Well, rough night, not enough sleep and there you are… Its Sunday morning, you’re still hangover from the previous night only 50% of the alcohol you drank the night before has washed out. Here you are lying in bed wishing you hadn’t drank this set of ten tequilas when the guy on the table next to you told you “Chicken?” when you first said no to that round of Tequilas… Well nobody calls you chicken but you have to admit that the next morning you look more like a stuffed turkey than a fresh chicken, you’re not 18 any more!

Anyway, you first try and open your eyes, one, than the second… They seem to weight a ton and you feel like Thor has been using his hammer on your head during the whole night. You already know your ears are working fine as you’ve been hearing the kids yelling and fighting for more than an hour (was it 4 hours? Times flies) without the ability to even say something nice that would cool them down like like “shut up or I’ll kill the cat”… You’re exhausted and this is only the early hours of the days (around 11:30am) not even sure the birds have started singing already!

After a very thorough thinking (1 and ½ hours watching the sink of the kitchen before remembering your toothbrush is in the bathroom) you decide to take action and do something out of this too sunny day. Lets’ go out (with sunglasses) and enjoy (with moderation) the Sunday sun… So you man up, suit up, clean your ears with your toothbrush and head up out in the blasting sun of Hong Kong…

And there we are out in the wild Hong Kong, hyper kids and hangover parents, heading to Stanley for a Sunday brunch. Lets face it we have no idea where to go we are just trying our luck (as we often do, now you know since you a getting to know my hyper organizational skills right?). We land in Stanley Plaza and since we are in an exploring mood, we enter the first restaurant that we see, the Stan Café which is right at the street level in Stanley Plaza Mall.

Ze Chicken with the petits legumes

Lets be honest, its not our first time there and we usually go there for something else than the restaurant, the French Patisseries (cakes) that are just totally amazing, mouthwatering… To die for (have I made myself clear?). You can either buy them and take them home or eat them in the restaurant. Since we are the lazy and still drunken type, we settle for a table for 4 in the restaurant.

Ze petit poisson

The restaurant is nice and very bright with a lot of windows. When you enter there is an old Citroen Estafette (which is also the name of a delivery service that was started by the owner before the Stan Café) like the one we would see in France when we were kids (yes I told you am an old guy already!).  In the dining room you can get a nice view (from above) of the Murray House (which I described in one of my previous posts).

Sunday has a special menu with a lot of breakfast items and also some salads and pasta. We order a variety of main courses with Salmon (for me), Chicken (for the Supreme commander) Tuna salad for Monkey 1 and Pasta for Monkey 2.

Ze petite salade!

The food was very good. Salad is quite simple and could maybe have a little bit more tuna in it.

Chicken was roasted and came with some boiled carrots and celery. It was very good and even though not as big as “Les fils a Maman” in terms of quantity, it was way enough for a Sunday lunch.

The salmon was very well prepared with some salmon roe in a white sauce and sitting on some fennel. Very tasty and the fennel gave this taste of French Pastis, loved it.

Finally the pasta was the most classic dish but given it was part of the kids menu, it made sense!

Ze Oh My God... Or call it Mille Feuilles

But, what we came for was the dessert. Now, coming for a brunch is nice but it has its flipside. You get there quite late (we finished our lunch at around 3PM) which means that the desserts have already been eaten either by the previous people or bought as take away by the people coming just for this (and I can tell you, there is a lot of people buying patisseries in there, the guys in the kitchen are working hard to provide enough!).

Ze Shazam Lemon (Eclair au Citron!)

We had the Mille Feuille (well you can see by yourself, it’s a very light cake with layers of cream), the Chocolate mousse (that was just divine), the Éclair au Citron (not your usual Éclair!) and the…. Well actually am not sure what that was but given the time Monkey2 took to eat it, I assume it was very good!

As far as the service is concerned, we had mixed experiences there. The first time we came for a dinner (just after they opened) the service was a little below par, we had trouble getting the attention of the waiter.

Ze Hold your body Mousse (Mousse qui tient au corps)

However, this time service was fast and even though the main dishes took a little bit of time to come (I didn’t say it was too long, it was totally bearable and I did not need to put my threats of killing a cat to execution!), the waiter came to us to tell us we had not been forgotten and that they were still working on it. Like the attention to detail from the staff this time and seems they have ironed out things and the service is now good (bravo!)!

