An Indian foodie’s experience at a Specialized Asian Food court in HongKong
In a nutshell:
It’s a great concept place planned perfectly where u can sample food from all Asian countries & different kinds of cuisines within a country as well.
Food Republic – Asian Speciality Food Court at City Plaza Taikoo Shing, Hongkong
Meal for 2: HK$ 80 onwards
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Description:
I was wandering in City Plaza Mall in Taikoo Shing, Hongkong, when I noticed a huge corner with food stalls. The foodie in me cud not resist & I walked in. I started looking around at the stalls soon to realize that it was a well-planned & nicely laid out food court.
peking duck on display
The Design of the food court was uniform for all stalls – in terms of size, façade, Shop fronts etc. This was quite different than the over-cluttered multicolored multi sized facades of stalls in Food courts in India.
Food Republic at City Plaza
What impressed me was the fact that the Mall Guys have actually planned the renting out of stalls to ensure that all Countries & the cuisines of Asia (sans Indian subcontinent) are represented. The shops included a Japanese open live teppanyaki counter, a Chicken rice counter (Singapore), a Noodle & congee shop, a Japanese wazen shop – what was been sold here looked like a lunch box (bento box), a Vietnam stall with many ‘pho’ dishes – of diff varieties like chicken, duck, beef, seafood etc, a Chinese stir fry, a Thai stall, a traditional rice noodle house, a ‘in-house made’ Japanese udon noodles stall, a Shanghai & Sichuan counter, a Korean counter, a Dimsum house & a shop selling Taiwanese food. There is a dessert shop as well. I guess it will take a month for a person to xplore all the shops & may be 6 months to try all dishes sold at these shops.
Roasted meats on display
The first shop on the right was Bread Talk that we have at Spencer’s Gurgaon. Till I saw this I had no idea that this Bakery shop in Gurgaon was an International Chain.
Bread Talk at Hongkong
I must say – amazing variety, amazing planning & great execution & popularity shows – The Food court is always full at meal time.
Some stalls had almost real looking plastic look-alikes of the food that was on offer.
look-alikes of food on display
Some others had all their real roasted food on display.
Roasted meats on display
In case u r visiting Hongkong & want to have a taste of Hongkong & other Asian Countries, get to this place. I wud not say that the food served here is the best in their respective category but they are surely good.
Detailed Description – In case u have time to njoy reading:
This review is only for Breakfast ‘set menu’ at Sakura.
In a nutshell:
Loved the breakfast set menu offered by Sakura – served at the Coffee shop of Metropolitan Hotel
Japanese (fusion) salad @ Sakura Delhi
Address & other Details: Sakura
Meal for 2: Rs. 2400
Timing: Breakfast
Cuisine Type: A set menu having both Nonvegetarian & Vegetarian food.
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
We read about this breakfast at Sakura quite some time back & had planned to go there for quite some time. A day before, we called the Gurgaon Sakura & asked about breakfast & they said Breakfast is available only at the Delhi Restaurant.
sweet omelet, pickled cherries, seaweed, baked salmon – part of a breakfast set menu @ Sakura Delhi
As we reached the Metropolitan Hotel near Connaught Place, we were taken to the Coffee shop. We said ‘but we want to have breakfast at Sakura’. The answer shocked us ‘Sakura is closed in the morning. Opens at 11.00 am!!’ We asked them to check with (I think) the F & B manager & this time the reply was different – ‘Yes, u can have the set Japanese breakfast but that is served in the Coffee shop’. We were obviously fine with the offer as eating the Japanese breakfast was our only motto & not necessarily sitting at Sakura.
The Manager of the Coffee shop walked up to us & greeted us after maybe hearing we had come for Sakura Breakfast – I didn’t know breakfast at Sakura was such a ‘unusual’ occurance. Anyway, the offer that came along with his visit was great – we cud pick up any juice / fruits from the regular coffee shop breakfast.
