Basement Restaurant

I know it is not an acceptable excuse but I really cannot find the notes I jotted down for my visit to this restaurant. I have to be very careful with the notes from now on! Anyhow, a group of us gathered here for our friend J's birthday celebration and we enjoyed the meal very much because I remembered how we all left with smiles on our faces. Perhaps it was the wine or the ice cream cake that put the smiles on our faces but one thing for sure, we had a good time. Since I lost the notes, I am not going go into details of the dishes but treat this entry as a photo-journal. I think I will return later to make up for the review for sure.

Sup 1

Many of my recent write-ups are long overdue reviews and this one is the same. The meal in the review took place on the 1st Jan 2010. I have been to Sup 1 several times and I often return not just because of their food but for their cozy, unpretentious atmosphere as well as attentive services. I prefer the upstairs sittings because of the coziness; if you want to talk about secrets, make sure you specify where you want to sit.

The quality of their food is decent and fairly consistence over the past year or so which I considered very important. We started off with Salad Frisee with Bacon and Poached Eggs. It looked rather plain when served but after mixing the yolk with the rest of the salad it became rather tasty with the ham giving off the the right saltiness to it.

Compared with the previous salad, the Caesar Salad was rather plain and no surprises.

The ran out of Baguette so they provided us with toast instead to along with the Duck Liver Mousse served with Baguette. Flavor was alright but it was rather too tough to be called a mousse. It was rather hard to spread it over the toast.

I don't think I will order this special platter next time. (Pigeon Confit with Parma Ham, Stuffed Duck Neck with Duck Meat and Black Truffle Merguez (Beef & Lamb)) No surprises at all and most of the items were rather salty, flavors were too rich.

I only tried a sip of the Bouillabaisse and it was too rich and too intense for my liking. I am not really into bisque related soup so cannot provide my take on this soup. But I think it was too watery, should have been thicker.

The Angel Hair with King Prawn in Tomato Basil Sauce was alright especially its sauce. The pasta and the king prawns were a bit overcooked but still enjoyable. Aside from the fact that it was tough the de-shell the prawns, a fairly decent dish.

an overly creamy Carbonara with overcooked pasta. Flavor was very good but just too creamy!

A very simple Roasted Chicken with Bacon and Mushroom but a rather well prepared dish which I enjoyed. Tender and moist with good flavors. Make sure you place this order as soon as possible because it takes some time for the time prepare with their one and only oven (as informed).

The Duck Confit in Casserole Rice was like a crossover between French and Chinese cuisine with the rice prepared in a Chinese style clay pot. I liked it. The seasoned shredded duck meat together with the semi-sticky rice gave it a nice chewing texture on every bite. It was surprising flavorable as I was expecting it to be rather salty.

Desserts were another story, the pastry we order was rather tough to chew on or simply overly elastic in my opinion. Good that we bought our own desserts!!

Woohoo! Milktop Pudding to share! Yum O!

Likes:

• cozy atmosphere and good services
  
• some interesting dishes like the duck confit casserole rice worth trying
• roasted Chicken with Bacon and Mushroom, simple yet tasty
  

Dislikes:

• Desserts are not their strength
• Carbonara too creamy

Avg Spending: HKD 200 - 300 per person

Sup 1
11 Gough Street, Central
Tel: +852 2522 5002


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The Chairman 大班樓

There were a lot of buzz about this restaurant named The Chairman 大班樓 since it opened late last year. Its name is pretty interesting especially how they translated it as The Chairman in English. To give this place a try, my friend and I opted to head over for lunch first. We arrived around noon and got a table on the upper floor. It felt like I was on top of the world!!! Just joking but I liked the setting especially that it was very spacious! There were only 4 tables in this little balcony area and it was not noisy at all like many Chinese restaurant during lunch time (or any time for that matter) Thumbs up on that part!



Being the lazy person that I am, I suggested to order the Executive Lunch sets. There were plenty of choices for Appetizers and Main Courses to my surprise. We were struggling between 3 or 4 courses or to be more exact, dessert or no dessert. Well, it wasn't much of a struggle to be honest, please welcome the desserts.



(1) Crisp Small Yellow Croaker serves with Balsamic Dressing 酥炸獅頭魚
Don't be fooled by the look of this dish, it was very well prepared! Very crisp, thin batter (or was there any batter at all??) and the meat was very tender and juicy for some odd reasons. I didn't dip into the dressing because it was good the way it was!



(2) Pan-fried Fresh Prawn Cake with Kaffier Lime Leaves 檸檬葉蝦餅
Flavors and textures were good, especially with the combination of bouncy texture of the cake and some crunchy diced up things in there. Only thing I wish it could have been different would be for the cakes to be more golden or brownish. Just a min more on the pan would be nice!



(3) Slow-cooked Vegetarian Assorted Beans Soup with Cordyceps root 十豆冬蟲草鬚湯 and Lodoicea Soup 海底椰湯

The Cordyceps root soup was rather light in flavors. Initially I was afraid I would bleed from my nose because of the Cordyceps and how it is a strong Chinese herb which supposedly help build a better body or something. Many people now get more than enough nutrition from their daily intake of food that these kinds of Chinese herbs might be that useful anymore IMHO. Anyhow, the Lodiucea Soup was way better because of the stronger and richer flavors which I liked very much.



(4) Wok-fried fresh Garoupa Fillet with Chinese Vegetables 時菜班球
The fillets were huge and very fresh indeed! Very tender as well! Many Chinese restaurants would either use frozen fillets or smaller pieces of fresh ones. I was surprised that they would give such many big pieces, for lunch sets and at this price range. Well done indeed!



(5) Steamed Pork Fillets with Shrimp Paste 蝦醬唐芹蘿蔔絲蒸豬上肉
The dish was more complicated than the English name suggested. The use of the shredded radish at the bottom balanced the naturally rich flavors of the shrimp paste to make every bite a delightful experience especially with rice. Another wonderful thing was the pork fillets themselves which contained a very thin layer of fat, not too much but just perfect to give you that ... mushy texture in a enjoyable way. You got to try it to truly understand what I mean. Thumbs up!



(6) Homemade Ginger ice cream
Whoa, even for someone who loves ginger, the gingery flavor was strong in this ice cream. Well done!



(7) Almond Soup with Egg White 蛋白杏仁茶
Rich in almond flavors but not enough egg white for my personal liking. A bit thicker would be nice too but it was a delightful way to end the meal with for sure.



Likes:

• Crisp Small Yellow Croaker serves with Balsamic Dressing 酥炸獅頭魚 - wonderfully deep fried with very tender and juicy meat.
• Steamed Pork Fillets with Shrimp Paste 蝦醬唐芹蘿蔔絲蒸豬上肉 - two thumbs up! the use of the radish balanced the flavors very well and the pork used was of high quality.

Dislikes:

• Slow-cooked Vegetarian Assorted Beans Soup with Cordyceps root 十豆冬蟲草鬚湯 - not strong enough in terms of flavors, perhaps it was the roots instead of the body of the Cordyceps

Avg Spending: HKD 150 - 200 per person

The Chairman 大班樓
G/F, 18 Kau U Fong, Central
Tel: +852 2555 2202
http://www.thechairmangroup.com/


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