As for the bill here it is:

The final bill Monsieur!

 Rating:

• Food:
• service:
• Wine:Not tested from my end (not recommended after a hangover right?). But we buy bottles of Rose there once in a while and they have a very good selection of those types of wines.My wife drank a glass of Rose and said it was good and fresh (luckily for a rose right?!)
• Average rating:

Conclusion

All in a  very good and pleasant experience that required for us to go for a 2 hour walk in Stanley to burn the calories out! This is clearly a jack of all trades as you can get your morning croissant, your patisserie to take away or eat it on the spot. Strongly recommend the Tartelette au Citron (lemon cake) or the “éclair au Chocolat” (chocolate filled cake). Those two are amazing and definitely worth the money!

Advice: If you came for lunch and see a specific patisserie that you want to eat, don’t wait for the dessert to ask for it, ask the waiter to put it on the side for you so you wont be frustrated when you order later and those mouth watering patisseries are already gone!

Ze Zis will stay for 10 years cake (1 minute dans la bouche...)

Well, sorry for the very dark pictures... Didn't have my gear! Looks like some coal miners fighting in a dark tunnel right?

Well it was Valentine’s day and even though I never fall for peer pressure, I had a lot of (subliminal) pressure from the supreme commander as many of her friends were going out for romantic dinners around HK… Still, I am one of those who believe that going for dinner on Valentine’s day is not a good idea (my usual excuse is… too commercial… Yeah thats under the belt but it worked until then!) and that if we did we would certainly end up in some crappy Soho restaurant eating overcooked pasta from a big fat Italian cook (oh wait no, that’s a Disney movie) with a guy coming in and trying to oversell me half dead roses for the “Madame” (well that’s how it usually happens in Paris… Not so sure for Hong Kong).

Now, this time Houston, I had a problem. The Supreme commander had no other plans for the evening on that Valentine day and she decided to join me for an early dinner in Central… with a two hour notice… Again no pressure intended, but still… Felt the pressure quite hard! And there I was, looking like a deer in the middle of the road staring at the car lights coming right at me… hypnotized with no idea of where to go… And there I stayed until the car smashed me (oh dear…). So after two hours starring at the car lights with an empty brain, the Supreme Commander arrived and my plan was as flawless as the one the English had made to defend Singapore… Hold still and wait… We all know how successful that went, as successful as the French in 1940 (what? Who said a disaster? I didn’t!)

Socialito! Neon Red, can't miss it!

So we went off for dinner and I fired my last bullets and offered the only option that I had left while wrapping it in a semi romantic package: “hey how about we stroll around and see where the wind (or the pollution) takes us?”. Well to my big surprise, it worked and she agreed to this last resort plan…

And there we were, strolling around in LKK, Central… I tried all the tricks in my book. Brickhouse? Full… go away you junkie! Cevva? Haha don’t even think about it baby… Bistecca? You must be joking right? Lily and Blum? Ahahaha, are you out of your mind!?

So there I was, with no ideas left when I had suddenly the light bubble pop on top of my head! I remembered there was the Socialito… The Socialito is Mexican style restaurant that replaced the nightclub Prive. The idea is that there is a bar in the front where they sell Mexican drinks and sombreros (not sure about the second item, don’t quote me on this) and in the back, in a (not so) secret door, you can also access the restaurant.  So we went to the Socialito bar as I had no idea where the restaurant was. After hesitating one of the waitresses of the bar came to us and we were showned the door on the side of the bar and there we asked, with a Puss in Boots look, if they had a table for two weary travelers… And they did! But we had to release the table by 9PM (it was around 7:30). We agreed promptly and got in.

Traditionnal Mexican food! Nachos... Well sort of traditional right?

Now the place looks really nice. I like the lights even though they are very dim (I mean VERY dim like you hardly see what’s in your plate). The music is good but (we went back there with a group of friends) it would be good if it wasn’t that loud when it gets closer to 11pm (by then restaurant turns into a night club, they are good at optimizing space in HK right?). I mean its not ear ripping type, but you sure need to focus to hear the person that is two seats away from you and sometimes that can get frustrating.

