Let's go party!! Rave or Crave for food at MIX

Mix - Food & Bar (灣仔)
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2287006
A few months ago I saw this interesting black logo across the road from HSBC and it reminded me of rave parties and designs.

As it was not on street level I soon forgot about it and was reminded of it when I saw the new restaurant listings on OpenRice.

Anyway finally went there for lunch.

The entrance is black, and inside the restaurant it is decorated with lots of neon lights and pretty chandeliers.


Inside the restaurant, they have a huge seating capacity, there are two sides to the restaurant with a bar for alcoholic drinks.


The staff have T-shirts printed with the logo, and there was one that had bling bling crystals on the back which was extremely sparkling.
I think the sparkling logo looks better on the front!
I wouldn't mind having a T-shirt studded with crystals like this because I really love the wings on the logo!

Basically they serve sets at $48 which include bread, soup, mains, and a drink.

The choices were the typical choices you find at Cha Chaan Tengs, there were four choices that day:
Chicken with sausage
Russian fish
Hungarian Beef
Pork in breadcrumbs

I didn't know what the Russian fish was so I just ordered the chicken and beef.

After ordering, I was surprised that the food came really quick because new restaurants are quite slow and disorganized.
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Bread:
The bread was heated, it was fresh and soft.
It came with Lurpack butter too.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Spinach soup:
The soup tasted quite nice with generous pieces of spinach in it, however the flour taste in the soup was a bit too strong.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Vegetable soup:
This was the typical vegetable soup served at Chinese restaurants with cabbage, tomatoes and peppers.
The taste was appetizing.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Chicken leg with sausage and chips:
The chicken leg was huge and I loved the rich gravy that was on top of it.
The texture of the chicken was quite firm and hard so it may have been frozen chicken, but the seasoning and the skin of the chicken was roasted nicely.
The chips were fried just right and they were the crinkle cut type of chips.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Hungarian beef with rice:
This tasted similar to the vegetable soup but with a thicker and stronger tasting sauce.
There were lots of celery and vegetables in the dish to balance it out.
This is always served in Chinese style western restaurants which I do not know why but it is slightly different to the real ghoulash.
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For $48 it is certainly a great deal for the locals, I hope to see them have an English menu in the future and hope to try their other dishes.

Strawberry cake at McCafe

McCafe headquarters at North Point
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Strawberry cake:

Out of all the cakes I have seen at McCafe, this must have been the simplest cake with just cream, sponge cake, strawberry jam and garnished with half a strawberry on top.

The taste of this one was quite nice, it was soft sponge with cream and a hint of strawberry from the jam filling in the middle.

This cake is nice and simple for the afternoon with a cup of tea.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Trainer or Trainee?:
When I ordered, the guy in the black shirt was being trained and I gave him a difficult task while he was on training because I wanted the outermost cake because the strawberry was more ripe.
He was instructed to take the whole plate of cakes out because he was not sure how to get it.
It was then that I noticed his badge said "Trainer" when it should have been "Trainee".


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Food studio and McDonalds employment centre:
After eating the cake, I was on my way out when I noticed that their Food studio and McD's recruitment centre are located here.




★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Wong Kee desserts not Wong Kee noodles

王記糖水 (北角)
This dessert shop is really famous in North Point and there are always queues of people there for dessert or takeaways.


As I am not a fan of Chinese desserts, I never went because they only serve red beans, green beans, and the choice there is very basic and traditional.

Anyway, finally tried it and I tried the dumplings.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sesame dumplings in sweet potato soup:


This was a small portion so there were five dumplings and very big too.
The dumpling skin was very thick and hot, the sesame filling inside oozed out when you bit into it.
The sweet potato soup was better than my expectation because it was not that sweet and it tasted savoury.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
In UK, there is also a Wong Kee but they are famous for Wonton noodles and Hor fun.
Basically this is where all the Chinese expats go when they get homesick for Chinese noodles in London.
I did not go to Wong Kee's much in UK because I do not really like that type of food and it has a reminiscence of Hong Kong's restaurant, ie impatient staff.
However the restaurant is slightly cleaner now after it was renovated because there was a fire a few years ago.

Weekdays semi-lunch buffet @ BLT Steak

BLT Steak (尖沙咀)
Previously came here for lunch during the weekend which was good so came back on a weekday because it is cheaper.


After I ordered the duck confit salad croissant, the popovers were brought over.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Popovers:

The popovers were not as good as the first visit because they had not risen properly.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Duck confit salad croissant:

The duck was nice but the sauce was too creamy and made it sickly and the croissant was quite hard.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salad:
For the salad section, there was more choice and they had butter lettuce.
The orange and chicory salad was really refreshing.




