Saizeriya success in Hong Kong

Saizeriya is a success in HK since it opened, but it never drew my attention before.
Being located in Nan Fung plaza in TKO, I just assumed it was a local chinese-italian restaurant.

After seeing all those positive reviews on Saizeriya, I decided to try it someday, but the strange thing was, HK Epicurius hasnt reviewed it yet. After consulting HKE, it turns out he had a better deal trying it in China, it is nearly 40% cheaper than the already cheap prices in HK.

HKE’s review in China:
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2051443

When I sat down and looked at the menu I realised it was a Japanese branch. It was established in Japan in 1968 and then opened their first overseas branch in China in 2007.
Other branches in HK are located in Tsz Wan San and Tsuen Wan.
The restaurant has been in the news in Japan for serving pizza with melamine-tainted dough from China in October 2008.
Saizeriya is not limited to Italian food; gratin and Hamburg steaks were also added to the menu

From the pictures posted by others, it didn’t really stand out against the other Italian places such as Pizza express or Amaroni’s so I was totally sceptical about the food there.
I also heard the food was ridiculously cheap too so I didn’t have the expectation it would taste good, the total bill for ordering starters and mains etc was under $100.

Ordered squid ink risotto, Chicken demi-glace, Prawn cocktail.

Squid ink risotto:The rice was nice and soft, although slightly bland.

Prawn cocktail:This salad tasted the best, especially the sauce, it wasn’t too sweet and the sauce may be slightly savoury for others.

Chicken with Demi-glace sauce:This was the highlight of the meal, tender and juicy chicken thigh with crisp chicken skin.
The sauce was interesting, it tasted like yellow bean sauce, however demi-glace is meant to be a rich brown sauce in French cuisine traditionally made by combining equal parts of veal stock and sauce espagnole.

Apart from the food served to your table, the rest is self-service, which enables the staff to primarily take orders and bring food faster to people.
The drinks are available at the drinks bar, which is self service, same with the condiments.
To pay for the bill, you need to bring the bill outside to pay.