Yeah that's what am talking about baby!

So we sat at one of the corner tables. I sat on one of the chairs while the Supreme commander was literally swallowed by the huge red sofa (yes it’s a little fluffy but still quite nice). We decided to order simple food (we weren’t that hungry to be honest, we usually eat more around 9pm than 7pm).

Food overall was excellent. We started with some Guacamole (really good), sliced tomatoes where we dipped some nachos and a beer (Dos Equis), quite a nice way to start a dinner even though the feel is not very Valentines-like (but we declined the special valentine set). Then we ordered two dishes, the Waguy beef (which is perfectly cooked and with a very good sauce) and a white fish (again, excellent cooking and presentation was amazing).  Again, no comment it was all excellent and well prepared.

Three bites! Well worth it though!

The Waguy is presented on a wooden plancha. We shared that (yes, I told you it was for Valentine haven’t I? I would have eaten everything but this meant war on that day).

All in, a pretty good experience. Place is nice, food is of good quality. On the two nights we went there (in just a few days) I have to say the service was very uneven. For Valentines the service was excellent but given the hour (7pm) there were only a few tables and there was no pressure. When we went back there with a group of friends on a Saturday night, the service was pretty bad. It was messy, you either had two people looking after your table or none the minute after. Drinks were forgotten and had to ask three times to get it (am talking about getting a beer here, not a “Cuba Libre”). So the service is a little of a let down on this one but globally still derserve a very decent rating as the service is like everywhere in HK… Uneven!

So to conclude (all ratings based on 5)

• Food:
• Wine: Unrated (at each of the dinners we went for Beers and cocktails)
• Service:

Service was below par on Saturday evening. However, this was very uneven as the service was quite good before (but not under stress).

• Global:

All in a good experience. Had the service been of quality the two times I went there, I would have probably given it a 4 baguettes. But its very borderline and the service failed under pressure on Saturday. For the rest it is, if the service is up to it, a 4 baguette restaurant even though the food remains quite simple, its good, well presented and the ingredients are fresh and good. Loved the variety and the transformation into a night club is quite interesting.

Advice: Just book a table on Friday or Saturday night and when the king of the bongo steps in (yeah theres a guy playing bongos starting around 10ish dressed like an Eddy Barclay party but its actually quite a good idea as he makes the transition) put on your suit and get ready to dance the night away (you’ll need to burn some of the calories you’ve accumulated during the dinner!). Maybe the next step for the Socialito is to do a Hangover bar for the following morning and then the loop will be complete!

Inside "Les Fils a Maman"

Sunday is the family day in France (and around the world, we’re no exception!). People would gather around a big nice wooden table and have a lunch that can last anything from one hour to five hours (yes, its our version of brunch actually). This is the moment the French decide to redo the world and to iron out their differences (or make them even bigger and wrinkle them like mad, it really depends on how passionate the discussions turns out but it can be very latin sometimes…). It always (well often) ends up in a drama where the big aunt has decided that the General de Gaulle was the only one who could save France from its economical disaster and that he should be called back to office to straighten things up (did I mention that big aunt is a little senile?).

Yes, that's middle size... For giants

Anyway, it’s not because we are in Hong Kong that we should do as the Romans (anyone following me on this?) so we did as the French and decided to head up to “Les Fils a Maman” in Soho.

Now, “Les Fils a Maman” (lets call them LFM or I’ll end up with cramps in my fingers) is not a newbie in the great world of French cuisine. It’s a spin off of a successful franchise from Paris (they have a few restaurants there). The recipe of the franchise (club des 5 also) is quite simple, they pull the strings of your childhood memories (yes, like Guns and Roses for example) and cook you a lunch / Dinner old style, like your mom or grandma would have done (well mine, but am French… again does that make sense to you?!).

Bucket! YES! Get over it will you?

What does that mean? Quite simple, it means that you have plenty (did I hear too much?), it’s (quite) greasy and fills in your blood vessel with enough Cholesterol to make Fatbastard look like a healthy guy but its good!

So we went there for lunch on Sunday, for a family “Brunch”.

The Dragon's lair... Errr main dining room sorry!

