Jul 20, 2007

Hong Kong Brew House

> Location : LG/F, LKF Tower, No. 33 Wyndham St.,
Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Bar/American/Mexican
> Tel. # : (852) 2522-5559
> Website : click here

Great drinks, great food, great environment and great service; that is what every food enthusiast wishes to see in every restaurant. Environment comes with construction cost and a good area/district comes with a high rent (unless you own the property). Yet, El Grande Holdings is willing to put such effort and sacrifice into Hong Kong Brew House in Lan Kwai Fong!

With almost two dozen restaurants under El Grande, Hong Kong Brew House's goals as a bar/restaurant shouldn't be taken lightly. Already assuming you know where Lan Kwai Fong is =D, Hong Kong Brew House has already been around for quite sometime. Every time you go in during peak hours (evening time of course), it's a peanut shell party all over! Every table has free peanuts to offer and it's a custom to toss your shells on the ground! Its served because peanuts has always been a great snack to go with a nice cold glass of beer! There are TVs around the whole place and even a big projection screen at the center of the bar when there is a major televised sporting event. The service at Hong Kong Brew House is great. They are quick/prompt and friendly. I've never seen them run out of man power to serve you quickly. There's always 2-3 at the bar and 2-3 at the tables to serve you right away!

Moving on to the next topic, the title of the restaurant definitely tells us all something; "Brew House." Hong Kong Brew House is a great place for beer from all over the world. They have the most common brews to some of the most uncommon yet most refreshing brews. The common beers or as their menu would call it (boring beer), contain the usuals such as Budweiser, Corona, Heineken, Bluegirl/Carlsberg (commonly ordered in Hong Kong), Guinness, Asahi and a few others. Straight from the draft they have Stella Artois and Hoegaarden. But the greatest of all has to be their imported brews straight from Belgium!

One in particular that is a must have is Chimay. Chimay, as I've hinted before is a beer from Belgium (in the Hainaut province, abbey of Scourmont), near a municipality called "Chimay." The history of Chimay beer goes all the way back to 1850 with the Trappist monks. To make a long story short, the Trappist monks' every moment is of great dedication. From their crop fields to their worshiping of God, they put a lot of work into it. However, one day, crop growing became a light industry and in order to proceed with their lives, they decided to make the best cheese and beer! Until today, Chimay beer is still brewed at the Abbey of Scourmont to ensure its quality! Chimay comes in three types: Chimay Red (7% alc. vol.), Chimay Triple (8% alc. vol.), Chimay Blue (9% alc. vol.). Each type comes in either a 25.4 fl. oz. bottle or a 11.2 fl. oz. bottle. Because of its second fermentation process within the bottle, a bigger bottle of Chimay will definitely be unique to its little brother. The Volume of beer during this process changes its taste making it fuller and smoother. So essentially, Chimay has six types of beer! Well, actually, there's eight but I'll let you do the research on the other two =D (For information about the other types of imported beer, please check their website)

Just beer? Of course not! The Food at Hong Kong Brew House is excellent and nothing short compared to a lot of restaurants that serves American and Mexican dishes. They have various types of appetizers, salads, soups, pizza, pasta, sausages dogs, some Mexican specials, burgers, steaks, and so many other choices! Besides beer, Hong Kong Brew House serves cocktails, sparkling/white/red wine, spirits and much, much more!

My experience? Well, one thing I love to order when I go there is their chimichanga! You don't know what it is? Well, just imagine a chicken burrito fried, on a plate, with melted cheddar and jack cheese on top and other tasty ingredients on top also, and with guacamole, sour cream and diced tomatoes on the side to spread all over it! To me, this is the greatest dish at Hong Kong Brew House and I've ordered it every time when I'm not sick of it =D The chicken is a little spicy as the menu indicated and ranchero sauce is present also. The chimichanga was nice and hot when it came and it was definitely tasty with all the sides spread on top! The chicken inside was tender, and all the other ingredients were fresh tasting from my knowledge. At $95 HKD, it's a tiny bit more than your usual set meal/western dish. However, located in Lan Kwai Fong and considering the great quality, it's definitely justified!

Another item I love to order is the Hot Wings, which is one of their "Brew City Snack Selections" or in short, appetizers. Hot wings is basically buffalo wings as most Americans would call it. It's a total of one pound (for $88 HKD) of tastiness with a "kick of spice" as their menu would call it! Served with ranch sauce and some celery sticks! There really isn't much to say but it's juicy, tasty, tender and that infamous buffalo wings flavor! Of course, ranch dressing is the best dip for it. While typing this, it seems like I can taste it right now!

