California, Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong

For a long time, it just didn't occur to me that many bars in Lan Kwai Fong had another life - as a restaurant serving up food long before the party goers come.

Calfornia (we're not talking about the Fitness club, also located near Lan Kwai Fong) is one such restaurant bar. After 11 pm on the weekends it turns into a pulsating somewhat dubious - fun but some would say rather meat marketish - nightclub, it serves up pretty decent lunch sets at lunchtime, and good dinner grub. Lately, it's become a favourite among us girls that head out for a supper after our boxing classes in Lan Kwai Fong.

Ambience: The interior of the restaurant is dominated by the U shaped bar on one end, and booths lining the walls and tables in the rest of the space (some of which make way for the dance floor later in the evenings). Somewhat at a basement leve, one side also has high windows which look out onto the pavement of a lane linking D'Aguilar and Lan Kwai Fong.

Menu: It has a broad western menu ranging from nachos, tacos, meat & veg dishes, pasta, soups to salads. Our favoured post boxing grub right now include the Cobb salad, which is a hearty salad with grilled scallops, prawns, chicken, avocado, bacon served with asparagus and a bed of mesclun salads (tossed in a light salad dressing) gives us the illusion that we are not putting all the exercise to waste. My personal favourite is the honey mustard chicken wings served with a cheese dip. Stay away from the cheese dip, the honey mustard marinate is enough to give the wings the full flavour, and delicious it is. Recently we discovered the chicken tacos which comes presented on a large square plate complete with 3 deep fried taco shells, slightly spicy chicken and bean salsa, and small separately bowls of tomato salsa, guacamole, cream cheese and cheese.

Price: ~$100 for lunch, $200 for supper + drinks, and more for dinner.

Ratings: 3.25 out of 5

Little pots of comfort: potato gratin

This dish is a warm welcome on any cold winter day or served as a hearty side dish to any meal. The best part is that it is so easy to make!

You'll need:

• 2 large baking potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 200 ml cream
• olive oil
• 150-200 g finely shaved parmesan cheese
• 4 ramekins (about 10 cm in diameter)

Peel and thinly slice the potatoes (the thinner you slice them the faster they will cook) and the onion. Brush the ramekin with generous dose of olive oil. Start layering the ramekin with the slices of potatoes and slices of onion, pouring a little cream after every few layers. If you like your potato gratin cheesy you can also drizzle some parmesan cheese through the layers.

Bake in oven for around 30-40 mins or until potatoes are nice and soft. Drizzle more parmesan on top and grill for another 5 mins until cheese is golden.

La Fleur, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Cuisine: French

Occasion: Work lunch to celebrate new work mate's arrival at this eatery a stone's throw away from our office.

Ambience: Small little rustic restaurant with wooden chairs and tables and a lovely open )(but a lot more modern looking) kitchen. Restaurant would prob fit around 30-40 ppl, good place for both couples and group dinners.

Menu: It all started well with the waiter setting down two baskets of warm small bread rolls, fresh from the oven. (Any place that serves warm bread moves up an notch instantly, in my book!)

The lunch set menu came with various options: (1) thick slices of tomatoes with freshly shaved parmesan and balsamic dressing, (2) crab meat chowder soup and (3) small but thickly sliced pieces of smoked duck breast stuffed with duck mousse with a simple garden salad dressed with tangy creamy sauce. I went for option 3 and it was delicious.

The main courses included options of New Zealand Ribeye steaks, Australian cod fish Pork Loin baked with tomatoes and cheese, all served with potato wedges and baby green beans. My pork loin wasn't the most imaginative, being toppeed with melted cheese and a tomato/onion sauce, but it was succulent and quite satisfying. I started wondering whether they had marinated the pork in advance. The baby green beans were a tad on the overcooked side, but potato wedges were hot and crispy. My colleagues seemed happy with their thick wedge of pan fried cod fish and generous serving of rib-eye.

The only omission was dessert though I suppose I should have asked to look at the a la Carte menu, and plus, the restaurant had already correctly judged that we would stuffed from the lunch and require no more than a good cup of tea or coffee to round it off.

Price: Very reasonable. $65-80 for a 2 course entree + main set lunch, including tea or coffee.