The service was very good post the initial ‘confusion’.
multicolored tea bags of diff flavors @ Sakura Delhi
Loved the food that was served to us in a set menu platter – salad (different from the usual ones), a superb miso soup, a tofu dish that looked superb & was good to taste, salmon baked, an excellent seaweed, a radish based preparation, a jumbo scoop of sticky rice & smartly cut melon.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy reading:
Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.
I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster
Short description- in case u r in a hurry
This was our first dinner in a restaurant ever since cities got locked down due to COVID. We were deliberating between different options & narrowed down to spectra. We were looking for European food. Very Glad that we came here – the experience was totally worth it.
The restaurant is situated inside leela ambience gurugram. As we alighted from our vehicle, a guy in uniform came for valet parking. I handed over the keys & the car. He asked my phone number (he said it was mandatory). I asked for the receipt. He said physical receipt will not be given & that I will receive an SMS in 10 minutes. The SMS however never came. After our dinner I walked out of the gate, told the security about my car. He asked me for SMS. I said I did not get. He got me the car & handed over the keys!!! So imagine someone can quote another person’s Bentley’s number & drive it away!!! Super wierd.
As we entered the hotel we were asked to put all our metal belongings in a tray and pass through the security so that there is no need for physical patting and checking. As we reached the lobby, we were asked to stand in front of a machine that could measure the temperature without physical contact.
After this,when we moved on to the restaurant, it was about 7:40 PM and the restaurant had about 4 to 5 tables occupied. it was as silent as it could be it. No chatter, no clattering of cutlery. It seemed like walking into a restaurant in a hotel at 7 AM in the morning for breakfast on Sunday, sharp at the opening time.
When we had called earlier, the guy did not tell us that the last order will be before 8 pm. We were lucky we walked in at 7.40. Else we would have to return.
Our server was extremely warm and constantly kept us engaged throughout our stay in the restaurant. We felt like being guests at his home.
As we sat, he got us a scanner. It had a QR code, which we had to scan from our camera of the phone. immediately as we scanned the code, a link appeared and it had the entire menu of all the restaurants in the hotel. The E-menu was Crisp and very very easy to navigate through. it was very user-friendly, I must say.
The final check however came in traditional printed paper. Thankfully, inside the restaurant we could takeoff our masks because the tables are apart anyway and due to low occupancy people were seated far from each other.
Few customers in the restaurant and imports not yet being normal, led to some ingredients being absent in the kitchen. so few of the dishes that we wanted to have , cud not be served to us. However, whatever we had was outstanding and by far made up for not getting the ones we were looking for.
Absolutely loved the food
Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:
As we waited for the food, we were served a complimentary Immunity booster – it had strong celery flavors, had a tinge of salt, it was not too sweet & overall it was a great refreshing drink. Rate it 4.25/5
We ordered grilled Norwegian salmon. It was just brilliant. It was so juicy that At times it felt like that I was having watermelon!!! The fish was flaky, full of flavors and perfectly cooked. the skin on top was Crisp & super enjoyable. Chef had made a marmalade Inhouse, that was spread on top of the fish. excellent. Loved it so much that our plate was polished white by the end of the meal. Rate it 4.5/5
Grilled lamb chops were perfectly cooked as well. The pieces of meat used in the lamb chops were also excellent. The meat pieces had a layer of fat in the corner. These had become Crisp outside. as we would bite into the meat, the Crisp thin layer of fat wud burst into a flavorful thick liquid. Outstanding is an understatement. rate it 4.75/5
For dessert we had banana walnut caramel tart. The tart base was very good. The filling was good, the caramel sauce excellent, the bananas were very ordinary, flat taste ones – not too sweet, a hint of salt. Overall the dish was very good. Rate it 4/5.
Overall rating of food & beverages average out to 4.25/5
Really happy we went there. Wud go for a Japanese dinner some day.
Below is the original post from 2011
In a nutshell:
Loved the experience & the food – a few ifs & buts though on the food. Will surely revisit to try out other cuisines.
