a place for me to park the umbrella, so I took it to our table and hung it from the side.  No one bothered to take notice, and it wasn't until I nudged it and the umbrella hit the floor with a loud "whack!" that someone came over and checked it for me.  Small matter, but many establishments would have taken care of it upon arrival.

We brought our own wines as usual, and I carried both a Champagne as well as a red Burg.  I asked the Bespectacled Waiter - whom I recognized from my previous visit a year ago - to chill the bubbly.  While I made clear to him that we would also open the red Burg, I told him I needed to think a little when he asked me whether I also wanted the second bottle opened at the same time.  He politely walked off, but left the bottle of red Burg sitting in the middle of the table.  This bottle would remain in the middle of our table for the next hour or so - without anyone coming to ask if they could help put it somewhere out of our way.  Nobody on staff thought it was strange to have an unopened bottle of wine sitting in the middle of the table during dinner - for a whole hour.  I finally asked the Bespectacled Waiter to chill it before having it opened.  Strike one.

Alas, that doesn't surprise me.  I remember the Bespectacled Waiter precisely because of the way I watched him serve wine to another table on my last visit... and was thankful that I didn't BYO that time.  And also because I just found difficulty in terms of communications with him.  Not that we don't speak the same language, but maybe we are just on totally different wavelengths...

For some reason, one of our waiter took away the Champagne glasses from two of us while was still plenty of bubbly left in the bottle.  When it was discovered that we hadn't finished the bottle, new glasses were brought out for those who longer had them.  How did this happen?  Did someone decide on our behalf that we didn't need to finish our bottle, or someone made a decision that two of us shouldn't have any more Champagne?  Strike two.

I know I can be a pain in the ass when it comes to wine service, and I normally don't want my glass topped up with a fresh pour until I have completely finished the wine in my glass.  This is because I want to taste how the wine develops over time, and I don't want to mix the old and new pours.  So I don't mind when I find my wine glass empty.

However, not everyone is like me, and Hello Kitty was feeling fairly thirsty tonight... so she asked a waitress to pour her some wine when her glass became empty.  Well... said waitress kinda just ignored her and walked away to do something else unrelated to our table, and her glass remained empty.  Hello Kitty was none too pleased about having to make a second request to get some wine in her glass.  Strike three.

Hello Kitty is a lefty, so she is used to moving the silverware from her right side - where waitstaff usually sets them down - to her left side.  Normally the smart waitstaff at restaurants would notice this after a couple of times, and begin to set the silverware down on her left.  When you are setting down silverware for the seventh course and you are still putting it down on the wrong side - YOU ARE CLEARLY FAILING AT YOUR JOB.  What made it even worse?  After Hello Kitty moved the silverware from her right to her left, one waitress came and MOVED THEM BACK TO HER RIGHT!  WHAT KIND OF BRAINDEAD PERSON DO YOU HAVE TO BE??  Strike four.

Good waitstaff needs to do more than just set down plates/silverware and recite the names of the dishes.  He or she should also be observant of the customers and - in rare cases where the staff is exceptionally good - anticipate the needs of the customers.  NO ONE was doing that here tonight.  Not even close.

While I am commonly referred to as the Arrogant Prick by my friends and well-known to be very, very picky when it comes to service (I once inadvertently caught a glance of Amber's warning note to their front-of-house staff about me...), Hello Kitty is generally very easy-going.  When you fail so badly that you bring out THE Hello Kitty - kinda like that time when Good Chucky made a rare appearance - then a good skewering is gonna come your way.  Hence this portion of this post.

Oh, one final thing.  I know not everyone is able to deliver the flawless pronunciation of every single term which originated in a foreign language - myself included - but I still think that restaurants need to train their staff to try and do better.  Waiters who tell their diners about the SE-VEESH on the plate will get the same reaction from me as shop assistants who welcome me to their VER-SAYS or CHANNEL store. I'll let a lot of this stuff slide when I'm at my local Spaghetti House paying 1/10th of the price because I don't have any expectations.  When you're charging USD 200 for a seat in your fine dining restaurant - part of which goes to pay for the fancy decor and the custom-designed fancy uniforms for your waitstaff - I expect you to do better.  A LOT better.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't enjoy skewering restaurants.  OK, maybe just a wee little bit, but it's far from my raison d'être.  Skewering is the inevitable result of an experience so poor that it elicits a reaction in response, and when I'm paying my own money to dine out, the last thing I would want is a poor meal - money down the drain and/or wasted calories consumed.

In case it isn't clear: I want Tate Dining Room and Bar - and Vicky Lau in particular - to do well.  Just last week I had written another rant piece about the hate that certain people have for the "Best Female Chef Awards" given out over the last few years, in which I defended the need for such awards.  Vicky is a previous recipient of that award, and I would love nothing more than seeing her succeed and inspire others.  I think we need to see more diversity in the hospitality industry - especially in the kitchen.  But at the same time,  it doesn't mean I'm gonna cut her and her restaurant any slack when they fall short of my expectations.