The athmosphere of the place is quite nice. Old chairs, wooden tables and some vintage comic books / toys sitting everywhere around the place. It feels comfy and you can definitely spend the whole Sunday there without even noticing it.

So we sat and ordered a few of the dishes on the Menu. There where 4 of us and we decided to order 2 starters each one a main course and we would see about the dessert.

As starters we had the Pate and the Medium size cold cuts. A bucket (yes, its a bucket, not a basket, get over it!) of fresh baguette and we were already eating and licking our fingers. More bread and we ordered 2 Kir (White wine with cassis liquor) to go with it. It was just delicious. Simple food, served nicely on a wooden plancha, after only a few minutes both the Pate and the cold cuts where gone, like a Copperfield magic trick… Amazing!

Yes, she ate all that... 12 years old... Mutant kids!

With the main dish came the biggest (literally) surprise. My eldest ordered a Cheeseburger (Swiss Cheese and medium cooked meat, as per the suggestions). When it arrived we nearly fell down of our chairs. As you can judge by yourself on the picture, the size was calibrated for a hungry pack of wolves. It was simply HUGE. Despite that, my eldest being 12, she managed to eat it all, in less than 30 minutes, a little bit like the ’12 Travaux d’Asterix’ (go and see it if you haven’t, it’s a great cartoon). Everything was gone (with a little help of yours truly, what one wouldn’t do to help his kids right?).

The youngest of my mutant turtles had scrambled eggs with Salmon. Its actually a perfect choice for a Sunday brunch as it had bread, salad a tomato and nice scrambled eggs… Perfect for your hangover treatment post LKF (ok, before you ask, my daughter did not have post LKF trauma).

The supreme commander took the Scallops wrapped gently (one would imagine)  in Bayonne Ham and some Saffron rice while I went for an excellent Duck Stew with black olives and boiled potatoes. Its basically a half duck cooked… excellent!

French Stew... Olives and flavor!

The food was well prepared, good and quite fast (but the restaurant was half full as we got there a little late, had to wake up which is never easy on a Sunday morning!).

Then we were full. I mean look at the sizes of those babies (am talking about the food, focus will you!).  But you see, there are some words that tickle your curiosity. On the whiteboard I couldn’t take my eyes of those three words: Pannacota and Petit Ecolier…

Tell me YOU can resist this... I can't!

Petit Ecolier is a biscuit with some chocolate on top of it (dark, white or milk) and is one of the students (and non students like me) favorite… So we went for the Pannacota! Yes, despite eating what we had eaten, we decided the quest was not finished and pushed our professionalism one step forward and ate the Pannacotta… Well ate is an odd word as the dessert was gone in less than a minute.

So there it is. We had a great lunch there. The service was nice and friendly and even though they are French, they welcome anyone the same way with a French greeting and a French farewell (no, that doesn’t mean we throw food at you if you are English! That would be… a waste of food!).

So here comes the bill (l’addition nom de nom!):

• Starter of the day: 60HKD
• Meat Platter Medium: 90HKD
• Fish of the day 120HKD
• Chefs Pot (nothing to smoke here!) 120HKD
• Eggs Salmon 120HKD
• Burger Emmental Medium 120HKD
• Cocktail of the day x 2 (Kir) 130HKD
• Perrier 2x 50HKD
• White Panacotta x2 160HKD
• Coffee / Tea x2 25HKD
• Total 1020HKD, with service 1122HKD.

So , now the rating (all ratings out of 5):

Wine: 

Service:

Food:

Overall:

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. The price comes to a reasonable 280HKD per head, given the amount of food we ingurgitated, its clearly a good cost to benefit ratio.

My suggestion?

Don’t be shy, they are friendly and will welcome you with open arms. Have fun eat and talk as loud as you want and forget the speedy city for a while!

Les Fils a Maman, Your mom should be proud of you!

When I first heard about Chez Patrick it was as a catering service. They delivered some food for a farewell party in the office and I thought that the quality of the food was very decent and close to French « classic » standards (ie not french localized food like I have tried a few times!).  There are a few good restaurants and shops here in HK for catering and I will likely review some of those in the near future but Chez Patrick is right in the middle of the pack, not too expensive and good quality.

