The weather was getting better and I was eager to be out. Met up with S to watch A-Team, which turned out to be funny, yes, but the circumstances sort of ruined the movie for us...
Dinner reservations was made for 8pm tonight...and we had a couple hours to kill at IFC, so we headed to Yo Mama where I had a sample of their Green Tea Frozen Yogurt, before S decided on an original with oreo bits. The green tea frozen yogurt looked a lot greener than I last tried it about a year ago, but the taste was still not there =( Nevermind, I think I had enough frozen yogurt in June anyway.
Fast forward to....
Lian @ IFC
We arrived 8 on the dot, and were seated to our cart table (a comfy U-shape, with sofa seats). Tonight was a full house at Lian, signs of a good restaurant (and reservations here are a must!). There were five of us, and I made recommendations based on my previous visits.
First to arrive was the Tiger Prawn and Lotus Root in Yellow Curry ($178) which came with a side of sliced baguette.
These pictures don't really do this dish justice, the yellow curry was excellent, and the tiger prawns were very large and fresh. However, this dish is quite spicy, despite being a yellow curry. My only complaint would be that the lotus root could have used a little more time in the heat as they were rather crunchy for my liking. We also ordered an extra side of rice ($20) (which took a ridiculously long time to arrive, probably because they were so busy and quite short of waiters) for my brother to mop up the sauce.
After a while, the Seafood and Abalone Rice in Lotus Leaf ($128) arrived. The rice inside is actually fried first, with plenty of turmeric (explains the yellowness). The rice was so good, nothing like I've had before...I just wish the portion was slightly bigger!
Yes this photo of the Whole Lobster with Garlic Butter ($250) is quite bad, but I was in such a hurry to dig in....
Size first - it was one lobster split in half, with its claws shelled and the claw meat on top of the body. I would estimate there was about 7 or 8oz of pure lobster meat? (Yummy!) The sauce in the middle is a tangy (lime), salty (fish sauce) and spicy dipping sauce which was rather tasty, but only if you wish to wrap the lobster meat in the lettuce. The lobster itself was already rather tasty - fresh and juicy with the fried onion, garlic and breadcrumbs on top. Also, there was at least two tablespoons of red lobster roe in the head/neck parts of the body =P.
This was actually S's choice - a red curry salmon ($160) which also came with a side of baguette. I've had this on a previous visit and remembered it to be a very mild curry - very suitable for people who cannot take spicy foods and so this was my recommendation for her.... She was a happy customer I believe!
Last to arrive was a White Miso Marinated Sea Bass Wrapped In Cucumber Ribbon ($195) and the purple dices are japanese pickles (plums?). The cod was lightly pan fried, although not as smooth and silky as the cod fillets I am used to (my last was at Ippei-An, and this could not compare to the cod there). Flavours for this dish seemed much more Japanese than Thai or Vietnamese. The sauce is a slightly sweetened miso sauce, and I suspect the use of honey. The cucumbers were so thinly sliced and paired with the fish quite well - a pretty healthy dish altogether. Nonetheless I am confused as to why this dish was available at Lian, a supposedly Thai and Viet (fusion) restaurant. It simply didn't fit in with the other dishes on the menu which were all very Thai / Vietnamese-influenced!
We also ordered a lime soda ($35) which was slightly sweet, sour and very refreshing!
Lian offers quite a long list of desserts, mostly paired with home-made ice cream such as honeycomb etc, from $70-80 per each, but none of us really had room for them, as most of the desserts (save for ice cream) sounded very rich.... next time perhaps!
[p.s. this restaurant by M.A.X. concepts offered 25% off with A.E. Platinum card.]
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Service
Price: $$$
Lian
Shop 2004, 2/F, IFC Mall, No. 1 Harbour View St.,
Central, HK
Tel: +852 2521 1117
UPDATE (Sep '10): Lian is now closed in IFC.
A couple of hours later however, S and I headed to Midlevels' Sweeties Dessert for some sweets. Not wanting to wait for the freshly assembled western desserts, we opted for a Mango Lover ($30) (fresh mango, mango ice cream, black tapioca pearls, nata de coco, mango puree, and 'popping sago') and a Chinese sweet Beansheet soup (fu jook tong shui) ($20)which had egg white, barley (lots) and ginko nuts.
Both of these desserts are 'Chinese' style desserts. They were quite large in portion and we couldn't finish either of them. My fu jook tong shui was plentiful in egg white and barley and thus very filling, but too sweet. It became sickly sweet half way through.... S's mango lover on the other hand was pretty good. There was these innocent looking sago, but when you bit into them, they 'popped' and made a cracking noise in your mouth which we thought were swell =) I did ask what they were called but the waiter told me it was nata de coco, something I am sure these were not. Would recommend to order this just for the (newly named by me) 'popping sago'.
Other patrons around us also ordered the fu jook tong shui and the many other western desserts available here. We vowed to return for the deep fried ice cream and apple crumble!
Food: ♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $
Sweeties Dessert
Shop M4B, No.1 Babington Path,
Mid-Levels, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2127 7388
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