main st. deli

The first time I visited Main St. Deli back in twenty ten, I really enjoyed my meal. I loved the diner ambiance, the deliciously thick milkshakes, and of course the American-sized portions. However, when I revisited last weekend I was sorely disappointed. Not sure if it's because my taste buds have changed or if the deli really has gone downhill, but I'm pretty sure I won't be back anytime soon.

strawberry milkshake (back) and peanut butter shake ($75 each)

The strawberry milkshake was one of the biggest disappointments, tasting more like strawberry milk. It wasn't creamy or thick at all - I would've much preferred slurping up McDonald's trusty shakes even with all its artificial flavourings and yummy chemicals :P The peanut butter shake fared better on its texture (I'm sure it's near impossible to make a peanut butter shake watery) but was just too heavy on the peanut butter flavours for me to enjoy.



thre french quarter ($138)

Trying to be slightly healthier, I opted for the French Quarter - ham, brie and honey mustard on a baguette should be hard to mess up. However, I found the slow baked ham lacked flavour, the baguette tasted stale, and the brie was added very sparingly. The sandwich actually tasted a bit like what I've had at Le Velo except Le Velo is yummier and a fraction of the price.

eggs bene ($138)

The eggs bene was okay flavour-wise (I wonder why they didn't use the same honey roasted ham for my sandwich??)  but the poached eggs wereabyssmal. If there's no runny yolk, it's definitely a fail. Also thought it a bit strange to receive french fries with the eggs!

grilled chicken club ($138)

I didn't try any of this but I thought it was a rather measly portion considering the price. Basically just grilled chicken (looked more deep fried to me?!), BLT and avocado on a sesame roll.

prawn club ($138)

This sounded pretty delicious - apple wood bacon, avocado and prawns on foccacia. Unfortunately, the bread tasted day-old here too...

curly fries (+$8)

You can add an additional $8 to change your regular fries/salad to curly fries! Hurrah! The first yummy thing I had! The curly fries came with delicious melted cheese and reminded me of the Hardees curly fries I used to love - why did they have to exit HK!?

beef lasagne ($168)

This lasagne was also pretty darn good, just because of the amounts of cheese they piled on top! Anything doused in cheese will be an automatic win in my books. The plate came out looking huge but it was actually quite manageable as the dish was really shallow. Still, a super heavy course for lunch!

I suppose not everything was a miss but for the prices you pay, I really didn't think the meal was worth it. I would much rather head to Oolaa / Sashay for eggs bene, Joel Robuchon's salon de the for baguette sandwiches (which are only $48!), McDonalds for milkshakes and Grappa's for lasagne - none of which would've charged quite so steeply.

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Main St. Deli

Lower Lobby Level

The Langham Hong Kong

8 Peking Road, TST

lardos

I'm always on the look out for good steak in Hong Kong and think I've finally found my match. This unassuming steakhouse in Hang Hau village dishes up beautifully tender chunks of meat at very attractive prices. Begun in 2002 by a seasoned meat supplier, Lardos is everything I want in a steakhouse - premium cuts without the additional fuss. The restaurant is crowded, service minimal, and you get kicked out after an hour and a half, but all this adds to the no-frills attitude of the restaurant which focuses solely on delivering great steaks.

ribs ($139)

new zealand lemon sole ($198)

australian mb2 ribeye steak ($195/8oz)

You can choose whether to have mashed potatos, fries or wedges with your steak, and there are also a variety of sauces including bearnaise, mushroom and black pepper. Being a meat purist, I opted for no sauce and the steak was perfect without. It was grilled to a lovely medium rare and was very tender and juicy.

I would definitely come back for their quality meats, perfect grilling techniques and very discounted prices. If only I could still pass for 12 years old, I would jump on their kids meal of mini burgers with fries and cheese too!

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Lardos

4-B, G/F, Hang Hau Village

Tseung Kwan O

zuma champagne brunch

I can't think of a better way to kick off the weekend than with champagne brunch at Zuma, my new favourite brunch in Hong Kong. Given all the rave reviews I've heard of this place, my expectations were naturally high and Zuma did not disappoint. 

For $550, you'll get a buffet + main course + free flowing Perrier Jouet, bellinis and sakes. Not a bad deal considering the above sans alcohol costs $428.

The buffet portion of the brunch was outstanding. There was a good selection of hot items (including chicken karaage and grilled wings), some salads, and of course, a lot of sashimi. I enjoyed the sweet prawn sashimi and hamachi the most, but the maki rolls were also perfectly constructed with just the right ratio of fish to rice (the soft shell crab roll stole the show!). The oysters were some of the freshest I've tasted, though you really had to pounce on them as they disappeared within moments of being brought out.

Some of the plates we had:

The mains didn't fare quite as well but we were sufficiently stuffed from the buffet that it really didn't matter. You could choose from five different dishes, including sirloin steak, miso-marinated chicken, tempura, grilled salmon, and udon. 

Two of us ordered the sirloin steak, which turned out to be too chewy and overly char-grilled for my liking. The picture above is the better of the two but still was a little tough for medium rare. Only the pieces in the middle were okay. The flavour was good though, as were the mushrooms on the side.

Udon noodles were left virtually untouched - probably shouldn't have ordered carbs on top of all the buffet items! The spices were...interesting and the noodles cooked to a perfect, bouncy consistency but it was just a little too foreign for my taste buds! 

Tempura apparently was decent, though I didn't try any as I'm not a big fan of the dish.

Then came dessert... a huge platter of cakes, ice cream and fruit. It even looked healthy! :) I remember being blown away the first time I ordered one of these over dinner and was really looking forward to their signature Zuma molten chocolate cake. Unfortunately, the platter we received didn't have my favourite cake but it's probably for the best as it would've been far too heavy for brunch. I did enjoy the strawberry ice cream and the raspberry cake to the right. Around the back there was also an amazing blueberry cheesecake which I happily devoured. 

My sister noticed that Denise Keller, veteran MTV VJ / model / face of MasterCard / host of Discovery Travel & Living's Passage to Malaysia / H's crush, was sitting around the corner from us. After about thirty minutes of convincing H to go take a picture with her, he finally worked up the courage to get this:

Sweet ending to a perfect brunch. I highly recommend checking it out - it's great value for the amount and quality of food you get, the service is top notch, and who can say no to Perrier Jouet?

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Zuma

5/F, The Landmark 

12-16 Des Voeux Road Central