I've said many times before that poor service is one of the reasons why I don't return to restaurants - regardless of how good the food is.  And as a normally generous tipper, it takes a lot for me to put a big fat zero in the "tip" row on the credit card slip.  Which was what I put down tonight.

*END RANT*

Vicky Lau's new "All the Odes" menu comes in eight parts, with an additional ode at the end of the meal.  The menu is presented in a book-shaped box, along with the wine list.  There is no longer a choice between a shorter and a longer menu - so a more economical option has been removed.  There is now only a choice between the "regular" menu and a vegetarian (and slightly cheaper) option.

Plus 1 trip to Vietnam day 3: the most ridiculous service ever

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More than 4½ hours after leaving Princess D'Ân Nam Resort and Spa, with a detour to Tan Son Nhat International Airport to drop off the others, we finally arrived at InterContinental Asiana Saigon.  We checked in, changed to dressier clothes, and walked over for our dinner appointment.

Before leaving home, I had send emails to the concierge at InterContinental Asiana Saigon and asked that they help me make reservations at several restaurants in the city.  The concierge team was highly efficient and confirmed my bookings within the same day.

So you can imagine my surprise when I stepped through the front doors to the Hotel Continental Saigon and found that the courtyard that was supposed to be the Continental Palace Restaurant being occupied by a wedding party.

Another Prüm evening

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Some 6 years after the first time, I was once again at a wine dinner with Dr. Katharina Prüm - the winemaker of Weingut Joh. Jos. Prüm.  I didn't hesitate to sign up when I first found out about it, because I've been such a big fan of their wines.  The added bonus was that tonight's dinner was held at Zhejiang Heen (浙江軒), a Shanghainese restaurant with a Michelin star that I have never been to.

The crowd tonight was much larger than I had expected, which was a testament to the success of the organizing wine merchant.  I arrived late and Dr. Prüm was already in the middle of her speech.  Pretty soon the waitstaff would start to bring out food from the kitchen, following the preset menu.

Zhejiang Heen signature appetizers: smoked fish, black fungi in Zhejiang vinegar, pickled radish, Ningbo crispy fried eels, transparent bean noodles with shredded chicken, smoked egg (浙江軒冷盤：長江燻魚, 香醋雲耳, 醬香蘿蔔, 寧波脆鱔, 雞絲粉皮. 煙燻蛋) - so we start out with a plate full of different appetizers.  The smoked fish was not too sweet, had a pretty crunchy exterior but remained pretty soft inside.  Black fungus came with good acidity from the vinegar.  The pickled radish was pretty salty with a little sweetness and a hint of spice on the finish.  The crispy eels were pretty tasty.  The noodles were OK, and the smoked egg wasn't bad.

Neighborhood harbor front dining

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I learned a little more about the dining options of my new hood yesterday, thanks to a story link posted by my friend g4gary.  One of the places mentioned was Reiki Small Field (小田料理), a new Japanese place by the ferry terminal, which is literally a stone's throw away from me.  I'd walked by this place numerous times, and had been pretty curious.  Tonight it was time to check it out.

The restaurant occupies part of the ferry terminal building, and the side facing Victoria Harbour is actually open to the water without any windows.  Harborside seats had already been taken when I called to reserve, but it was probably a good thing, anyway... The fragrance of the Fragrant Harbour isn't always pleasant, and there's always a chance of breathing in fumes from the departing ferry boats.

In addition to an à la carte menu offering items from sashimi to tempura, the restaurant also offers two kaiseki menus.  I decided to splurge for the more expensive option which, at HKD 1,000 a head, seems a little steep for a location such as this.

First up was this plate.  Our waitress plopped it down in front of us and walked away.  I tried to ask what it was that we were eating, but I couldn't get an answer.  The cook came out, and he didn't seem to understand my question of "what are these?"  Maybe he thought I was a total idiot... since I couldn't even recognize what was obviously a giant scallop in front of me.

Italian food with gorgeous view

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I found myself at Cucina in the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel tonight.  Hello Kitty was doing some research for a project, and we decided to have dinner here.  This would be my first visit.  In fact, I had never even heard of this place.  But hey, I heard this place has a pretty good harbor view, so why not?

The menu was reasonably compact, with a mix of Italian dishes together with other not-so-Italian choices like lobster bisque, foie gras...etc.  I chose a selection of what I felt would be representative of what the new chef could do.

Cappuccino al funghi porcini con biscotti al parmigiano - this was pretty decent.  Slightly over-seasoned for my taste, but most diners will probably find it perfectly fine.  They even threw in a slice of porcini.  The Parmigiano biscotti are not bad, either.

Good wine, good vegetable, shit service

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Tonight I paid my very first visit to the newest fine dining restaurant operated by the Lai Sun Group, and had a fantastic dinner.  But this was also my last visit, since I won't be going back there.

Why? You ask.  In a word: service.  I don't go back to restaurants where the service is shit, no matter how good the food is.