One other item I would love to share with you is the "Brooklyn Reuben." As their menu description says, "Grilled rye bread stuffed with a mountain of corn beef, pastrami, smoked turkey, sauerkraut & melted Swiss cheese." On the side, it's served with a stick of pickle, thousand island dressing sauce and some fries! This type of sandwich is famous for the sauerkraut taste which is cabbage, specially fermented to give it a slight sour/sweet taste. I'll tell you right now, this sandwich is big! And as their menu describes, it truly is stuffed with all sorts of good stuff! Every bite is a little craziness from each ingredient from the corn beef to the pastrami to the smoked turkey to the sauerkraut! At $100 HKD, again it seemingly is pricey but for such goodness, as a food freak, I seriously think it's justified but do you think so? Your decision =D

I think anyone should expect the pricing in Lan Kwai Fong, much like the pricing of a bottle of water when going to Disneyland (but of course not as ridiculous!). Yet, Hong Kong Brew House makes you forget pricing because their quantity of their selections and the quality of any of its choices (I'm pretty darn sure) is all excellent! I try over and over again to think what is bad about this place from service to environment to its food/drinks and I seriously cannot think of one thing! The place is almost always full during the "usual hours." But finding a seat shouldn't be too tough because there are always people who bar hops in Lan Kwai Fong. My verdict is obvious and my recommendation is a "go if you're a beer lover and go if you're a food lover." Enjoy if you ever get a chance to go =D

< 5 out of 5 >

Jul 19, 2007

味軒 (Wei Xuan)

> Location : G/F, No. 60 Connaught Road, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Chinese/Taiwanese
> Tel. # : (852) 2854-2899
> Website : N/A

Right next to the bridge, fairly close to I.F.C. is a neat little restaurant called Wei Xuan (味軒). Wei Xuan is a small restaurant (seats about 20 or so). There are a few highlights to the place but to me, the best thing is their hot and sour noodle soup! Hot and sour soup is an old doctor's medicine. It uses the healing properties of black fungus, vinegar, white pepper, and chicken broth. Besides these ingredients, bamboo shoots, tofu and shredded pork are commonly used by chefs. At Wei Xuan, they take this soup to the next level and make it into a soup base for noodles!

You can choose from thick or thin noodle (thick noodle is somewhat like Japanese udon), ho fun (flat noodle), and rice noodle to pair with your hot and sour soup. Their are various meat balls and other things you can pair with your noodle soup but to me, the best is the meat ball (pork) with satay stuffing! The meat ball is so good and so juicy that almost every time I bite into it, the juice squirts out! As for the noodle choice, I enjoy the thick noodle a lot. Seemingly, it's like Japanese udon but it's not. But it's slightly chewy and to me, it's great with the thick hot and sour soup base.

Besides this, Shanghai vegetable rice pairing with sweet and sour spare ribs is another excellent selection. I tried this once before and it's definitely something simple yet great. For appetizer, their taro strips spring roll is also a nice selection coming with a nice sweet dipping sauce!

Yet, the highlight is still the hot and sour soup noodle. It is definitely a nice treat once in awhile at Wei Xuan. To me so far and from what I've heard from food lovers, this is definitely their best specialty. I really can critique Wei Xuan entirely (everything it serves) or just focus on what I really had before/liked. But to be fair, I really only had the stuff I talked about above and I can surely give them all above average scores! (From what I heard, everything I had IS the only choices that are truly worthwhile) The Shanghai vegetable rice pairing with sweet and sour spare ribs is good but if it were me, I would go for the hot and sour soup noodle first before anything else! It's more unique for first timers.

So in the end, Wei Xuan is a nice place to go if you're in for something hot, sour and with noodles! Solely giving a score for that, I would give it a 4 out of 5 but with everything else accounted for, I would say about a 3 1/2 out of 5. Please don't let my indecisive nature not make you want to go try it out! Please do try if you enjoy Taiwanese/Shanghainese style cuisine and especially if you're a fan of hot and sour soup! So what's your final verdict Simon?! You're being so wishy washy!! Well, I guess I'll go with my gut feeling...

< 3.5 out of 5 >