Sunning Restaurant (新寧餐廳), Lee Theatre, Causeway Bay

Sunning Restaurant (Shop B, 16/F, Lee Theatre Plaza, 99 Percival Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2890 2029 / 2576 3301) has the same kind of vibe that old school institutions back home like Shashlik, The Ship or The Tavern have. That's what they are. Restaurants that were classy as defined from their era, enduring and a lot of nostalgia involved for a certain demographic who have spending power.  

The bread basket is better than what Shashlik and The Ship has though.

Mushroom cream soup. I was surprised that the soup actually had some flavour of mushrooms. 😬

This one was oyster bongo soup. The name got me intrigued.

I don't know how the name was supposed to describe the soup but it's a cream soup with spinach and a large oyster. And yes, there was some oyster flavour in the soup. Even though it looked just like the mushroom cream soup. Oyster's great.

Menu called this baked pickle ox tongue with rice so I was curious as well. 'Pickle' was probably an inaccurate translation. The more appropriate word would be 'corned'. Like corned beef.

Lots of tongue in the creamy rice layered with a bit of toasted cheese.

Their rack of lamb was breaded and fried instead of grilled.

We asked for medium but it's close to well done. Pretty tender and fatty though. Tasted better than it looked.

This one not Hainanese coffee. It's freshly ground beans and better tasting.

Little Rogue Coffee, Yong Siak Street

Lunch at Little Rogue Coffee (27 Yong Siak Street). These guys have been around and previously operated at Tanjong Katong before moving here. They appear to be another mostly all day breakfast-y food kind of place. This spot which they're occupying used to be Soi 47.

Not bad breakfast spamwich. Eggs, spam, hash brown, cheese and mustard. It has that combination of fat, salt and protein that made it pretty easy to like and there're no surprises here. 

From what I gathered, they're known for their scrambled eggs with ikura. Also pretty good. The eggs were creamy and purposefully flavoured with the brininess from the ikura and some richness from the truffle cream. Nice with the buttered sourdough.

There's espresso tonic here.

Maple thyme hotcake was delicious. Love the crusty texture on the edges. Flavour of the herb came through the hotcake. Think that was a miso caramel sauce drizzled over. Ice cream was Earl Grey.

Royal Host, Takashimaya/Ngee Ann City

Been curious about Royal Host since they opened at Jewel. These guys are retro styled Japanese western food...not unlike Ma Maison. This branch in town (#B2-25/26 Takashimaya Shopping Centre, 391 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6908 1339) was a lot more accessible.

Royal paradise tropical iced tea - tasted a little herbal. 

Lobster bisque's decent. Portion was pretty small.

This was an odd one; albeit an odd one which we enjoyed. A Genovese styled kale pesto spaghetti that's sprinkled with candied pecans and bits of biscuit which tasted like Marie biscuits. 😯 So amidst that pesto and creamy cheese, there's sweetness from those. I'd come back for this.

Sparkling water is available free flow for two bucks.

Their hamburg seemed to be a signature dish so we got one with brown butter sauce. Said sauce didn't exactly taste buttery - pretty sure there was beef stock with tomato and/or vinegar in it. Not bad tasting but we prefer the hambagu sans sauce because the meat tasted beefy. No fillers. Not bad. I like it more than the A5 omigyu one at Steak Sukadu.

Hot fudge sundae was pretty awesome. Never had something like this since I was a kid at Swenson's. Style's pretty nostalgic. Though it even had the same candied pecan and bits of Marie biscuit like the kale pesto spaghetti. 😬

Duck confit with blueberry sauce and kaya butter crispy bun from Tsui Wah (翠華)

The duck confit appeared on menu recently and I think it might be a limited time item. I thought it was nicely done. Crisp skin and tender meat that was adequately salted, pairing nicely with the sweet blueberry sauce and buttery mash.

The menu listed this as kaya condensed milk bun but what they were actually putting on plate was a half of that crispy bun with kaya and butter and the other half with condensed milk and butter. Would have been great if there was more kaya but I still liked it.

Don't their lamb chops just look great? Nice browning on the surface, arguably tender yet meaty at the same time and came with enough fat for those lamb-y flavours to shine. They're delicious.

Cavern Restaurant, Rainforest Wild Asia

Cavern Restaurant is newly opened by the Tunglok Group at Rainforest Wild Asia (#02-32 Rainforest Wild Asia, 20 Mandai Lake Road, tel : +65 9853 7558). And yes, the cavern is obviously man made.

