Takoyaki balls @ CEO

Octopus balls:

In comparision to the octopus balls elsewhere, these ones are potato based, hence more crispy and have a nice starchy filling inside.

The rise and fall of Gindaco

Since my last visit, probably years ago, I found it less busy than it was, it used to be packed with long queues, and people crammed inside eating at the stand tables.

However there is plenty more choice for snacks in Mong Kok these days, especially Dundas street, the Taiwan food street of HK, at least 5 Taiwanese beverage shops have opened there.

Anyway back to the food, they have two more flavours than just the original one, the original with octopus filling topped with egg salad, and the prawn filled one with thousand island sauce.

I was deciding whether to order the Yuk Ji one or the Prawn one, I should of known Yuk Ji was egg! If I knew that was egg, I would have tried the Prawn one, probably would of had a different taste sensation.

The one I got just tasted like the original one, however with the egg salad, made it more rich and creamy.

 

Service Madly Lousy = SML

Apart from the Quarry Bay MiscoCool, this is the second restaurant featuring communal tables but in larger lounge.

The whole concept is fresh, and vibrant, nice for the young chics and boys to show their pride in a lively lounge. It also reminds me of school dinner days too, a rejuvenation of youth, relive the young days again, sitting amongst other hip and cool people.

If you do not fancy being on display, I guess it needs time getting used to, like California fitness gym for a specific part of the target market.

Anyway, sat down in the middle of a large bench table, people started filling beside us, but there was no one sitting on our left hand sides, so we placed our bags there. We were ushered to place the bag on one side, then a while later, the waiters from the opposite side ushered us to place the bags on the other side, playing shuffling bags here if u've played shuffling chairs!!

Food ordered:

Chicken Confit & Foie Gras with Truffle SaladBasically two pieces of sliced baguette served with salad and a pot with shredded chicken, bits of foie gras topped with poppy seeds. The chicken was not dry or chewy, and the bits of silky foie gras buttered the chicken, but there was not that much of foie gras. I thought it should have been layered chicken, then foie gras then the poppy seeds.

Prawn Toast with truffleSame comment as Babedolphin, no taste in truffle, overly greasy, I suppose the bitterness of the alcohol sauce took away that greasy taste.
Honestly I have had better prawn toasts at Takeaways in UK.

Octopus salad in olive oilThis was a very good mixed of diced yellow peppers, leaves, onions and the octopus, the octopus was chopped tentacles which were very big in diameter, I thought the octopus would be chewy, but it wasn’t at all. There was also some sort of jelly that had formed on the octopus, so it is probably the tinned version.

Lamb kebabThis was a huge stick of minced Lamb on a stick, I tried it with the olive oil from the salad, it was quite nice, and the lamb was strongly covered in Cajun powder. The yoghurt sauce that came with it was lovely, pure sour yoghurt.

Mushroom risottoThis had a very strong smell, but not that strong when I ate it, the texture of the rice was a bit hard, like red grain rice.

I was contemplated to order the Hangar steak and chips, but then I decided to order two desserts, which finished the meal quite elegantly! I wanted Gnocci too, but it wasn’t listed on the menu anymore!!

Pot of chocolate w/chocolate mousse & fudgeThis was yummy chocolate mousse with bits of chocolate cake covered with white cream and topped with two pieces of fudge.

Lime cream w/vanilla pineapple & coconut jellyThere were bits of coconut jelly with cutely diced pineapple pieces, layered with lime cream at the bottom, refreshingly delicious, leaving you with a slight hungriness that you will be back for more next time.

Lastly, we tried to paid for the bill, but one of the dreaming waiters either forgot to print out the bill or there was something wrong with the order, so had to ask another waiter got it for us.

Price wise, I think it’s quite reasonable for around $300 considering we ordered food with truffles, foie gras. I think for a good meal, its best to pick out the fine stuff rather than the stuff you can get anywhere, or it just defeats the purpose.

Set Dinner @ Satay King

Got the dinner set with white curry that includes a drink and choice of starters.

The white curry is consistently good as always, so no point describing about it again, although this time the pork chop was slightly over fried and dry.

For starters, got the prawn spring rolls, octopus sweets.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Prawn spring rolls, nothing interesting, just tasted how it should.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Octopus sweets:
Probably called sweets according to their menu because of the way they are wrapped in a shape of a sweet wrapper.
However I thought it tasted better than the prawn spring roll, the tiny rolls contained chopped up octopus, all chewy inside.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As for the drink, they were the usual Taiwanese teas, not too sweet or neither did it have that artificial syrup taste, also there was jelly at the bottom of the drink.

Cheesy octopus crunchies @ Ajisen

Got two of the new promoted items, the tempura stuffed mushrooms with mashed potato and fish roe, and the noodles with the cheesy octopus crunchies.

Stuffed mushrooms:
Piping hot, and the shittake mushroom were very juicy.
It was surprising the mashed potato had a very oceanic taste due to the fish roe.

The noodles taste the same as usual, however the fried octopus with cheese was interesting, the cheese texture was like mozzarella, and it was wrapped in beancurd skin and then coated with batter and fried.
It was slightly over fried because the outside was a little too crunchy and brown.
There wasn’t much taste to it, especially the mozzarella.

 

 

 

TakoKatsu burger @ MOS

 

 

The TakoKatsu burger was launched on the 14th. Tako means Octopus, hence an Octopus burger.

This was my first time trying an Octopus burger, the closest thing I have had to it was a cuttlefish burger from Toppings.

Cuttlefish burger@Toppings:
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2010566

 

 

 

Basically it looks like a normal burger with a patty inside, there was finely shredded lettuce and cabbage and dressing.
The Octopus patty contained pieces of chopped tentacles in it, and it wasn’t too dry, the patty contained prawns as well, the taste was similar to eating a prawn burger at McDonalds.
The patty was slightly gel like inside, same as the prawn burger from McDs, I felt that they have cleverly used this in the patty so the Octopus doesn’t taste dry and tough.

Overall it was worth trying, but the sauce was slightly too strong and I couldn’t really taste the octopus.