Oolaa

Date of visit: 30th Oct and 22nd Dec 2010

Oolaa @ CentreStage, Soho

Back in November I visited Oolaa with M and B for tea. I remember it was a weekend, because the other patrons were diving into breakfast-y items which looked so mouth-watering I vowed to return for a proper meal.

For tea B and I only managed a cappuccino and for M, a mango crumble. The cappuccino was not bad and the biscotti on the side was a nice touch, though on a more recent experience a latte my friend ordered was very dry, throwing the froth/milk/espresso proportions out of line.

"cappuccino" ($3x)

tall fluff and cocoa powder a nice touch, but not the smoothest froth ever and the drink was pretty mediocre

"mango crumble" ($65)

mangoes, crumble topping, vanilla ice cream, fluff

The mango crumble was quite average, the crumble mixture could've been better - more sweet and buttery and crunchy. The portion was quite small for its price too - my initial thought when it arrived was 'that's it?!'. The ice cream was very average, tasted like... Dreyers.

Anyway, fast forward to a couple months later, I was here for dinner with several friends for an early dinner. We started off with an appetizer of pork belly lollipops.

"Pork Belly Lollipops" ($95)

If the name didn’t sound intriguing enough, allow me to describe how tasty it was. Layers of crispy skin, fat, lean meat, fat then lean mean again, all slathered with a sweet dark glaze which was made of I think primarily hoisin sauce, soy and sugar. The only slight problem was that I thought the lean meat was a little too chewy, not fork tender as I hoped….

A salad was served up next.

 "Pumpkin, Asparagus & Couscous Salad" ($110)

with green pea, chick pea, coriander and a mint yogurt (far back in the pic) 

This dish was very light, and the couscous was perfectly cooked, and seasoned quite well. I also liked the small bits of pumpkin and bell peppers mixed throughout. 

"Lemongrass and Chilli King Prawns" ($195)

with Singapore noodles, sesame honey glazed pak choy. 

There were three prawns slit and grilled, but they lacked in flavour, and was a tad overcooked. The noodles was where all the spice went and after a couple fork fulls there was just too much chilli for A. I agree they could have been more light-handed with the chilli but what disappointed was the lack of other flavours in the noodles apart from spice and pepper, and the overcooked prawns. 

 "Glazed Soy Salmon" ($165) 

with cauliflower mash, grilled vine tomatoes and broccolini. 

The salmon was the star - still pink on the inside and melt-in-your-mouth tender. The glaze was on the sweeter side, but nonetheless good. The cauliflower mash was pretty good too, and a lighter alternative to the commonly served potato mash. 

"Smoores" ($80)

S'mores is an American sweet snack, usually where there is BBQ / camp fires, where a toasted marshmallow gets sandwiched between chocolate and graham crackers. This divine treat was deconstructed a little at Oolaa - so they had a home-made gingery cookie, with house-made marshmallow that was torched, and a chocolate sauce for dipping. However, for the price, what was served was hardly worthy in my opinion...

All in all, pretty good food and very interesting menu. If you forget the outside trash collection site, inside the restaurant will definitely suit most occasions. If you want something casual, there's the cafe on one side. If you're a smoker, there's a terrace for outdoor dining. Otherwise, pick the amber fine dining section with big and small tables, like what we did! 

Food: ♥♥♥-♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥ 

Price:$$$ 

Oolaa

G/F, Bridges St, CentreStage,

Soho,

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2803 2083