Catalunya - Sunday brunch with a lot of spectacle and excellent service

Catalunya was definitely one of the hottest restaurants to open in Hong Kong last year - so for a Sunday lunch I gathered my folks for a stuff-yourself-silly meal...

menu

Brunching in Providence

My second stop in the States was Providence, Rhode Island where I met my bestfriend P and her buddies J, T and A. We got along right away - bonding over nothing less than our love of good food! 

Nick's on Broadway was one of the stops we made for brunch. We waited nearly an hour to be seated if I recall correctly - this place is hugely popular on weekends!

open kitchen - we sat at the bar tables and got to see chefs at work!

Australia Dairy Company

This beloved and quintessentially Hong Kong-esque cafe ('tea restaurant' / cha chaan teng) needs no introduction, here is a little food porn from a recent visit. 

All Day Combo ($30)

This set comes with a drink (iced milk tea / coffee!), your choice of creamy scrambled eggs or two sunny side-ups, with ham and soft buttered white bread.... Eggs benedicts has nothing on this IMHO. The barbeque pork in macaroni is merely a filler...

Egg and corned beef sandwich ($16)

 Another favourite, although those with hypertension should probably stay away ;) Very good take out option if you can't be bothered to queue.

"Fast" combo - bottle of fresh milk and choice of fried/scrambled eggs with buttered toast

On to desserts.. 

Steamed milk and egg white custard pudding

 Very rich in milk flavour, the hot version is definitely the one to order. Their version has one of the best flavour and textures I've had around town.

Steamed egg custard (available hot/cold)

Now, what are you waiting for?!

Food: ♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥ 1/2 
Price: $20-50 pp 

Australia Dairy Company
47-49 Parkes Street, 
Jordan, Kowloon
Tel: +852 2730 1356

Sunday Brunch @ Zuma

Date of visit: 22nd August 2010

Zuma @ Landmark 

spinach in sesame sauce (chilled)

baby clams in miso soup

veggie soup - think it was ozoni soup minus the mochi (less filling + more suitable as appetizer); kombu salad; deep fried sliced tofu; seared tuna. 

second plate with meat patty skewers, mushroom skewers, assorted sushi, sashimi

chilled soba in broth with onsen (hot spring) egg, bonito, seaweed

plate three with chicken and leek skewers, chicken wings, smoked salmon, rice skewers

hand-made tofu with scallions, miso paste, ginger and sesame seeds

Zuma had an impressive spread when we walked in at 1.30. Two long tables, one filled with sushi and sashimi selections, the other with assorted Japanese 'starters'. 

To begin with, the chilled spinach in sesame sauce was not bad. The sesame dressing seemed to be made from purely ground white sesame seeds, rather than mixed with other seasoning which is what you often find at Japanese restaurants. This results in a white sesame dressing which is quite strong, and a little goes a long way.

Miso soup with baby clams was one of two soups available. The clams in this were well-cleaned and not fishy at all. The broth I think had a little sake, but mostly a miso broth which wasn't salty....yumm!

Plate one with the Japanese vegetable soup was, I believe an Ozoni soup, which normally has mochi as it is served as a main during the Japanese New Year. In Zuma's version was some radish, carrots and bak choy to give the dashi and soy broth a lovely sweet taste. It was light and tasty and I loved it. 

There were also platters of different salads. One which I tried was a kombu (seaweed) salad which was nothing special in my opinion. Also on plate one was some seared tuna (pretty good), crispy tofu (okay) and grilled zucchini skewer (tasty). 

After this I went to over to the other table and picked out my favourite sashimi and sushi. The hotate, ama ebi (quite large) and hamachi were really sweet and fresh. The sushi rolls are small, enabling one to try several without getting too full and the ones I picked were good, my favourite being the cooked salmon with flavoured rice and caviar - this piece is a must-try! 

The skewers which I tried included the grilled mushroom, scallop, chicken and leek, mini minced meat patty, flavoured rice and zucchini (mentioned above). Whilst the scallop was way overcooked and chewy to the point of being inedible, the others were in good size, tasty and satisfying.

Also available on the buffet table was soba noodles with onsen (hot spring) egg, which I only managed to try the egg - nicely done with soft whites and a slightly runny molten orange yolk center.

To end my 'starter' course I had some hand-made tofu with assorted condiments which just come out. I must say the first bucket of tofu available when we arrived looked grainy, runny and just...unappetizing. The new bucket looked fairly neat so I scooped a portion and topped it with some miso sauce, grated ginger and scallions and sesame seeds for flavour. The tofu was properly set this time, and it was wonderfully creamy. On its own it tasted very natural and a little of the miso sauce for seasoning made the soya curd taste all the better. Definitely recommend this ONLY if it looks 'set'! 

Sirloin with sauteed mushrooms, wafu sauce and garlic chips.

'

Salmon marinated in a teriyaki-type sauce, pickled cucumber

For main course, each diner may select one of several dishes. The menu included items like tempura, grilled mackerel, mentaiko udon, miso chicken fillet etc. We only selected two different items (we probably should have tried the other items rather than doing repeats!), the sirloin and the salmon. 