Rating: 3 out of 5

(I've since paid a second visit to the restaurant and revised the rating from 3.75 down to 3. This time I tried the tomato and parmesan salad with the rib-eye steak, and I was a little disappointed that the rib-eye was on the tough side - even though it was cooked, as requested, as medium rare. My companion had the soup of the day, which was like a fish bisque; "thick" the waiter informed me, but it wasn't really the case. The pork chop was still excellent though!)

G/F, 16, St Francis Yard, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Tel: 2866 7337

Yau Guat Hei, Hong Kong

For good reliable hot pot in Hong Kong, look no further than Yau Guat Hei.

There's a branch in Wanchai near the Ngor Geng bridge, and another one in Happy Valley. The Happy Valley is the original, occupying over 7 stories of what used to be a hotel. This works well in Hong Kong, giving guests privacy of having hotpot in their own room complete with TVs, a little bit like karaoke rooms. On the lower flows are the communal dining rooms if you prefer your hot pot with a bit of background ambience.

Menu: There's no other place to start than the soup base. There's lots of difference types of soup bases, the traditional pork bone (ju kuat) with sweet corn is my favourite. The other day we had a hearty slightly spicy beef soup base which was also nice, but a little strong tasting in my view. I like my soup bases on the mild side so as to still be able to taste the original flavours of the beef/chicken/fishballs/vegs/tofu whatever it is that one throws in (unless the ingredients aren't that fresh ... in which case you are in trouble anyway!). I suppose half a good hotpot is half in the soup ... and Yau Guat Hei does well here.

The hotpot menu itself is a la carte, like a dim sum menu you just tick what you want. Everything you could possibly want is on the menu, from Jap egg tofu, to various types of vegs, to seafood to 6 types of beef, cabbage wraps, fish balls and wontons. You just order what you want as you go along, throw in the food that takes a while to cook. Then gently wave your beef slices in the hot boiling soup with your spoon web until it's done, dip into your sauce sauce / garlic / scallion mixture to cool slightly. Eat. Enjoy.

Price: Estimate around $300 for hearty meal with some beer.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Culture Club, Hong Kong

Not so cultured ...
15 Elgin Street (Lower), Soho, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 21277936
http://www.cultureclub.com.hk
The website sounded promising:

"The art of eating. It's beyond taste & about touching your senses. We hope you can feel the art in our food & have an enjoyable experience at Culture Club, not only with our food but also the overall atmosphere as well as the people that you share the time with here."

Let me get this straight, the setting for the Cuture Club is fantastic. It's off the funky end of Elgin street, not on the main stretch but the bit past the intersection with Staunton street where it runs all the way down to Hollywood Road. The interior is filled with exhibitions of artwork for local artists, funky retro TV, and even a piano. There's an open kitchen and a large table (made up of 2 trestle tables) which seats up to 12. Very nice setting for a group dinner with friends.
From here it all goes downhill ...
Occasion: Good friend's leaving do.
Food: We had a set 4 course menu for $198. Starter was a carrot soup served with slivers of carrot which just didn't quite sit properly with the consistency of the blended soup. Second course was a pork shank served on braised eggplant. Both were delicious but the pork shank was a little on the tough side and definitely too small a piece. Well the boys got a generous serving which left us girls eyeing their plates ... Next came the mains, where we had a choice of squid rissotto (apparently that was nice), spagetti bologanese (strangely enough this was the best dish out of them all - the sauce was deliciously soft and meaty), smoked salmon salad (a bit strange as a main) and seabass on spinach with grape butter (one friend commented that her dish was cold). The chocolate brownie, which was a little dry, was served with cookies and cream ice-cream which was an overkill - vanilla would have been a better accompaniment, and the lemon tart was ... wow, really lemony!
Service: The hosts were really lovely. But the organisation of the kitchen was pretty poor - to be fairly this was probably limited by the small kitchen and license for only light refreshments. The mains came out type by type, first risotto, 15 mins later the seabass, another 15 mins later the seabass and strangely the only dish that didn't require any cooking (smoked salmon) came out last.
Ambience: It took over 3 hours for us to have a 4 course meal ... we would have been able to endure this interesting organisation somewhat if not for the other group in the restaurant. The other group of 20 were so loud that most of the time we could barely hear the conversation between us. Despite subtle hints there was no relenting in the noise level ... they started singing after their main course and it was at that point that we realised that they were a church group ... on a buck's night out ... with both guys and girls ... Isn't there a commandment that "thou shalt not annoy thy neighbour" or something?
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars