Gnocchi at The Drunken Duck

I have always wanted to dine here but there seem to be lots to choose from but not a lot that I can choose because quite a lot of the choices have Korean ingredients which are too spicy for me.

The lunches that they do are great but they are only available from Mondays to Fridays.

The tempting lunch dishes I wanted to try were:
Onion Bhajis with Mint Jelly
Duck Broth with Soba Noodles
Split green pea soup
Miso salmon with bubble and squeak
Roast Lemon & Cinnamon Chicken with Asian Greens and Chips,
Neal's Yard Brie with Sesame Crackers
Green Tea infused Chocolate Mousse with fresh cream and chopped almond topping.
Beef & Duck Cottage Pie with 5-spiced Gravy

Other great appetizers with a British touch that I plan to try later.
Bombay roasties
Broccoli, goats cheese and sweet potato samosa
Thai style scotch egg which I like but I don't like the lemongrass in it..
Tikka spiced meatballs
Roast lamb and mint dumplings
Steak and kidney pot stickers

The brunch was quite pricey and it looked confusing.

For appetizers, the options were really good but I needed a full meal so went for the gnocchi which is now on the social plate menu hence the portion was small.
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RICOTTA and Morning glory gnocchi with roasted chilli essence, parmesan cream.



On the plate, there were four big pieces of gnocchi.
The gnocchi was quite creamy but it had a strong salty taste and it was not too spicy.

[OVOCAFE] Second encounter with their Brussel sprouts

I don't know what it is but everytime I order their dishes with brussel sprouts it turns out a disaster.
On the last visit, I got the Brussel sprouts and apple in sesame sauce and only ended up with two brussel sprouts when it should be the main item of the dish.
This time I got the gnocchi with brussel sprouts and I ended up with two overgrown ones which were big and hard because they were not blanched long enough.

The gnocchi was ok but the tomato sauce was a bit acidic.

The ideal and perfect place for pasta

The Pasta Place (Sheung Wan)

I love pasta but at most restaurants they make simple pastas complicated and expensive.
At The Pasta Place I was attracted to their down to earth homely decor.


The menu was simple and straightforward and I liked the manual typewriter font.


At The Pasta Place, the decor was most impressive.


On the walls they have lovely homely wallpaper and they had dado rails known as chair rails on the walls just like the houses in the UK.
They might have them in the US too but I have never been to the US to comment.


On each table there is a lovely red rose and hooks to hang your coats or bags.


In the middle of the restaurant, there is a really nice alcove that hides a toilet!
It looks like a tiny room underneath a staircase but the toilet is quite spacious.



There is sink and mirror outside the toilet in the alcove!


Cute taps!


I would have tried the Lasagne and Mac and Cheese but there were too many choices too choose from.

Anyway, here was what I had:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rich beef ragu on Tagliatelle pasta $110:


I knew this was going to be good and tasty, each strand was covered uniformly in rich beef ragu sauce.
The beef was minced finely and mixed in well.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tomato and sweet basil sauce on fresh potato gnocchi:


The portion was huge! I think out of all the gnocchi dishes I have ordered in various restaurants, this plate had the most!
The gnocchi was quite chewy and the tomato sauce was lovely and acidic but lacked the taste of basil.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roasted pumpkin and sage sauce on fresh spinach and ricotta ravioli:


This was beautifully presented but the sauce lacked connection with the sage because I could only taste pumpkin which was also quite light.
Four sage leaves had been fried and placed on top as decoration.
Other than that, it was a lovely light pasta dish and the ravioli was filled with soft clotted ricotta in the middle contrasted by the gentle sweet pumpkin puree sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I am definitely coming back to try Lasagne and MacNCheese

French style gnocchi

Le Bonbon de Paris (Sai Kung)

Even though I have had a lot of French food, I never knew they had gnocchi.

Since France is big, there are quite a few regional variations and one of them is quite amusing literally meaning dog poop [gnocchi de tantifla a la nissarda - "la merda dé can"!]

Anyway at Le Bonbon, there were there was either gnocchi in creamy sauce or gnocchi in bolognaise sauce.