Cool & colorful decor at Spectra Leela kempinsky gurgaon
Short description – In case u r in a hurry:
As u walk into Leela & then into the Coffee shop Spectra, ur eyes r overwhelmed with the decor & the look. I wud not say that it is the most artistic place I have been to but it is a visual delight.
........... a visual delight
As u walk in the restaurant u realize that the staff is very warm. I have this funny habit of wearing the most ordinary of clothes to a 5 or a 7 star & then asking for non bottled filtered water – The reaction is very interesting to see coz a section of the staff in most of these places tend to judge u by these initial parameters. Here at Spectra the reaction was as warm & normal as it could get & they passed my funny test with flying colors.
The Coffee shop has a very very interesting Japanese counter where u can chat with the chef, tailor-make ur sushis & sashimis & sit & eat on the bar table. The Chef rolls the sushis in front of u from scratch &serves.
A little away from there is the Chinese counter. Here again u can sit on counter, chat with the chef , tailor-make ur food & eat soups, stir fries , soupy noodles like thukpas etc. All ingredients are kept there as well & the colors of them are a visual delight.
There are also a good representation of cuisines that u usually do find too many Top end Restaurants specializing in. e.g Arab cuisine, Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean . They also have a large list of good unusual food (unusual when compared to menu cards of other delhi restaurants).
The menu card has a very large & wide selection vegetarian section.
Other interesting options are a breakfast spread Rs. 750 + taxes, a Lunch buffet of Rs. 1600 + taxes , a Sunday Brunch (with sparkling wine, house red & white wine, beer & vodka cocktails) & a Champagne Brunch for Rs. 3500 (Champagne in place of Sparkling wine + everything else) .
We liked the seafood soup, loved the Moroccan seafood grill & Freaked out on the outstanding tenderloin steak.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
The Chindian (Indianized Chinese food) is tasty & nice but lacks on the authenticity front. For ‘close to authentic Chinese food’ in Gurgaon, YUMMRAJ recommends The Monk, Galaxy Mall. However, if u do not give a damn to authenticity & r willing to dig into anything tasty, Dine Esty is a good choice. Infact its a very good choice for a nice evening out with some good food.
The main dining hall – another view
We have been to Dine esty several times & always had been eating at the Live Japanese Teppanyaki (Japanese Grill) Counter. This time around we decided to sit in the main dining hall & ordered some Chinese (turned out to be tasty Chinjabi) alacarte section.
starter at Dine Esty
The menu card was almost 10 pages long & really requires a great deal of study by foodies to decide on food. Too many interesting names pop up before the eyes & ity becomes a challenge (in a good way) to narrow down & finalize the order. In the menu card there are sections like soups, dimsums, starters, main course etc like everyone else but all these section in turn have detailed sub sections – chicken, pork, lamb, vegetarian, duck, fish, crab, seafood. I saw some interesting items like seafood dimsum, crystal dimsum, pork gouza, prawn harkaw (a dimsum that has potato starch as wrapper) – I fondly remembered harkaw that we had at Royal china. To summarize, every Chinese place has sections but this one was in great details.
The interior has three sections – a lounge & bar setting on the left (as u enter) & this is covered by a see-through wooden partition. Then there is the Main dining Hall with Restaurant setting & at the end is the Live Teppanyaki counter where u can sit on the counter & njoy seeing the food being prepared in front of u. A chat with the chef is also an interesting option. Getting the food made with ur choice of sauces is surely another option.
The lounge & bar setting behind the wood partition
The Japanese concept of teppanyaki is very cool though – it is essentially a flat Metal plate (say 1meter by 2 meters) that is heated at all times. The customers have the option to sit around this hot plate & the Chef stir fries veggies / fish / meats in front of u & serves fresh out of the Teppan.
Stir frying on the teppan right in front of the customer seats – u see the cooking right infront of u
Inspite of the fact that the sauces here r tweaked to cater to Indian tastes – the overall taste is very enjoyable. ………….. Infact not too many people might b able to appreciate the 100% original taste the way it is served in Japan or China. I Do love the original though & do not mind the tweaked versions at times.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
