Parfait!

La Grande Bouffe (Central)
At first I was meant to go to this snotty place for a quick lunch which is a Chinese restaurant pretending to be French, but luckily they closed earlier than their normal hours so I was so FORTUNATE not to eat that crap and stumbled on this amazing place!!!!!

There has been a recent surge of French restaurants opening in Central such as La Vache, La Port Parfume and more.

Located near the cane juice store is this really nice French bar/restaurant called La Grande Bouffe.
If you google this name, you will find a French/Italian film with the same name which is about scatological humour and comic depictions of sex and over-eating.

The decor of the restaurant is really nice.




The French decor is interestingly contrasted by the Chinese old green tiles.

For lunch, you can choose a two course or three course meal for ($98 and $108 respectively).

Here was what I had:
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Baguette:

The baguette was really nice, crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.
It tasted nice with the salads and the main dishes and the guy was really nice and gave me an extra basket which most restaurants do not normally do.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beef Stroganoff:

Tried the rice on its own and it was so delicious, it was fully flavoured with vegetables and herbs and each grain of rice was plump and long.
I loved the chunky vegetable pieces in it.


The beef stroganoff was rich crammed with loads of beef, the sauce was really good for dipping the baguette and after I had some of the beef, I put the rice in the bowl of beef and the taste was so good, it was so satisfying, but if there was more rice, I would be more satisfied because I was still very hungry!!!.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pork loin with French wine sauce:


The pork was a little tough, but I can't complain because the pork chop I had at La Cantoche was also tough.
Again it was on a bed of delicious pan fried rice with vegetables and the sauce on top was tangy with pureed tomatoes and herbs.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Apple tart A la normande:
Lastly for desserts, there is a choice of lemon tart, apple tart and chocolate cake.
As I have tried the lemon tart and chocolate cake at French most places, I opted for the apple tart which was a great tart to finish off with.



The apple tart was served with some "English cream" according to the waiter!
Anyway, the apple tart was divine, it had slices of apple embedded in rich custard filling and you could see there were zillions of vanilla seeds in it giving it a delicious vanilla custard touch.
As well as the tart, the cream also had lots of vanilla seeds in it and it complemented the tart so well because it balanced the sweetness of the tart.
The tart crust which is usually tasteless was good too.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I would love to dine here again because it includes dessert and the price is really affordable!

One Stop tasting

One Stop Ristorante & Bar (Western District)

Thanks to ONE STOP for holding a tasting for WAGYU Door To Door, otherwise I would not been able to try their dishes.


Sai Ying Pun is quite out of bounds for most people but luckily we got the taxi there.



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tomato soup:


Lovely and refreshing, some said it was too acidic but I loved it like that.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tomino cheese:


This was a soft cheese and I loved it! It tastes like melted super soft cheddar and similar to Bechamel cheese.
I was really lucky because Mjqueen7e gave her piece to me as well
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Fresh mussel:


Lovely fresh mussels that were soft and tasty.
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Truffle risotto:


The risotto was flavoured nicely with black truffle but I found it too creamy for my liking.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

The highlight of the dishes at ONE STOP had to be the cheese!
If it wasn't too far, I would come back for it ASAP!

Christmas Turkey casserole soup

Pret A Manger (Wan Chai)

After spotting the Christmas Turkey wraps at Pret, I was eagerly waiting for the Christmas Turkey casserole to be launched.


I had some time to kill before a tasting in Wan Chai so it was the perfect chance to get some soup.



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Christmas Turkey casserole:


The casserole was slightly disappointing because it was a watery soup, I was expecting something thicker and creamy.
However it did contain meaty pieces of turkey and boiled cranberries in the soup which gave the soup a weird sweet taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Healthy ramen for everyone

Kenko Syokuhin Ramen (Central)

Ever since I saw the green broth, I had to try it.

This ramen joint is located on the corner of Wellington Street where all the outside food stalls are.

On the first visit, I tried the Beauty Set which was the green broth, then I tried the tomato broth on the second visit.


I am not sure how their Ramens are healthy but for the sets I tried, it came with cabbage salad and Yakult.
The salad was reasonably healthy but I always believe that there is too much sugar in a bottle of Yakalt otherwise they wouldn't come up with a low sugar version.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beauty:

The ramen was really nice and the broth was as nice as Butao's pesto broth but the broth here was made with basil.


It was really good with the rocket leaves because it gave it some extra grassy bitter taste which gave it a nice refreshing tone.
I felt that the bacon and cheese could have been left out because I did not like the smoky taste and the cheese was a sticky mass at the bottom of the bowl.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pure:



This was similar to the ramen above but in tomato broth, it also had rocket lettuce, bacon and some basil oil drizzled on top.
I did not like it as much as Beauty because I found the soup quite sweet and there was a splodge of melted cheese at the bottom.
I think there would be less calories in this ramen without the tasteless cheese.


The noodles have pieces of wheat in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salad:



A lovely crunchy salad of julienne cabbage paired nicely with the tangy vinaigrette dressing.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★a

Hearty and home style French food

Les Fils à Maman (Central)

I have always wanted to try this restaurant but didn't know where it was.

After dining at La Cantoche, I mysteriously stumbled there as if fate wanted me to try another French restaurant.

It is well hidden on Hollywood Road.

The style here is homely with lots of retro decor and rustic items.




This is their first branch in Hong Kong, with three restaurants in France and one in Belgium.


With so many branches, their food is reassuring.
The menu is a simplistic spiral bound booklet which reminded me of a maths notebook.


There is also a daily specials on the board.


After dining here, I have been back since and not been disappointed, here was the food on my first visit.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bread:


The bread was a bit hard and chewy and slightly different to the French baguettes you get in France.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Mustard:


Lovely mustard contained in a ceramic pot.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beef bourguignon:




This beef was amazing, it was soft with a strong beef taste paired with lovely thinly sliced mushrooms with a earthy taste.
The gravy was rich with lots of wine in it, after I finished the beef, I put all the fries in the pot and the gravy and fries just went perfectly together.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Poisson du jour:


The fish was soft and tender drenched in the lovely buttery sauce which had a strong alcoholic taste.
The potatoes were really nice, they were firm without being too hard and they were really silky in the middle.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Although the prices are slightly pricier than La Cantoche, the food was really good.
The next French restaurant I am going to try will be Le Port Parfumé and there are some new ones on Staunton Road.

Steamed buns bursting with filling!

Sun Hing Restaurant (Western District)
Only got the steamed buns because they were famous.

I have attempted to get them quite a few times before but they were sold out!
Anyway, I was lucky they were not sold out at 3:24 pm that day.

I am not really a fan of local dim sums in Hong Kong because they don't taste as good as the ones in UK or you need to go to really pricey places for good quality dim sum.

There were lots of round tables were strangers share tables with each other.

On the menu there were two interesting items:
This is not a spring roll and the deep fried crispy milk.


I decided not to dine there because tea is compulsory and you get charged for that.


When I opened the box, the steamed buns were a bit tacky, the buns were not pure white with yellow splodges on it and the piece of paper at the bottom looked like it was steamed in a dirty pan with a greasy surface.



It was really difficult eating it because the filling just dripped everywhere.


As for the taste I was not wowed by it however it was good that it was not too sweet.
The filling had pieces of salted hard yolk in it.
If you want to challenge yourself eating this bun without making a mess, this is definitely recommended!