I tried the creamy sauce one so next time I will try the bolognaise one.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Gnocchi in creamy sauce:


The sauce was extremely creamy and heavy with generous pieces of bacon.
Best to be shared because the portion can be quite big.
I think the bolognaise one will not be so heavy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Volvanic lava salt @ Amuse bouche

Amuse Bouche has nice scenic views on a clear day, situated on the 22nd floor of the renovated Hennessey Building.

It claims to serve French cuisine, opened by the chef from Petrus (Mandalay tells me).
For my lunch, I had:
-Soft potato gnocchi with parmesan cheese, foie gras sauce
-Braised free range chicken leg served with green peas and mushrooms

The food was ok, but I just felt that it wasn’t very Parisien, it was a fusion of upper end western food and Japanese food, such as Salmon and soy wasabi, lobster and salted egg yolk, it doesn’t sound very french to me! Compared to Petrus, I would say that they offer more French food there.

The gnocchi were piping hot and smooth with potato inside and slightly cheesy, which seemed more Italian, anyway, I think French gnocchi are not supposed to contain potato.

The chicken was very soft, and came off the bone easily. It was covered in gravy containing sliced asparagus, peas, and mushroom. Again the mushrooms made it Asian, because they were shiitake mushrooms.

For starters I had bread with butter, the texture of the butter was just right, it was spreadable, also there was Volvanic lava salt too. The Volvanic lava salt was black, and looked like flakes of charcoal crystals.

I like the fact that this place has a functioning website, and the menu can be found there too.
The service was ok, after the starters, the waitors would brush away the crumbs from the table.

For beverages, I felt the tea wasn’t hot when it was brought out.

The world of Tortellini and Gnocchi @ La Piazzetta

Had a craving for gnocchi and tortellini, and I found just the right place, gnocchi are rare, but common in upscale restaurants.

Usually the menu offers one choice of gnocchi and tortellini, but here it offers from 4-6 different sauces!!!

For gnocchi, there six different sauces to choose from:
1)Tomato and basil
2)Tomato and bacon
3)Tomato shrimp and chilli
4)Butter and sage
5)Gorgonzole cheese sauce (blue cheese)
6)Tomato, pesto and cream

butter n sage gnocchi

 

gnocchi with gorgoazole cheese

 

For Tortellini there are four different sauces to choose from
1)Butter and sage
2)Imported cream
3)Cream and tomato sauce
4)Bolognaise and cream

 

The atmosphere here is very upscale, infact I felt like I was dining in Central.

 

 

For lunch, they have set lunches, and two pages for the tortellini and gnocchi.

The lunches include soup/salad, bread, drinks and dessert.
Although it may be pricey, but it is truly worth it, however you need at least 1.5 hours as they are quite short staffed.
Even on Mondays all the tables manage to fill up.

Tried two versions of Gnocchi, one with gorgonzola cheese and the other with butter and sage.
The cheese was quite strong of blue cheese taste, but was not as creamy as it looked, and the butter and sage was quite nice to get the real taste of Gnocchi, and it reminds me of baked potato and butter.

As for the tortellini, it was gorgeous, piping hot tortellini in plentiful sauce.
However, the portions could have been bigger, even with dessert, starter and drink, I still felt hungry.

The bread given was soft aromatic white focaccia with onion, which were excellent dipping them into vinegar and olive oil.

pea soup and onion focaccia

 

The soup and starter are also good, depending on what they serve that day, good soups include green pea soup and vegetable soup which is very wholesome containing lots of kidney beans.

 

asparagus with egg

 

My favourite starter is the egg and asparagus, which has some alchohol in it.
The dessert is either chocolate mousse or zabaglione, but the texture of both is slightly dry, and tasted a bit like artificial cream.

zabaglione

 

x-section of the zabaglione

 

chocolate mousse

 

Zabaglione is an Italian dessert made with egg yolks, sugar, a sweet wine (usually Marsala wine, but in the original formula Moscato d'Asti), and sometimes whole eggs. It is a very light custard, which has been whipped to incorporate a large amount of air.