Author Archives: steve

Intermezzo Ristorante

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Snapper and scampi

Pappardelle

Green olives, tomato, sourdough

Rocket, pear and reggiano

Front room

Exterior

Interior

**** (4 stars)

I think a lot of the reviews here are out of date, as they have changed chef and staff in the past two years. We had a great experience here.

The ambiance is upscale genuine Italian as you would find in Italy. There’s an extensive menu and an excellent wine list with a focus on Italian wines (of course) but plenty of other selections as well.

We enjoyed our green olives, tomato and sourdough bread starter, and the rocket, pear and reggiano salad was a nice palate cleanser.

The pappardelle with mushrooms was a lovely, light pasta dish, and the crispy skin snapper with prawns was perfectly cooked. I could have licked the plate to get off the last of the pureed peas!

Service was attentive, and they brought nice glassware and decanted our Amarone without being asked.

Pricing is not cheap, but not unreasonable for the expensive location.

Intermezzo Ristorante
1 Martin Pl
Sydney, New South Wales 2000
+61 2 9229 7788
https://www.yelp.com/biz/intermezzo-ristorante-sydney-3

Pierre

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Amuse bouche

Crab

Snails and mushrooms

Gambas

Grouse

Cheese

Grand dessert

** (2 stars)

Pierre offers a lovely room with a great ambiance and view. It’s the kind you’d expect to find in a top rated restaurant. Unfortunately, the view is about the only thing that is top rated about it.

At a price equal to or above the nearby Amber and l’Atelier, it’s hard to imagine anyone returning to Pierre for a second visit. The six-course tasting meal we had was, frankly, poor. There wasn’t a single stand-out course, and no one in our party had more than a taste of the grouse entree, which had a very unpleasant bitter taste. Mine even still had a piece of lead birdshot in it.

They’ve tried to make up in quantity what they lack in quality, with a half dozen small plates bearing amuse bouche at the start, and another half dozen plates of dessert at the end. But not one of them was truly good. It’s as if they’re firing scattershot, to see if they can hit anything.

Service was also hit or miss, with the wine list not even offered until the food began showing up, and empty water glasses sitting for long stretches of time.

At about $10,000HKD for our party of three’s food alone, this must be one of the worst buys in the city. And the wine prices are just as unreasonable.

Pierre
25/F, Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, 5 Connaught Road Central
干諾道中5號香港文華東方酒店25樓
+852 2825 4001
https://www.yelp.com/biz/pierre-%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF-2

Cat Store

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Cat cookies

Exterior

Entry

Garlic toast

Caramel apple and ice cream

Toast

Smoked salmon pizza

Interior with JJ

**** (4 stars)

This was a fun lunch. It’s a bit hard to find the place, as the signage by the entrance to the building is very small, and then you take a tiny elevator to the third floor. But once inside the place is surprisingly spacious.

Don’t expect to have a cat in your lap, but the cats were surprisingly interactive (it was feeding time) and very tolerant of the children who didn[t quite know how to interact with them in proper cat fashion.

The food was surprisingly good. I really like my iced chocolate coffee and apple with ice cream. The cat cookies were homemade and very tasty.

Cat Store
Flat D-E, 3/F, Po Ming Building, 2-6 Foo Ming Street
富明街2~6號寶明大廈3樓D~E室
+852 2710 9953
https://www.yelp.com/biz/%E9%98%BF%E8%B2%93%E5%9C%B0%E6%94%A4-%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF

Yum Cha

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Interior

Menu

*** (3 stars)

I admit I’m not a huge bao fan, so I wasn’t expecting to love the food here, and I didn’t. I felt the bao was mostly heavy-handed and thick, with little filling. But it was, indeed, very cute, which is really the reason to go here.

Service was friendly, and the place (once you find it) is fairly spacious.

Yum Cha
3/F, 20-22 Granville Road
加連威老道20-22號3樓
+852 2751 1666
https://www.yelp.com/biz/%E9%A3%B2%E8%8C%B6-%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF-2

Kaetsu Japanese Restaurant

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Interior

Sashimi

**** (4 stars)

I admit to being a bit underwhelmed by Kaetsu, but perhaps that’s just because the space is so beautiful that it sets high expectations. We had the multi-course menu, and everything was fine, but there were no standout dishes. It includes the Japanese standards such as miso soup, tempura, and sashimi. All were fine, but no better than I’d expect from most mid-level Japanese restaurants. Considering the pricing I was expecting a bit more sophistication. Still, if you’re staying in the hotel it’s convenient. I wouldn’t make a special trip just to dine here, though.

Kaetsu Japanese Restaurant
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, 1 Harbour Road
港灣道1號君悅酒店
+852 2584 7088
https://www.yelp.com/biz/%E9%B9%BF%E6%82%85%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%96%99%E7%90%86-%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF

Grand Cafe

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Interior

Menu

Tray set wok fried chicken

Mushroom sandwich

Tray set steamed tilefish

**** (4 stars)

This hotel cafe serves an extensive menu of Asian and Western dishes for breakfast lunch and dinner. There is also an extensive buffet.

The ambiance is sleek and modern, and service is friendly. Pricing was reasonable for a hotel restaurant.

