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 >

Lian

> Location : Shop 2004, Podium Level 2, International Finance
Centre Mall, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Viet/thai/Bar/Bistro
> Tel. # : (852) 2521-1117
> Website : N/A

Another creation from the M.A.X. Concept group (Maxim e.g. Rice Paper), Lian is a classy, business oriented Vietnamese/Thai restaurant located in podium level 2 of the I.F.C. mall. When you first step into Lian, you will spot an entertainment room to the right and the actual restaurant and bar to the left. The restaurant/Bar itself consists of about a 10 seating Bar, a very creative large square table with water decorations in the middle of it. The table itself definitely will be shared among the visitors very much like a bar table. The lighting is dim, there's a mirror up on the roof and on opposite sides of the restaurant to make the atmosphere feel bigger. There's a window looking out into Central with about seven booth style seating available by and away from the window. There is also a bar that serves especially juice and wine.

Lian's menu contains your usual appetizer section along with short orders, rice/noodles/bread, Lian's selections, and vegetables. There are symbols indicating which are Vietnamese or Thai dishes. There's also a separate menu for drinks and dessert.

So onto the food! In any Thai related restaurant, you're going to find "Stir fried morning glory with chili and preserved shrimp paste" in the menu ($58 HKD). At Lian, they keep the consistency alive with that salty, shrimpy flavor from the dish. Nothing extraordinary but done just right.

Next up is the "Green tea smoked duck, pineapple caramel chili lime salt" ($165 HKD). The lime salt is provided on the side to put on your duck. At first bite, I noticed the smoke flavor doesn't overwhelm the other qualities of the dish. It blends in well with the lime salt, the sweetest from the pineapple caramel and there's even a hint of spiciness. Most of the smoked flavor comes from the duck skin and in its entirety, the meat is very tender. It's basically a dish of many flavors yet done very well. It doesn't make you question why a certain sensation is added onto the dish. Some sourness, some saltiness, some sweetness and some spiciness. A good dish overall.

Lastly, is the most expensive dish in Lian's menu which is the "White Miso marinated Chilean sea bass wrapped in cucumber lime leaf and lemon grass flavor, purple pickle" ($ 175 HKD). When it comes to miso on fish, we think of the Japanese. If you ever had miso roasted fish in Japanese style, there's always a strong definite flavoring of miso on the fish but not enough to overwhelm the fish's meat flavor. Yes, this is a Vietnamese / Thai fusion restaurant so it's hard to follow this concept. However, from the first bite into this dish, I noticed the miso flavoring is barely there. You notice it's there but not enough to trigger any delightful sensation in your brain. At the very least, the sea bass is tender and fresh (you can tell if you don't taste that fermented flavor to it). the purple pickles was a nice compliment with the light-tasting sea bass. It was a bit sour, very much like those Japanese style pickles used for bentos or rice porridge. I actually asked one of the waitress about the extreme lack of miso flavoring and the wateriness of the dish. She actually had that same notion when she tried it herself and told the chef about it before. However, the chef thinks that's just how it should be made. So possibly, my experience wasn't an inconsistency, it was just meant to be. Yet, if we were to use the stereotypical standards of what people think is good or not, this dish will dissatisfy many. With the compliment from the purple pickles, I think the miso sauce doesn't need to be extremely obvious but stronger would be nice.

For dessert, I had the caramelized pineapple and fresh mango served with snow pine leaf ice cream. This dessert is a two-sided item and the pastry side goes very well with the ice cream side. A very simple dessert yet done very well! One of those dishes you just have to try to understand!

So it boils down to me shaking my head a little about the most expensive dish in the menu. I expected a lot more from a $175 HKD item. But hey, others might like it. My opinion? Not many though. Yet, I take nothing away from the dessert and the duck dish. They were done extremely well and I give them high marks! So my verdict for Lian is...

< 3 1/2 out of 5 >

Houston's

> Location : 2991 Michelson Dr, Irvine,
California 92612, U.S.A.
> Cuisine : American
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website : http://www.hillstone.com/

Houston's is a great place for ribs and the alike. heck, even the sandwiches are good. it's not a cheap place and like my friend raymond who started the review, it's a cut above places like black angus but right below places like ruth chris and other expensive steakhouses. the environment is very dim during the evening time. a big bar with a lot of tv's around it for sport fanatics.

the spanich dip is always good. one thing i always get when i go there. the ribs are very good also. juicy and of good quality. usually it's a place late 20's 30+ year old people go to. 'cause most dishes are in the high $10's and usually $20-30+. yet, don't let the price fool you. although it won't be like a claim jumper portion at houston's, what you get is consistently high quality. the salad, pastas are all good. and of course like i said, there's a bar, so if u're with the boys or on business outing, there's a wide variety of drinks u can order.

finally, like my man raymond said above, be pepared to spend about 40-60 a person if you want a decent meal for two (about 50 ish when i went with a friend. two entrees and one starter dish). you can probably get out with around 30 ish if u order the cheaper stuff like the sandwiches and the alike. anyhow, hope this helps!

* these short reviews by me can also be found on www.yelp.com

< 4 out of 5 >