I had heard about Howard's Gourmet (好酒好蔡) opening up in Hong Kong quite a few months ago.  News of its imminent opening buzzed around town, and a few of my friends were talking about it.  Although I was initially tempted to dismiss the place as another nouveau riche Chinese restaurant serving expensive ingredients for the sake of pumping up the bill, a couple of my friends had had good meals at the restaurant in Guangzhou, so the food seemed to be legit.  Then I found out that the local partner is the Lai Sun Group, and for me, that is as good of a quality guarantee as one can get in Hong Kong.

But I wasn't in a hurry to pay them a visit.  Word was that the price of dinner ranged from HKD 2,500 to 4,000 a head, depending on how many of the premium ingredients were included.  Since I'm never eager to pay for things like whelk, bird's nest, abalone, and shark's fin - the latter is on my forbidden list for environmental reasons - this place wasn't high on my priority list.

We were getting together to celebrate a couple of birthdays with some old friends, and some of them wanted to try the place out, so I went along with the group decision.  Dinner service was in private rooms only, with a minimum of HKD 16,000 per table, so the seven of us ponied up tonight.  The restaurant was told about my dietary restriction - the fact that I refuse to eat shark's fin - and had prepared a substitution.

I was poured some bottled water the minute I sat down.  I had never had Krystal before, but the bottle clearly screamed "premium and expensive water"... and when your tagline is "The pinnacle of luxury and health in a bottle", I just know these guys are selling pure bullshit to people who just have more money than taste or sense.

The problem with (almost) every Chinese restaurant

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Dinner tonight was with Hello Kitty and My Birdbrain Cousin, and I planned it very poorly... or rather, didn't really plan at all.  I had to call 4 restaurants before finding one with seats at a reasonable hour, and in the end had to settle for Sun Tung Lok (新同樂魚翅海鮮酒家) in Tsim Sha Tsui.

From its inception back in the glorious days, this place has always been known for its over-the-top emphasis on shark's fin, abalone, bird's nest...etc.  So it was no surprise that we sat next to a Strong Country couple as I overheard the woman ask the man whether they were having shark's fin or abalone tonight.  Alas, I am too much of a cheapskate to order ingredients like that... especially since I never order shark's fin for environmental reasons.

Braised Spanish pork belly in homemade kimchi gravy with toast (京韓烤西班牙黑毛豬腩) - we had no idea how big this was... and it was pretty monstrous!  Oh yeah, this pork belly was sooooo good...  Just look at the grill marks on the skin...

A 3-star restaurant's fall from grace

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It was supposed to be a wonderful evening.  This bunch hadn't gotten together for a meal in a while, and I hadn't had the opportunity to see one of my friends in months as she played hermit.  So when she asked for the bunch of us to get together, I was only too happy to organize.  After a couple of rounds of back-and-forth, I was delighted that we settled on my old favorite Caprice.  I had only gone back once since Chef Fabrice Vulin took over the reins, and I did enjoy that lunch very much.

Given that there were 8 of us, we were told that we must take a set menu.  Fine, I would have asked for one from the kitchen, anyway.  We were presented with two seemingly standard alternatives, but since we are no longer familiar with the restaurant's repertoire, I didn't have an issue taking the "chef's signature menu".  After all, I wanted to see what the chef believed were his "best shots".

I was pleasantly surprised to be recognized as I approached the entrance, and once through the double doors it wasn't long until I found myself facing Sebastien Boudon - the maître d'hotel.  The other Sebastien (Allano, the sommelier) came over soon after to inquire about our wines for the evening.  There's still a certain degree of that warm-and-fuzzy feeling left.

First came cheese puffs were made with two types of cheese including Parmesan.  Bigger than I expected, and pretty nice.

Le fenouil, une rillette de maquereau - cherry tomato gelée, tomato tartare, with fennel salad on top and a deep-fried croquette of mackerel rillette.  Lots of nice umami from the tomato, and the croquette had good acidity.

One-star food, zero-star service

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I was looking for a lunch spot near the office, and suddenly realized that I haven't had dim sum on a weekend in a long time.  The Boss (波士廳) is one of the places nearby with pretty good food, so I poked my head in to see if we could get ourselves a table...

Curiously, after we were seated and asked what kind of tea we preferred, no one was in a hurry to see what we wanted.  No one bothered to bring us the menu, even though there was a set sitting on the empty table right next to us.  I pressed the button on my chronograph and proceeded to twiddle my thumbs while we waited... and waited...  After about 5 minutes, someone probably overheard our discussion and finally brought us the menu.

We ordered a couple of dim sum items, plus one of my favorite dishes at the restaurant.  Unfortunately, the poor service continued...

Baked egg tarts (牛油蛋撻仔) - WTF?!  In what universe is it kosher to bring out the dessert first?!  Especially when the menu specifically highlights that it takes 20 minutes, and yet these arrived at our table around 2 minutes after we placed our order?!