Grand Cafe
Lobby, 1 Harbour Road
港灣道1號大堂層
+852 2584 7722
https://www.yelp.com/biz/%E5%92%96%E5%95%A1%E5%BB%B3-%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF-4

Tanoshii Sushi Mike’s

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Escolar and sauteed shiitake mushrooms

Madai, hamachi, otoro

Seared salmon with Italian seasoning and wasabi

Striped bass in ponzu chili oil

Seared tuna with truffle

Fish and chip

Tempura

Exterior

Sushi bar

**** (4 stars)

I keep looking for a world class sushi restaurant in Chicago. It seems a city of this size should have one, but I’ve tried all the likely contenders, and still keep looking. Tanoshii is another in that list. It is good, but not great.

We had the full omakase, which is how I judge all high-end sushi places. At our request it consisted of mostly sashimi. The omakase style places an array of fish on a plate and then adds sauces and seasoning. Here are the courses we had:

Tempura: this was my companion’s favorite course, which says something about the other courses, because she is a sashimi lover, not a tempura lover. We asked for it as our appetizer because of raves here on Yelp, and it was indeed a nice, light tempura preparation, but it will not change your life.

Fish and Chips: essentially a spicy tuna tartare, spread onto a wonton at tableside, it was fine, but better without the wonton.

Maguro Truffle: tuna shaped into a rose and topped with truffle oil. It was good, but I’ve had this dish elsewhere served with crunchy bits which really elevate it above this level.

Striped bass in ponzu chili sauce: this was the first of several sashimi courses that had a certain sameness. As my companion put it, “It’s drowned in oil.” In fact all of the sashimi was quite oily. Oil was even poured onto the rolls. The bass was surprisingly tough.

Seared salmon with Italian seasoning: this was an interesting flavor combination, with a distinct oregano flavor, but again, very oily.

Madai, hamachi, otoro: this was a nigiri course, and was one of the best–simple, flavorful, with excellent quality fish. Since this is what many diners will choose, it is the reason for my four star review.

Escolar wrapped around sauteed shiitake mushrooms: this was the best thing we had. It is an off-menu roll, but you can order it, and you should. It was unctuous and perfectly balanced, and by far the most complex item we sampled. True, it is also oily, but with a purpose, and if it is the only oily thing you have, it is a great choice.

The omakase came to $66 per person, which seems very reasonable to me. I would not have it again because of the oily repetitiveness of it, but I might return to Tanoshii for nigiri and tha mushroom roll.

Tanoshii Sushi Mike’s
720 W Randolph St
Chicago, IL 60661
(312) 207-8894
http://www.yelp.com/biz/tanoshii-sushi-mikes-chicago

Uncle Julio’s Chicago

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Ceviche

Benito’s platter

Juanita’s platter

Exterior

Interior

*** (3 stars)

Uncle Julio’s serves pretty good TexMex for a chain restaurant. The place is large and can get quite noisy, but the front rooms and the side patio are quieter.

I really liked my Patron skinny margarita. It was indistinguishable from a regular margarita with only 120 calories. Deal!

I had the Benito’s combo. The chicken enchilada and pork tamale were excellent, but the chile relleno had absolutely no flavor in the breading, the chile itself or the cheese filling. The beans and rice were good.

Service was prompt and friendly.

Uncle Julio’s Chicago
855 W North Ave
Chicago, IL 60642
(312) 266-4222
https://www.yelp.com/biz/uncle-julios-chicago-chicago

Swift & Sons

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Interior

Interior

Big eye tuna crudo

Crispy rock shrimp

Tomahawk

Chocolate trolley

**** (4 stars)

There are a lot of steakhouses in Chicago with great atmosphere, and there are some with great steaks, and there are fewer still with great side dishes. Swift & Sons is one of the rare places that offers all three, along with excellent service and fair prices.

We started with the big eye tuna crudo and the crispy rock shrimp. The crudo was melt in your mouth delicious, but a very small serving. The rock shrimp was a huge portion, as generous as the tuna was stingy. The crispy coating held up to the slightly spicy sauce; an excellent dish.

A Caesar salad split three ways was a nice palate cleanser, but it was just okay, and the croutons were fairly indestructible.

We shared a 38-ounce tomahawk rib eye (the smallest size!) three ways. That’s a lot of steak, but it was so delicious, with its charred crust and tender marbling, that there wasn’t a scrap left.

We also had a side of Lobster Thermador, which was very good, but not a traditional Thermador, more like a half lobster tail with some butter-based sauce.

The creamed spinach was also very good; rather than being minced it used the whole leaves, but was definitely more creamed than sauteed.

A popular dessert option is the chocolate trolley, with an assortment of small bites for $3 each. I opted instead for the very interesting white coffee ice cream, which was indeed white, and very nicely flavored.

Wine selections are extensive, thoughtful, and fairly priced. Our server was extremely familiar with the wine list, so that we didn’t even need the sommelier.

Both server and busser were friendly and attentive.

Swift & Sons
1000 W Fulton Market
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 733-9420
http://www.yelp.com/biz/swift-and-sons-chicago