Azure charisma

As well as the beautiful setting, Azure never fails with their dishes, they always come up with creative dishes with interesting pairing of ingredients.

There were three of us so we tried each course on the new Autumn sensations menu.

Autumn Sensations 3-course Set Dinner:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Starter - Beef Tartare:
With quail egg yolk, crisp bread wafers & parsley pesto

The beef was silky and finely minced which was made even silkier when the quail egg was mixed with bursts of freshness from the parsley pesto.
It was wonderful eating it with the crisp bread wafers.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Starter -Pan-seared Sea Scallops
With black garlic purée, asparagus papers & Yuzu pudding

Scallop lovers will like this because the sweet and sour notes of the black garlic puree and yuzu make it appetizing.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Starter -Pineapple Carpaccio
With fresh apples, poached cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella & fresh basil

As expected, I liked this because of the thinly sliced juicy pineapples paired with crisp apples and tomatoes complimented by the creamy mozzarella.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Main - Roasted Beef Tenderloin
With Rösti, slow-cooked shallot petals, caramelised cauliflower purée &
Gremolata sauce

The beef was seriously good and the cauliflower puree was amazingly flavourful paired with a crispy rosti.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Main -Black Pepper Crusted Tuna Loin:
With tempura onion rings, poached cherry tomatoes & caramelised cauliflower purée

The star of the dish was the battered shallot rings which are sweeter and crispier than onions and they are so tender that they don't need much chewing!

Again, the cauliflower puree was delicious with the finely seared tuna.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Main -Pan-fried Duck Egg
With salt-baked beetroot, butter-poached asparagus, couscous & Parmesan shavings

As well as the meat dishes, this one was also my favourite because the couscous was cooked in herb infused chicken stock which makes it flavourful and the runny egg yolk makes it taste richer paired with tasty Parmesan and salt baked beetroot.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dessert - 43-degree Slow-cooked Peach
With pumpkin cream, sake sheet & tarragon

The peaches were divine soaked in strong sake so they were not too sweet and the crystal jelly sake sheet on top was beautiful.

The pumpkin cream had a strong vanilla taste which was sweet and smooth with a lovely strong hint of vanilla.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dessert -White Chocolate Sponge Cheese Cake
With Yuzu sorbet & sea salt

The cheese cake was interesting, the texture was like a dense creamy sponge cake.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Can't wait for more new creations by Azure's cool Chef Luke but for the Autumn sensations menu, I recommend the Beef or Pineapple carpaccio as starters, all the mains but I have to admit I liked the couscous the most and for dessert I recommend the peach.

Good food at Babbo Trattoria, hope they maintain the standards

A few years ago there were not many good Italian dos, I used to like Fat Angelos and Amaroni’s but too many new restaurants have been opening that they have faded in my list.
Jamie’s Italian is a really good by HK standards but in the UK it is actually a mid range restaurant.
At first I had doubts on Babbo Trattoria but after I saw the menu, I changed my mind because there was a good variety unlike other restaurants which only have one or two authentic Italian dishes and the rest are localized.
Babbo Trattoria is located at Plaza 2000, which used to be a shabby mall that has recently been rennovated with PRADA on the ground floor.

The decor is how you would expect the place to be.




Started off with green tea.

I was glad I was recommended the Caesar Salad because it really stole the show with envious stares across the room.
If it were not recommended I would definitely not have ordered it because typical Caesar salads are just lettuce in a creamy Caesar dressing but here it is lettuce topped with bacon where they will shave the Grand Piadano cheese right in front of you from the block of cheese.


It was such a show that captivates every diner whenever this dish is brought out.



Thick and big pieces of cheese shavings, which looked like White chocolate, were piled on top of the lettuce and then they help to slice the lettuce into smaller pieces.
After the sinful salad of with lots of cheese, I had this other guilty dish which is Babbo bread served with a pot of Formaggio cheese on top of an egg which is mixed together infront of you for you to dip the bread in!



The bread itself was tasty and slightly salted so after dipping it in the molten mix of cheese and egg, it was just damn good!
I ordered some grilled potatoes because I need carbs in my diet and they were crispy and fluffy in the middle.

They also tasted amazing with the remaining cheese and egg,

Following that we had the pasta, which was buccatini. The waiter recommended me this but it didn’t register with me at first as Buccatini as he said it in Chinese so I thought he meant rigatoni or macaroni.

It smelt absolutely scrumptious when it arrived because the glistening gold mullet roe gives it that salty and aromatic flavouring.


It would have been perfect if it wasn’t too spicy.

For dessert, it was another guilt!
To my surprise, they have a display sample of the desserts.



It was not so much on the sweetness but the lovely CREAM!
We had the mascarpone and cheese icecream
The mascarpone was a thick dollop drizzled with vinegar and it basically tasted like delicious clotted cream so I would been happy with more bread or some scones to go with it.

The cheese icecream looked like delicious Cornish icecream which is also yellow in colour, again another guilty item because it was fragrant and creamy but not too sweet.

It would be great if they had table knives at the table so you don't have to ask for it and a bigger tea selection would be great because they don't have breakfast or Earl grey tea.

Atelier Vivanda is the place for meat and potatoes

Having been to Akrame next door, I knew this place was going to be good.

I was looking forward to dinner because they specialize in meat and potatoes.
During lunch and dinner priced at HK$448, diners can indulge in L’Entrée, La Viande, L’Accompagnement, and Le Dessert.

Started with thinly sliced smoked beef that has matured in 50 days, it was flavourful and appetizing before dinner.
We also had the Pata Negra Bellota Pure Origins Iberian which is waxy.

The cheese was my favourite because it had a light taste which was enhanced by the Caractère olive oil that has a lovely peppery taste.




The starters are accompanied by fresh bread served in a small paper bag.

For the L’Entré we had Duck Leg Terrine with Vinegar and Baby Onions and Risotto with Beetroot and Smoked Haddock.



I liked the risotto because it was rice shaped pasta which gives it a better flavour.
For the mains, we had the beef flank and the Iberian Pork Rib.
The pork was thick and juicy.




Then came the potatoes, my favourite aspect because I love potatoes!!!
There were five different types!!
Gratin Dauphinois, Pommes Darphin, Sauteed Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes and Pommes Dauphines which are unlimited.






The pomme Darphin is amazing, crispy and fluffy in the middle!
For dessert, we finished with Custard with Vanilla Ice Cream and Caramel Profitoclaire with Chocolate Tonka.
The Caramel Profitoclaire with Chocolate Tonka was really nice, it was covered in a strong caramel that was not too sweet covered in crunchy hazelnuts.