Then a few months later, I went to the Chez Patrick in Star Street with a friend. We ate some cold cuts and a Tartare (the raw meat, yes us, french frogs, also eat raw meat and enjoy it! Really am not messing around with your brain or something, we get a kick out of it) with French fries. The Tartare was perfect and the seasoning to my liking. French fries cooked in duck grease made them really delicious, totally not good for my diet but totally worth it.

Now, a little bit more than a year ago, the Stanley Plaza Mall (the only one in Stanley; you can’t miss it!) was completely refurbished. Of course as every good Frenchman, I started whining about this! But pourquoi? Mais why? Who wanted to change my little habits my little « je ne sais quoi »? My French touch! The Stanley / French Riviera was getting overhauled and I was not in favor of some people messing with my habits! I was fine with my crappy old mall with no restaurants and a post communist style deco, I was pretty much sure nothing could beat this charming and yet completely outdated decor.  But when they opened the new mall, I have to say I was impressed! Ohlala… Not a major change in the design (yes more wood and more light, more fancy more trendy blablabla… probably threw in some ecologic mumbo jumbo to make it look modern but hey, who cares about ecology in HK right?) but a significant change in the restaurants (there weren’t that many before anyway so not so complicated). Out of the 4 or 5 restaurant that opened in the new mall where two French places, Chez Stan and Chez Patrick. I needed to start « Chez someone » so I picked Chez Patrick, yeah, life’s unfair!

We went there with the kids on a Saturday at lunch time. The restaurant is on the ground floor of the new mall with a direct access to a playground which allows a little bit of calm while the dishes are being prepared and you send your kids out to the big boat to break a leg or an arm while you are sipping cocktails and enjoying the view (before the storm when your kids come back crawling and crying… well that’s another story we’re here for the food right, not for advice on how to raise your kids).

The place does catering and restaurant. The room (single place) is nice with a predominant woody theme as you can see on the picture. Its not your typical French place but it does feel nice and cosy, nothing to say about it it does the trick and the fact that you have a direct.

Now to the food! The food is rather simple but good. Ingredients are fresh and well cooked even though the meat that I like rare came medium (but I can basically eat any type of meat so its ultimately not a real problem). Talking of meat cooking, I have found it utterly hard to have it cooked at the proper temperature in HK. The only place with some consistency on this is the Wooloomooloo in Wan Chai but it has to given the price (around 350HKD an 8 Ounces of meat).

Anyway, we ordered the food and ate some bread just before that (excellent bread that you can also buy as take away at the counter).  Service was fast and nice and despite the dozen of hurling kids around us, they managed to serve everyone fast and properly.

Dishes where quite good globally and no big surprises. Its all very common French food with the inevitable Quiche Lorraine (french quiche), the Moules Frites (well that’s actually from Belgium but hey, who cares right?).

No wine this time as we were with the kids. We exchanged our usual glass of red wine with an Orangina, a French sparkling orange juice.

Final rating (all ratings out of 5)

Food:  

Service

Total:

Conclusion: All in a very pleasant meal with nothing really outstanding but a good place to have a lunch or a dinner, French food, in family. If you are going for a day to the beach and would like to get some french food, this is a good place to stop by. There aren’t that many seats in the sitting area but in case you dont succeed, the good news is that you can still take away some food and go and eat it on the Stanley Beach which is a 5 minute walk from the restaurant!

Suggestion: Dont forget the catering option. It may seem a little expensive at first glance but honestly the food is fresh and really good.

The Mussels with French Fries - A must when visiting the french sea front

What is wrong with old?

Going to Stanley is an experience, I think I mentioned that already (yeah I did; don’t pretend I didn’t or we’ll have to fight lah!!). Now its not because I am a Frog that I am allergic to anything else that does’t have the filthy snails with  garlic or the smelly frog legs; I sometimes (seldom? weird word by the way!) enjoy a little diversity in my food. Today; I went to a restaurant called Saigon; which is nested on the first floor of the Murray House in Stanley.

Now this Murray house is a little peculiar. It’s not your average HK building. First of all, its an old building. Old meaning like really old, like more than 10 years!

