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Ever since my mother has relocated to Happy Valley, I have done my part to regularly visit many different restaurants in the neighbourhood to find interesting restaurants or venues for Geoff's Twitchen. Curiously asked my colleagues at work in which whether there are any interesting venues in Happy Valley which does a good curry as I was craving for curry throughout the morning & afternoon. Colleague responded that The Chapel Bar located Yik Yum Street apparently does the "Best Curry in Hong Kong" and is a must try. With such response, I visited The Chapel Bar to check out -- noted in inverted commans "best curry in Hong Kong" and my lord, I have never had anything as bad as this. No disrespect to my colleague or anything, but it was just purely utter sh*t!
Recommended Dishes
There were simply no recommended dishes from we ordered on the evening therefore enough said!
NOT Recommended Dishes
The food was so bad which I do not even know where to start. We ordered a traditional Chicken Tikka, Lamb Vindaloo (with 5 chilli signs on the menu), 1 portion of Garlic Naan Bread, 1 portion of Balsmati Rice & 1 bottle of Singha Beer. We waited for the take-away for around 15 - 20 mins which I was fairly impatient about and when it arrived, I thought - "this better be good". Opened up the boxes when arrived at flat, see below photos and all it is is just a big aluminium tin with lots of curry sauce and a few cutlets of lamb & chicken.
What was Wrong?
*
Everything was wrong about the curry! It tasted sour and far too much tomatoes were used in the cooking process. The curry sauce was far too "watery"!
*Portions were far too small for the price of $80 per portion
*
Both Chicken & Lamb was a disaster, both had no taste & was flavourless. I wonder where did The Chapel sourced such rubbish products.
*
Never knew that the Balsmati Rice was that expensive at $28 per bowl which was so small that I probably needed an extra 3 bowls for my usual meals
*
Garlic Naan Bread tasted more like a regular Naan Bread. It was only when I diced up so garlic from the kitchen made it tasted more like a Garlic Naan Bread
*
The good old Vindaloo gave me a a runny stomach all night and I dont want to go into much details on the aftermath
To sum up, the whole meal was so so bad that even at such small portion sizes, I could not finish the meal. I dont think I have ever had bad experiences with every single dish which I ordered and the Chapel Bar must be the first to achieve such standings. I have had much better experiences with Indian food in Hong Kong at venues such as Gunga Dins, Bombay Dreams, Gaylord, Curry Houses in Chung King Mansion and to have recieved such "best curry in Hong Kong" comment from a colleague of mine is a fellow foodie who recommended this visit was an embarrasement.
The Chapel Bar in Happy Valley may be a good chilled out place to have a few beers, I vow never to return there again for food
Address: 27 Yik Yum Street, Happy Valley, Hong Kong (跑馬地奕蔭街27號地下)
Tel: 2834-6565
Food Quality (5* the highest): 0*
Price for Dinner (5$ = very expensive): **
Wasakuraya 和櫻屋
No disrespect to The Chapel Bar, the meal above wasn't enough for me so I wandered out with my partner for some dessert to fill us up whereby we got attracted by the bright lights at Wasakuraya
(http://www.wasakuraya.com.hk/index.html) , a small Japanese dessert house which serves up traditional Japanese style puddings. Just like my previous journey to Tai Hang area in earlier posts on Geoff's Twitchen, my evening was rescued by this visit to Wasakuraya.
Had a good chat with the staff and found out that all of the ingredients are all freshly imported from Japan such as eggs & milk from Hokkaido to ensure the best quality puddings are produced.
Highly Recommended Puddings:
*Sesame Flavoured Custard Pudding -- Not too sweet and very strongly sesame flavoured!
*Green Tea Flavoured Custard Pudding -- This was my personal favourite and for me, this is a better & slightly healthier substitute to a green-tea flavoured ice-cream. The green tea flavours was so pungent and the custard was smooth as silk. PERFECT!
*Classic flavoured Custard Pudding with Chestnut syrup -- This was my partner's favourite and her comment was similar to mine above. The custard pudding was smooth & creamy.
After finishing the Greentea flavoured custard pudding by myself, I also tried out my other 2 highly recommended custard puddings. My firm conclusion is that the usage of the eggs & milk from Hokkaido makes a huge difference in the taste. Such a simple dessert but yet with such intense flavours, this has become one of my recent favourite dessert places around the neighbourhood and I shall return very shortly.
Point to Note:: Hokkaido has become almost synonymous and is ranked the #1 region in Japan with gourmet food given the rich variety of dairy products and fresh seafood to be found on the island located in Japan's northern most regions. High quality & production of dairy products such as butter, cheese, ice-cream, yoghurt whereby most of the products are now exported to many countries around the world. If you are travelling to Hokkaido, please do check out, purchase & EAT their dairy products, it is heavenly! Hokkaido is also extremely infamous for its seafood such as Matsuba crabs, Uni (Sea Urchin), Botan Shrimp etc & its glorious weather!
Address: 1, Fung Fai Terrace, Happy Valley, Hong Kong (跑馬地鳳輝臺1號地下A舖)
Tel: 2575 3328
Food Quality (5* the highest): ****
Price for Dessert (5$ = very expensive): ****
UPCOMING REVIEW -- Fancy some Spanish Tapas at TAPEO on Wyndham Street?
Happy Eating!
