Outback steakhouse, TST, HK

This restaurant reminded me of the very old time I visited their branch in Discovery Center of Bangkok.  That was quite pleasant that I re-visited that branch quite often.  Somehow I haven't been to any Outback for years.  Out of the blue, I came to this branch for a lunch set.  Their house signature brown sugar bread was served right after you ordered your meal.  In general, the mains (grilled fish filet and pork chop) were quite nice.  I'd prefer their spacious seating area in quite good social distancing.  This point was my priority to choose a restaurant these days.

 

Tell Steakhouse, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Noticed this steakhouse was quite crowded; so I came in for a try.  Got a NZ beef filet and a spaghetti Bolognese with some veggie side dish.  All the food were pretty nice, and the best was the "piggy" buns.

Artur, a French steak house, soi Ton Son, BKK

Most of the dishes we tried here are so impressive, from lobster bisque, onion soup, bread, salad, beef filet, risotto, though the dessert somehow doesn't agree with me much.  I'd definitely come back here for their super bargain lunch set!

Have a nice weekend, Wooloomooloo, The One, TST, HK

Met a friend from the States today over lunch. Found out a coincidence about this shopping mall The One. At first, I thought of bringing her to a place which we could have a panoramic view of HK, and there we came to this steak house Wooloomooloo. Then we chatted on the last time she was in HK, getting seriously sick after a long haul flight in 2003. I brought her to a clinic of Tung Ying Mansion (where exactly this mall is now). So 7 years later, I brought her back to the same location but this time a relaxing lunch. What's more, we both at the same noticed "beef burguignon" on the menu and thought of the Meryl Streep's movie "Julia vs Julia". That's really warm. Most of all, this place made this one perfect - tender, aromatic but not in thick heavy gravy. Finished the meal with a creme brulee and a good coffee. Gorgeous view in such a sunny warm weather. Have a nice weekend!

Woo Loo Moo Loo, 21/F., The One, TST, Kowloon, HK

This steak house has expanded with 4-5 branches respectively in Central and Tsimshatsui and the new one took the 21st floor of The One.

1. Rosemary tomato bread. Freshly made and served hot on the table. So aromatic. 2. Iced coffee. Very selected coffee beans.

3. Tomato mozarella cheese salad. Nice mix of olive oil, vinegar and salt/pepper. 4. Poached seabass salmon roll. The cooking is good as the salmon is inside the seabass. Seabass has to be cooked longer than salmon. However, if the fish is a frozen one, poaching is not suggested since the frozen smell stays. Or some chicken stock is used for poaching if fresh fish is not available.

5. 6 oz Australian Angus beef filet - medium rare. I like the way they made it. No gravy, no sauce to go, leaving some meat juice on the plate. Unfortunately, the filet was grilled at a very high heat. The surface is much dried out and even a bit too hard. Not the crispy burnt. As you can see, the surface is a bit too dark. It's true that beef filet or quite a no. of steak should be grilled at high heat. However, if the beef filet is like this thick, they should slow down to medium heat after a quick high heat grilling. After a while, go back to high heat to seal the juice inside, and make it more aromatic on the outside. 6. Vanilla cream custard. Nice presentation and very vanilla. However, it's a bit too sweet to me.

7. Showing some charcoal to tell they use wood fire for cooking. 8. the restaurant is only 20% full. Woo Loo Moo Loo offers the above set lunch at HK$198+ Considering the price, the food quality and the view, it's a good deal.

9. This lift lobby reminded me of Alila Cha Am. I guess it's part of the trend of some contemporary design.

Hamilton's, the Steak House, Dusit Thani, Bangkok, Thailand

Been here about 1.5 to 2 years ago. Got so impressed with their quality steak. I guess it may not be good to visit a western restaurant on Monday or Tuesday. Steak can be stored for a few days or weeks, but not for seafood. Made a serious mistake as in the below.

1/2. Hamilton's is in a very classic American steak house deco.

3. Get a drink before the meal. 4. House made bread. Not bad and at least I took 3 of it.

5. Lobster Bisque. Quite nice but if it can be a bit stronger in XO wine and if the lobster's shell got a bit more. 6. Baked oyster. At average.

7. Live oysters. Not so fresh but still acceptable. 8. Grilled rib eye. Glad that they still keep 70% of it. I guess the master chef may not be around. Supposed the grilling heat should have been a bit higher to burn the surface enough to seal the juice.

9. Surf and Turf. Turf is of course very nice but the surf is so so. Check if the seafood is fresh. See the meat if they are curled after cooked. 10. Trio seafood grilled. Only salmon is acceptable. The snow fish and sea bass are not very fresh. The creamy spinach isn't right either.

11. Lemon pie with mango sorbet. At average. 12. Apple strudel with cinnamon ice cream. I forgot raising my comments to their kitchen in not putting pastry in microwave to re-heat. This is very wrong. Any flour-made products put in microwave machine for heating makes the texture very chewy. I commented this to Salon Oriental a long time ago. Sometimes many people really abuse using microwave.