If you live HK or have been there; you know the aversion that the HKuese have for old things. Here; old means bad. Having a 2009 Ferrari in 2013 makes you look like a cheap beggar, someone may pity you and offer you a new one. Having an iPhone 4 when the 5 is available makes you look like you are holding the Motorola brick (yeah for the younger generations; that’s the one I attached on the left; pretty slick design right? Isn’t called a brick for nothing!).

So; one day; someone at the HK government, must have been really sick or something and came out with a plan: Let’s take that veeeery old building out and build some new expensive mall where we can make tons of money and (here’s the twist!) lets rebuild the  old building elsewhere… This goes against everything that a true HK does! Spend money to preserve old heritage!! Heretics!!! Barbarians!!!!

Anyway, they did it and rebuilt the place as it was (that’s what they claim, I am not sure the British army had built in an escalator…) and now there are 4 restaurants in this building nested right by the sea a great location for a walk on a Sunday noon or a drink on a weeknight (Check out the Smugglers, good place for a relaxed drink with funny and friendly service! « Ho, stop touching my butt will ya » kind of service but still!).

The Murray House is a place in its own in Stanley. I really enjoy being there as you can eat in Stanley without necessarily having the crowd walking around while you are trying to eat your pizza…

This was not my war General!

Saigon is on the second floor of the Murray house. The place is nice and you can enjoy a terrace anytime during the year as it is a covered terrace (well technically its a large balcony, very noce). You can also eat inside with the air conditioning blasting as strong as possible to make sure you are completely frozen (as in all good HK restaurants!!).

We went there for dinner with the boss (the supreme commander!). Lets face it, we where not that hungry, just wanted some time without the trolls…. err…. kids; sorry. So we headed for a romantic tete-a-tete there and this is a good place for this or even for family / friends gatherings.

We ordered only 4 dishes all together and the usual first price red wine.

Service was really quick and nice. People are smily and looking to make sure the service goes on well and fast (quite amazing in terms of speed sometimes).

We ordered the first price red wine. Very decent wine, good temperature even though we are not talking of a 40 year old Chateau Petrus but rather of a young wine with some temper (like my 12 year old daughter basically…  yeah…. I know).

For the dinner we ate the following dishes:

Starters:

• Fresh Spring Rolls with vegetables. They are obviously fresh and the dish was served to us in a matter of minutes (probably have some ready beforehand as they are everyone’s favorite). This is a classic dish, no surprise.

• We also took the spicy chicken in lettuce salad. This was spicy! Like reaaaally spicy (ie the way I like it) but the supreme commander has a delicate palates and she couldn’t eat it, result, I ate EVERYTHING and was begging for more (but she said no, and yes, she’s in charge!)

Main Dish: We had the beef with a black sauce (Worcestershire… or whatever complicated name the Brits gave to this sauce… just for making sure a French guy couldn’t pronounce it!). I love this dish, the meat is well cooked and the sauce is just perfect with a touch of pepper to spicen it up. Beware though, it comes without a side dish so if you are hungry, get some rice and or some vegetables.

Dessert:

Then again we ate out of sheer « gourmandise »… We ordered a dessert we had never tried (rice cake with Mango). This is also quite good (even though I have to say the cake is quite filling). There are two cakes sitting in the dish waiting to be eaten but even though they look small, its quite big and will definitely stuff you for the end of your lunch, we’re happy we were actually sharing this as I couldn’t have eaten anything more after this but still, its very good and you can feel its freshly made.

Conclusion (all ratings are out of 5):

Wine:

Food:

Service:

Final Rating:

Final comment: This is a great location with a nice and friendly service, above the standards that you may find in HK (not to mention the HK pure restaurants). The waitresses will not take notes of your order but I can tell you, I have never seen them make any mistakes and I have been there countless times. The price is good and the surroundings are just wonderful. The food is definitely fresh and comes out very quickly, I have rarely noticed long waiting times.

IMHO*: On weekends, if you want to avoid the crowded pizza places by the seafront, turn to this option, its still very nice, you get to see the nice view on the sea but just without being seen (yeah I know some of you are divas and looking to be seen!). One of my favorites on this part of the island, an all time classic at a reasonable price.

*IMHO = In my humble opinio… Really you don’t know that?!