Food's decent. Had the burrata and heirloom beetroot salad with truffle honey which has a sweetness which I couldn't discern if it was from the honey or the beetroot. Cheese was nice but not the creamiest or milkiest I've had so I'm gonna call this not bad but also not great.

Burger's passable. Could tell it's beef but it lacked salt and char and considering that it says wagyu on the menu, the patty's kinda underwhelming. Otherwise not bad tasting. In retrospect, I'm pretty glad I got it sans sauce.

Set lunch at The Stamford Brasserie

Tried the current set lunch menu at The Stamford Brasserie.

Came with a seafood bisque that was a pleasant surprise with the piping hot crustacean-y creaminess. Happened to be raining while we were having this. What doesn't show from the picture were bits of shrimp, fish and small clams. The croissant thingy on the side was a buttery bonus.

Intrigued by their chicken breast with truffle corn cream, polenta and corn ribs. Dish was so...sunflower. Reminded me of a certain textures of corn plate we had years back. Very specific memory triggered here. Nice savoury truffle corn cream. Also pretty glad that the chicken breast was relatively tender and not dry/stringy.

The menu mention aquaponics tilapia. Not that I could specifically tell. Fish was passable and had the tell tale "muddy" flavour of fresh water fish - partially masked by the bursts of tang from the trout roe & Lilliput capers as well as a creamy mellow from the saffron beurre blanc. The pickled endive on the side was delicious.

Outlet exclusives and nostalgia at PS. Cafe Paragon

How should I begin? PS. Cafe has outlet exclusives which are dishes that are only served in respective outlets. They're also currently reviving a series of previous limited edition dishes as part of their 25th anniversary. We came to the branch at Paragon for their outlet exclusives, getting a blast from their past and I'm embracing my personal nostalgia with them.

But first a honey milk latte. I was almost ready to write it off but it was actually kinda nice with decent coffee layered with flavour from honey.

One of the two outlet exclusives here is their Original Laksa Leaf Pesto - spaghettini with king prawns, fishcake and sambal Kenya beans. Noodles were tossed in a sauce of cream with laksa leaves and something tangy I couldn't put a finger on. Prawns were pretty tasty and so were those sour and spicy sambal Kenya beans. Not bad if I might say so.

The other outlet exclusive was their turkey cranberry sandwich. Remember that one? My nostalgia. It's still around. From my virgin PS. Cafe experience like 18 years ago. I cannot be sure if it tasted similar but I thought it did. I still love this. Smoked turkey, mozzerella and bacon bits rounded up with mayo & cranberry jam between buttered bread.

Said cranberry jam also made salad on the side less boring. 😏

So that's the lemon steamed pudding. Apparently from 2009. Same kind of pudding as their ginger one with earl grey sauce and sticky date ones; both of which I've had a number of times and have somehow not talked about in this blog. 😳 Anyways, sweet and lemony and I like it like the other two.

Meet 4 Meat, Ubi Crescent

Meet 4 Meat at East Coast Road is no longer in business. This outlet (#01-05 Excalibur Centre, 71 Ubi Crescent, tel  : +65 8290 3605) is their only other one around.

I was curious about their Burger Wellington from the last time, having the idea that it was an entire cheese burger encased in the pastry.

Turned out that it was just the meat patty, cheese and onions. No bread, no pickles. Pastry crust was more buttery than I remember of their Beef Wellington. Not much different from a meat pie here and not bad tasting also. Fries were nice and crispy on the surface.

Back at Ma Maison Kitchen

Dinner at Ma Maison Kitchen.

That's the onion gratin soup. Beef stock with onions and a slice of baguette in a cup covered in cheese. It's their rendition of the French soupe à l’oignon and a weak one at that. 😂

They changed their recipe for their deep fried gyutan. We know because we've had them previously. The breading was oily and there's a discernible flavour of ginger which was never there before. Today's tongue was also hard and chewy. What was that expression about mending things that are not broken again? 🤔

Pretty good Camembert beef stroganoff. I mean, their beef stroganoff has always been nice in a rich wine-y beefy manner with sweet onions and moreish chunks of beef. Having it was some Camembert in no way diminishes that. Even though it wasn't one of the better Camembert we've had.

I've been curious about their Napolitan spaghetti for a while but have resisted ordering it because the primary flavouring ingredient is ketchup. Did not expect the egg in theirs though. We finally tried it today. It's not as bad/sweet as I imagined. Also no bell peppers in it. Actually very edible with powdered cheese. 😬 Don't mind getting this again.