Geoff
Have been exceptionally busy this week at work and thus, haven't had the time to blog about my previous adventure. For a change this round, I will be blogging about Chinese Cuisine with a peculiar name of Dim Sum The Art of Chinese Tit Bits located the heart of Happy Valley. Our group visited this restaurant on the eve of Mid-Autumn Festival and it was definitely worth every dollar spent.
Chinese cuisine is not something which I particularly enjoy every so often as I always find it very time-consuming & greasy. My experience at Dim Sum The Art of Chinese Tit Bits changed me to have 2nd thoughts on this perception and it is a restaurant whereby I will re-visit very soon.
Ambiance:
Very traditionally Chinese styled restaurant in Happy Valley with wooden chairs & tables and even accessories such as teapots are also very authentic. Not a very large spaced restaurant but nonetheless, it was very cosy and our visit on the evening wasnt too busy which was perfect for the occasion.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED & MUST ORDER Dishes:
1) Chinese Soya Chicken (Signature Dish): Flavourful, Tender, Succulent and one word -- MARVELLOUS. Can totally see why this is the signature dish and why a 3-day in advance pre-order for this chicken is required. Only question which I have is, since the restaurant used a fresh chicken for this dish, I wonder how much more the taste will further improve if an organic chicken was used?
2) Steamed Fish Maw Stuffed with Minced Shrimp: This was a dish cooked to perfection -- the steamed fish maw was very tender & soft and the portion of the minced shrimp was very generous. The shrimp was also very sharp & fresh in flavour which was extremely important. Portion sizes were just perfect and everybody on the table at least had 1 portion. Ladies out there - fish maw is mainly consumed by woman as a source of collagen which is good for your skin!
3) Steamed Cod Fish: This sounds & appears like a very simple dish but yet I have seen many restaurants totally screw up on this. Key area is not to over-steam the cod fish or else the fish will become very dense & flakey which is not something you want. The timing of the steaming procedure was spot on and apparently, the soya sauce used on the fish is a secret recipe from the restaurant. This is the sort of dish I am happy with to pair with a bowl of rice!
4) Prawn Dumpling: Sounds very odd to have dim-sum at night time but this restaurant serves it up in style. At $35 a pop at 2 Prawn Dumplings, they better be good dumplings and I was not disappointed. The Prawns were MASSIVE, I mean absolutely massive and you know it is fresh prawns by thd freshness of it. Slight let down was the pastry was slightly too thick which is not to my liking. Perfect pairing for this will be some Gui Lin Chilli Sauce.
Should Try Dishes:
1) Vegetable Stew: Refreshing, Healthy, Fresh vegetables boiled together with ZERO OIL CONTENT in the broth. Enough said. There is a sense of pure-ness about the broth and unlike many other vegetable stews around town, I am very certain this does not contact any MSG content.
2) Fried Scallops with Broccoli: This was a hit & miss dish because the broccoli's were skill-fully cooked as it was not tough & to the stage of difficulty to chew. However, the scallops were the let down as you can still taste the frozen flavour as it was literally just been taken out from the freezer in the kitchen. Disappointment!
3) Fried Egg with Prawns & Scallops: Egg dishes are always my #1 choice of comfort food when one is extremely hungover and I can never get bored of such dishes. Again, the prawns are generously large & fresh but the scallops were same as above which you can taste the frozen flavour out of it. Nonetheless, regardless of the scallops, this is my favourite dish to go out steamed rice with a dash of Gui Lin Chilli Sauce!
Dishnes NOT TO Order!
1) Chinese Style Lobster & Shark Fin Clam Chowder -- When I first ordered this, everything was the name of this dish was attractive and thinking it was HKD35 per bowl, what an absolutel steal. When I got the bill, realising that it was $85 per bowl, I was stunned. This was claimed to be the restaurant's signature dish and I really did not see why this was so highly praised. The Clam Chowder was extremely watery unlike the thickness of the American style Clam Chowders. On top, it was extremely difficult to find or even locate where the lobsters were. MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT but if you have a fat wallet with cash lying around, please go ahead and order this.
2) Pork Siu Mai's (Pork Dumplings) -- I took one bite of this and was not pleased about it. It was extremely greasy and the taste of an inch of oil in your mouth is not very appealing. The Pig's skin that is used on the top of the pork-ball was in my opinion very grotesque. I dont think this will be the sort of dim-sum which the expat community in Happy Valley will be pleased to see. One should never regret about food but this dish is something which I will always regret in ordering.
Our overall experience was very pleasant and it is the new discovery of Happy Valley. This restaurant has also become the hub of the Japanese and foreign expat community. Good hearty food along with flavourful Chinese tea is the key attraction. However, eating at this restaurant can be considerably pricey and some of their prices cna rival a 5 to 6 Star Hotel Chinese restaurants. Do check out the restaurant and let me know whether you think it is worth the money!
NEXT UPCOMING REVIEW ON GEOFF's TWITCHEN : CLEARWATERBAY COUNTRY CLUB SUNDAY BUFFET
Happy Eating & Drinking!
Geoff
Address: G/F, 63 Sing Woo Road, Happy Valley, Hong Kong (跑馬地成和道63號地下)
Tel: 2834 - 8893
Food Quality (5* the highest): 3/1/2*
Price for Dinner (5$ = very expensive): ***
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