There are moments in your life that fall very clearly into before and after category. You know the ones I mean; I’m fairly sure you’ve had a few of your own. My birthday dinner on August 18th, 2022 was one of those moments. A restaurant. A night. A menu I’ll never forget. So much so that the very…
Category: Hong Kong
Korean Fine Dining Hits Brisbane!
I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that South Korea is hot right now; I’ve been watching a lot of Korean TV lately, which is somehow hilarious, heartfelt and slickly produced all at once. I mean, who hasn’t loved Squid Game or Physical 100… Such wildly gripping drama. You may also have noticed that Korean…
Is 3 Hatted Sixpenny “Anniversary Worth?”
There’s a quiet little ritual the Girl and I have held onto for nearly three decades now. Every year, when our anniversary rolls around, we do something a little special. It always revolves around food, of course it does, and usually involves tracking down the very best restaurant we can find. When we lived in…
Deer Duck Bistro: Worthy of 2 Hats?
Memory can be a funny thing when it comes to restaurants. Before we left Brisbane for Hong Kong, Deer Duck Bistro was one of those places we visited a few times and always left thinking, yeah, that was pretty good. It had this quirky charm, eclectic without being chaotic, and it sat quietly in that space…
Michelin Stars vs Chef Hats: A Foodie Tale of Two Cities
Since being back in Australia, one of the more common questions I get is some variation of: “So what’s the difference between Michelin Stars and Chef Hats?” Usually followed quickly by, “Do you think Australian restaurants would get Michelin stars?” After a decade in Hong Kong, a city where you can get a bowl of noodles worthy of…
To Blog or Not To Blog
At some point I lost my spark. It felt like my creativity, and more so, my desire to write just left me. Looking back, my last post was July 2021: Let’s put that into context. It was 4 years, 4 months and 22 days since I last posted. To be fair, a lot was going…
Jean May: The new Frenchie in Wanchai
I’ve been a little obsessed with two things of late. Firstly, I’ve been trying like crazy to get back into Jean May for a second visit. The second obsession has been duck. Did you know that it’s almost impossible to get a decent duck breast through any of the home delivery services? Believe me, I’ve…
LPM Restaurant & Bar: Stay for the dessert!
Gone are the days where I could just pop into a fine dining restaurant for a casual meal for the fun of it. Firstly, the big corporate salary is a thing of the past; but mainly, while running and owning fitness centres, it’s important not to indulge too often and stock on the weight! The…
Cornerstone: Big flavours extreme value
Oh hey! Long time no see… Can you believe it’s been 953 days since I last put pen to paper to talk about food? There’s been so much that’s happened in the last two and a half years and I’ve been a little busy and distracted. Well, I suddenly find myself with a bit of…
Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants # 32: Neighbourhood
Neighbourhood wasn’t really a restaurant on my must visit radar. Even after my foodie buddy Alex mentioned that she was ‘dying’ to visit, my attitude was still a little bit ‘meh’. It wasn’t until I saw that the little restaurant has made it to #32 on the recently published Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant list that…
The Middle Eastern option: Francis
I have to tell you straight up, I’m not a connoisseur of Middle Eastern cuisine; although I’ve some Isreali friends that swear that the food in Tel Aviv is some of the best in the world. So I grabbed some friends with a bit more experience with all foods Middle Eastern and made a pilgrimage…
Frantzéns Kitchen: deserving of a Michelin Star
I can’t help but feel that we’re missing out in Honkers… One of the biggest food revolutions in recent memory just seems to be passing us by! Of course, I’m referring to the Nordic food phenomenon that’s taken most of the world by storm and made especially famous by René Redzepi of NOMA. Oh sure, we’ve…
New Chef at the Two Starred Caprice
I’ve been having a lot of fun lately Of course, there has been the regular dining at amazing restaurants…. Always fun But there’s something special about helping someone discover the joys of international cuisine and Fine Dining. One of our gym buddies, let’s call him Matty, is relatively late to the exquisite joys of ultra-fine-dining;…
Earthy & Raw: Beet is pretty sweet
The plethora of talented chefs hitting our shores is quite amazing. And it seems as if the minimum requirement to open a ‘hot’ new restaurant in Hong Kong is a chef with an impeccable pedigree and an eye for detail. Instagram ready food that’s crowd-pleasing is a must, along with an atmosphere that is hip,…
The best way to finish the year; Seasons with Lorenz Hoja
Talk about bittersweet. I’d just found out that big changes were afoot at one of my favourite Hong Kong restaurants. Head chef Oliver E was departing the restaurant that he’d helmed since it’s opening and was being replaced. Ordinarily, I’d have been heartbroken; I mean, I’d spent so much time at Seasons by Oliver E…
It’s a great view from the Glasshouse
Sometimes, it really does pay off being a passenger. I’m normally the guy who’s picking the restaurants when dining; it’s not really a problem though, since I love making recommendations on great places to eat. But it does mean that my dining choices are fairly limited to places I know and/or cuisine options that I’m…
Meeting Joël Robuchon
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’d know that I have a certain penchant for French fine dining; more so, I have an absolute love of French cuisine. There is no one who personifies French fine dining more than the legendary Joël Robuchon; a man who has transcended being a mere…
The story of Electric Avenue and the tasty burger
I’m always on the lookout for a great burger. When you think of the Food Pyramid, then a burger has got all the bases covered; mind you, the proportion of fats and meat might be a little on the excessive side 🙂 I’d been hearing a lot about a new burger joint over at Sai…
1* Takumi by Daisuke Mori: New chef & name but still amazing
Can a restaurant really ever shake off the ghosts of the past? One of my favourite meals in Hong Kong was at the (then) 2* Wagyu Takumi, helmed by renowned Japanese chef Mitsuru Konishi (see post here). I simply loved the exquisitely executed Japanese French fusion style of cooking, and I’m not alone, it’s a…
Terroir Parisien: Pretty plating but a bit inconsistent
When I heard that Yannick Allèno was opening an outlet in Hong Kong, I immediately had visions of a new gastronomic paradise hitting our fair shores. With his two Parisian Fine Diners rewarded with 3 Michelin Stars each, including his showpiece; Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen entrenched in the #Worlds50best restaurants (#31): How could I…
FoodMeUpScotty 