The sirloin was quite disappointing as it was chewy and tough despite being cooked to medium or medium-well. The taste was good, but a chewy steak just doesn't cut it! Portion was generous though. 

The salmon on the other hand, was impressive. It was a fairly generous portion of fillet again, and the light salty-sweet marinade made for a tasty fish. The salmon was perfectly cooked and not at all dry like many salmon fillets can turn out. The cucumber on the side also provided for a nice refreshing crunch to balance the salmon.... yummm! 

 

For brunch alcohol is free-flow, but juices are $70 each. The fresh grapefruit juice was quite nice, but can hardly justify its price. 

To end our meal we were served a dessert platter. Each table, we noticed, have the same four pots of matcha mousse with banana, mint and chocolate mousse cake, raspberry sponge cake and a blueberry and mascarpone fool. On top of the huge ice cube in the centre was FIVE scoops of ice cream. I would've wanted to have 5 different flavours of ice cream / sorbet, but I'm not complaining! Two were chocolate, two were green tea, and one maple-walnut. 

The matcha mousse was good, but the banana topping sort of ruined it for me. It was a mis-match.... I think a chocolate-something would've paired better with the not-so-sweet matcha mousse. 

The mint and chocolate mousse cake was alright, but since I'm not a fan of mousses I didn't love it.

The raspberry sponge cake was a nice light cake and wasn't too sweet. 

The blueberry fool was good taste-wise but definitely too 'liquid', as if it had been assembled and served right away without being in the refrigerator to 'set'. At the bottom was a whipped cheese layer, and topped with blueberry sauce and fresh blueberries. Sweetness was right, but definitely not appealing once the spoons were put in...too watery!

The ice creams were fantastic - green tea could've been slightly stronger in taste, but good nonetheless. My favourite was the maple-walnut though.... I wonder if it was made in-house? As it resembled Movenpick's a lot!

Service in general was okay from the waiters, despite a few being clueless whom were obviously new. Because of these newer waiters, we were under the impression that the juices were free-flow like the champagne and sake with the brunch, and so when we were billed for the three glasses of juice we ordered we wanted to understand why. We spoke to the manager, and he said that it was not his fault because he instructed the waiters that juices are not together with the brunch deal.... he also dragged out all the waiters who supposedly served us, and asked us to identify who said that!  My mother was shocked at his manners and definitely couldn't remember who said they were free-flow with the brunch but someone did and that's all that matters. The manager definitely ruined our celebration of a family birthday for us that day.... 

So although the food was generally great, the service just seemed....appalling for Zuma. 

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥

Price: $$$$$

Zuma Restaurant

5-6/F, The Landmark, 15 Queens Rd Central,

Hong Kong

Waffles, please!

Date of visit: 15th July 2010

Green Waffle Diner @ Graham St., Soho

I hadn't seen E in a while and it was time to catch up over good food. Now E loves breakfast foods so when I suggested Green Waffle and its concept, she was damn excited. Reservations were never needed for my previous visits here during dinner, but I made reservations in case. When I arrived the small-ish diner was three-quarters full on a Thursday lunch... a good sign? 

Here they have a very reasonably-priced lunch set menu which includes a main and a dessert (half a waffle with a scoop of ice cream). But since nothing on the set lunch menu enticed us (green apple compote with waffle and sausage?!) we opted for their simpler items on the menu. We decided on a breakfast of seared vine tomatoes with scrambled eggs and a whole-wheat waffle (instead of the normal toast) ($44 + 9 for the upgrade), and a buckwheat waffle with blueberries and cinnamon sugar.

The scrambled eggs here were quite good - creamy and slightly runny… lovely! The seared vine tomatoes (my favourite kind) were really sweet and juicy albeit slightly undercooked for my liking. A little more time on the grill or pan would have made it better and less hard in texture. The whole wheat waffle upgrade was E’s idea. Not a bad one either. There was a strong presence of that wheat taste, similar to 100% whole wheat bread, but the texture was maintained at a light and airy form – delicious with a little maple syrup complimentary from Green Waffle.

The next plate of buckwheat waffles with blueberries was sprinkled with the right amount of cinnamon sugar to give it the divine aroma that the cinnamon-addict in me lusts after. In hindsight I probably should have ordered something that was pre-set rather than ‘create-your-own’ since this relatively simple and small plate ended up costing $51 (not that it is expensive for Soho, but compared to the previous huge plate of food!). Anyway, the buckwheat waffle itself, I would think, is closer in taste to the original plain ones, but didn’t have that airy texture here =((. Blueberries were fresh but more could’ve been provided as it looked quite dull on the plate…

A good lunch anyhow, and will definitely return for more breakfast items or whenever a waffle craving kicks in!

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥

Price: $$

Green Waffle Diner

G/F, Kar Ho Building, 35-39 Graham St, Soho 

Central, Hong Kong 

Tel: +852 2887 9991