Reign, the Abalone House, K11 Musea, Tsimshatsui, HK

Had a very nice lunch at this restaurant.  At first, the waitress was very pleasant to explain briefly and yet to the points of the menu they served.  Secondly, I asked about the tea selection.  She recommended us to try their African Roobois tea, and also their Rose Pu Er tea.  So good that we finished the whole pots of tea.  The waitress also got us their house signature cookie made of olive oil instead of butter.  We took a 3 course meal.  The appetizer was an Iberico ham with tomato, olive and cheese (I forgot to take a photo of it).  We took the main chilled abalone noodle.  I should have ordered a bread basket to go with these 2 dishes.  The desserts are not to be missed.  We had their signature panna cotta and chocolate ice cream.  The chef put some bird's nest to make it very different.  At first, I was a bit questioning about their restaurant's name, but after the try, I'd say it's their self-confidence, rather than a conceit.

Raclette Factory, Zurich, Switzerland

Got a thin crust pizza with heavy cheese, bacon and cheese, a mixed salad and the house signature dish melted cheese with potatoes and some pickled.  If the dishes were served one by one, the whole meal experience would have been much better as the melted cheese would get less aromatic when it gets cooled.  So in this connection, it tells the careless mistake of the restaurant. 

I recall the cheese meal I had in Annecy (near the border with Geneva).  That restaurant could serve the cheese meal for you to slowly enjoy it.

Zeughauskeller, Old Town Zurich, Switzerland

Ran into this place before the tourist groups got in.  Though there were some tourist groups, it appeared that they were in quite some manner and behaving politely.

I thought the food might be quite touristic, but pork chop, coleslaw and the pork knuckle were surprisingly good, especially the pork knuckle which was shimmered in dark beer (very soft and aromatic inside and the grease getting lighter) and then deep fried with the skin being a bit crispy.  The side potato salad was awesome that it was in nice sour cream mayo and chopped chive.  The coleslaw was very nice too with the dressing just right, not overwhelming creamy, sour, nor sweet.  I thought about coming back to this place for another meal.

When I got the bill, the waitress expressly mentioned how much tipping I would like to pay them.  At first I found it a bit odd but it seemed like many other Zurich restaurants are having this reminder.  Also,, they have extra-charge on bread, ketchup...etc.  Most dishes were at the range from US$30-50 in many restaurants.  So charging extra on some small items seem to be a bit unreasonable.  When those dishes were already a bit too high, why not adding it up with 5-10% more as it made no difference for US$30 and US$33.  At least the guests would find those bread and ketchup "complimentary".  Really ironic when we consider ketchup as complimentary at this point. 

Chez Mamie Lize, Annecy, SE France

Cheese fondue is nothing new to us but cheese in grill is rather interesting that I'd love to give it a try. When a platter of various cheese was served together with a variety of cold cuts with some green on the side, it just made my appetite.  I used to like cheese a lot but couldn't because of my weak stomach.  This time I forgot all about that.  The burnt melty cheese on the cold cut was really delicious.  It made all the other dishes we ordered became the second or third pick on the table.  The potato is shiny like a bald head.  Of course, it just didn't look nice.  Among all the dishes, the duck breast is quite disappointing though.  It's just uncooked, not medium rare.  As for the dessert, the blueberry ice cream is quite nice.