★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
My last review on this place was negative because there were flies, and on this visit these flies were still there ( a month later ) and one stopped by my table for a photo.



Apart from the fly, the restaurant is quite nice.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

三叔's Gado Gado sauce

三叔小食 (筲箕灣)
Toko Terang Bulan
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2286379

I was in the area again so decided to get the tossed noodles and try the fish shaomai in Gado Gado sauce.






★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tossed noodles:

The noodles tasted as good as my first visit:
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2279940
The roast pork and pork strips were lean but not dry.
The Jook-sing noodles did not have an alkaline taste and they were lovely and soft and tasted really nice with the pork slices and spring onions. The prawn patty slices were the best because they were slighty crispy.
Usually I do not like the beanshoots, but the beanshoots here were really nice, each beanshoot was plump and juicy and there was no grassy taste.
The sauce was very spicy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fish shaomai in Gado Gado sauce:

The fish shaomai were the usual ones served in Gado Gado sauce which was why I tried them.
The sauce contained a lot of peanuts and lemon grass, and it was very spicy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

The Eden Rose that flourishes at Circle Plaza

The Eden Rose that flourishes at Circle Plaza Mar 27, 2013
Eden Rose Restaurant 

Eden Rose (Rosa 'Eden') @}-,-`------- is a light pink and white climbing rose which is much prettier than the common rose in my point of view.
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Ever since I saw the tasting reviews I was hoping to try it and luckily I was on their invitation list.

When I arrived, I was greeted with some nice chandeliers.

The decor of the restaurant was really nice and couture, it was black and red with matching patterned wallpaper.
The sofa at the far end was red and covered in velvet with sparkling bling sofa buttons.


After settling down, we were given the tasting menu with a difficult choice because they were all the items I wanted to try but we shared it so I tried everything.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Garlic bread with tomato chutney:
The garlic bread was really nice and the tomato chutney that came with it was a nice pairing, it was similar to having a tomato foccacia.
Apart from garlic there were other herbs on the bread which gave it a fragrant taste, the tomato chutney was mixed with delicious basil leaves.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Foie gras toast:
The foie gras was nice and creamy and the caramelized apple garnishing gave the palate a lovely sweetness after finishing the foie gras.
The apple was presented really nice with golden caramelized coating on it.


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Lobster ravioli with lobster sauce:
The ravioli looked really nice and it was covered with rich lobster sauce.
The ravioli filling could be improved slightly because it was rather firm, it reminded me of the sliced lobster balls wrapped in ravioli pastry.
[I felt that they were the lobster version of fishballs which are made with grounded fish and flour].
Despite the firm filling, the lobster sauce made up for it.

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Cream of black trufflle:

The truffle soup was really rich and had quite a fair amount of finely diced mushrooms in it.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Lobster bisque:
The lobster bisque was strong and had a strong crustacean taste.
It tasted similar to the lobster sauce on the ravioli but it was not as strong as that.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Crab risotto with black truffle:
The crab risotto was presented beautifully on some small pebbles and the truffle was served separately which was good because you could taste the risotto alone.
The risotto tasted good with or without the truffle. The risotto was rich and had a hint of cheese which had a chalky hard texture packed with lots of crabmeat.
After the truffle was added, the risotto did not taste so heavy and the truffle added a hint of saltiness to it.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
NZ rib eye steak with baked potato and green salad:
The steak was juicy and the gravy that came with it complemented it very well because it had freshly grounded black pepper.
The baked potato was done nicely because the insides of the potato were scooped out and mashed so that it was nice and soft and evenly flavoured after it was baked.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roasted seabass filet in mixed vegetable stock:
The seabass was cooked just right and the texture was delicate.
It was surrounded in delicious vegetable soup, sliced asparagus, celery, onions, fennel and other vegetables.
The combination of the soup and seabass was great because it made the fish stand out while the soup kept it hot and moist.
It similar to eating a light version of fish bouillabaisse.


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Creme brulee:
The creme brulee was really nice because it was light and the sweetness was just right.


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Chocolate parfait:
It was fun pouring the chocolate sauce on top melting the parfait.
The taste of the chocolate was rich too because they used Valhrona chocolate.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Drinks:
There were lots of choices for coffee/latte and cappuccino which were delectable for everyone.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
I really liked the concept of Eden Rose because for their a la Carte menu, you can make it a set or just order any items a la carte to your liking which is a win win situation for the restaurant and the customers because the customer is not forced to get unwanted/disliked items on the menu which acts as a filler and the restaurant can still get revenue without the customer leaving because the menu is not flexible.