Date of Visit: 31st July 2010
Café Iguana @ Elements Mall, TST
Since waiting 16 tables for dinner at Inaniwa Udon-Nabe was not an option for my family nor myself, I thought we'd try out something out of the box - Mexican. We were seated at a really cute high booth, and we studied the menu...
First up we ordered two appetizers - an appetizer sampler ($125) and an order of nachos ($88)
The nachos which had two kinds of tortilla chips - red and yellow, with melted Asadero cheese, corn, jalapenos, guacamole, salsa and sour cream was certainly pleasing to the eye but not so on the palate. The chips were no longer crunchy, more of seasoning was needed. The cheese whilst nicely melted, was pretty bland in taste... if you're going to use a mild Mexican cheese its fine, just add some salt to compensate for the lack of flavour! More salsa / guacamole etc would've helped too.
For us this appetizer platter was pretty disastrous. On the plate were some skewers (chicken and pork), pan fried chorizo, quesadillas, seafood ceviche and fried Manchego cheese. Where/how should I start? Satays were not bad but cold. The ceviche (in the glass on the left) had semi-raw seafood, and dressed with a lime dressing with chopped tomatoes/onion etc. There were dices of scallop and shrimp, and whilst the scallops were just cooked, the shrimp was half-cooked i.e. not pink in colour, still grey and not translucent either. I should have sent it back, but I couldn't really be bothered because I was so disappointed already. As for the chorizo frito which came with a tiny piece of garlic bread...I didn't like it, at all. The sausage was unbelievably tough, hard and chewy, whilst the garlic bread was slightly stale. The deep-fried Manchego cheese sticks and the quesadillas were the only items that received an 'okay' from us.
Our mains of flank steak fajitas and prawn alambres al pastor fared slightly better.
Another pot of salsa which they provided when I asked for more.
The Steak fajitas ($152) presentation-wise was pretty good. It arrived on a pan, with a bed of onions and peppers beneath steak strips (over-cooked and slightly tough as a result), four little pots with 1/3 each full only of sour cream, salsa, guacamole and re-fried beans. A drawer was on one side which contained three tortilla breads. The steak was most disappointing as it had been way over-cooked, and they could have been more generous with the condiments. The tortillas were however, soft and fluffy and slightly thicker than one's I've had. Nonetheless I can still think of many places which would serve tastier fajitas in Hong Kong.
The prawn alambres al pastor ($147) arrived on a skewer which the waiter than proceeded to take off the meat before I could photograph it. Anyway, the prawn (or shrimp rather) was placed on the plate underneath along with a side of fried potatoes and asparagus. Some really tangy and sour lime dressing was also provided, which I didn't care for. The shrimps were good - well marinated, so it was tasty. But the asparagus was way over-cooked, and the potatoes were only so-so....
beer x 3
After all this bad food we were pretty full, so we skipped the churros that I wanted to order in the beginning. The bill came to about $732 including three beers and service. Not expensive for civic square restaurants, but the food could've been so much better in quality and execution, for the price they were charging. Hell, anyone could've been cooking these dishes for all I know!!
Safe to say, won't be returning any time soon for food.
Food: ♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $$$
Café Iguana
Shop R004, Roof Level, Elements, 1 Austin Road West,
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2196 8733
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