A different food philosophy – The Hong Kong 3 Michelin star experience @ Caprice

As you know, we like to eat and drink locally when we travel.  But, this time, we decided to make an exception.  Why? The short answer is: The Cheap Duck is treating us to dinner (Can you believe this? The Cheap Duck, out of all people?!?!)!

The truth is, we, after our experience at some of Hong Kong’s highly regarded Western restaurants, don’t hold Western food in Hong Kong in very high regard. One of the more memorable was the degustation menu at Pierre (by Pierre Gagnaire). That dinner was a bit of a disaster, nothing tasted right and the only dish that was okay was a dish with balik salmon where no cooking/intervention was required…! Oh, the desserts were okay, they were innovative and interesting. We did not mean to sound rude but it was really a very disappointing experience given its reputation and the price we paid.

But we thought, to be fair, we need to try the yardstick before we give such a decisive opinion. We have been told by people in the industry (including a few French chefs) that if we were to try a Western restaurant in Hong Kong, they highly recommend the French restaurant, Caprice at the Four Seasons Hotel. So Caprice it is then.

Ambience and service were great, as you would expect from a 3-star Michelin restaurant (or a 5-star hotel restaurant).  We can’t say that for the food though. The response of the Cheap Duck about the meal sums it up:  It’s okay… For a Michelin 3-star restaurant and a bill of HK$7,000+ for 3, okay is simply just not good enough.  With the price it charged, we don’t think it is unreasonable to ask for something more spectacular!

Amuse: Radish Tortellini, Tortilla with Salmon and Salmon & Cavier

Tourteau Crab Tiramisu, Fruity Marinade and Tandoori spices

Oyster and scallops tartare with lemon olive oil, slice of apple and yuzu foam

Wild Mushroom Consomme, Ravioli Forestiere and Colonnata Pork Toast

The best dish of the night was the crab tiramisu. The slight tang from the mango and smooth mascapone  complimented the light yet complex sweetness of the crab.

As for the scallop, we either couldn’t taste them or they were not very fresh and were slightly fishy.

Poached Egg Croustade, Buttered Leeks and Caviar in Champagne Emulsion

Organic Salmon Confit, Celery Mousseline, Marine Broccoli and Shellfish in Oyster Nage

Aveyron Lamb Rack, Should Croquette, Rosemary Eggplant and Sweet Harissa

Hare a la Royale, Jerusalem Artichoke and Chestnut Puree

The mushroom consomme was too heavy and oily for a consomme! It also lacked the sweetness of a typical mushroom soup and somehow brought out the mouldy taste of mushroom. The ravioli had a tiny bit of mushroom sweetness but the overall dish left us with this undesirable mouldy aftertaste!

Poached egg was not very good. Eating the egg and caviar on their own was fine but when you eat everything together (the seaweed crisps and the buttered leek) the flavours clashed in a bad way!

Like the other seafood dish, the salmon was rather bland and has a slight undesirable fishy taste. The sauces in these dishes were nice. But, having said that, sauce is supposed to compliment the main element of a dish, NOT to become the main element…! The other elements on the dish were too heavy and overpowering.

The lamb rack was perfectly cooked and VERY tender. However, they had obviously sacrificed flavour for tenderness.  Average dish which is passable for other restaurants but not one with 3 stars!

The hare was another pretty good dish. It was very gamey but this is what wild hare is supposed to taste like.  The cranberry sauce did away some of the gaminess but it would be better if the sauce was a bit stronger and tangier. The pasta and chestnut were okay.

The impressive French unpasteurised cheese collection

Understandably, they were really proud of their cheese collection.  It was an impressive cheese board and it was also the highlight of the night. Apparently, Hong Kong is the only place where import unpasteurised cheeses from France are allowed.  We were told that they have built a special cheese room to ensure that the cheeses are kept at their best quality. However, it is a pity to say that, despite being very tasty, we noted that the cheeses had not properly matured.

Pear Declinaision, Honey Caramel, Cinnamon and Pine Tree Scent

Dessert was heavily worked, overly decorated.  It was obvious that a lot of attention was put on each element on the plate, however, the elements did not go together.  There was no marriage of flavours!

Exotic Alpaco Chocolate and Coconut Bounty Ice Cream

One odd thing we noted dish after dish was that the waiters would proudly emphasize that the crab meat was from Normandy, scallops were from France… and it was the same for all the other dishes.  Throughout the dinner, the staff, who attentively waited on us politely asked us how we enjoyed our dinner.  Out of courtesy, we would politely answer: Good!  However, third time round, we thought: well, since he was so eager to know our opinion, we should be honest with him.  We told him that we found the produce, in particular, the seafood and lamb a bit bland and the seafood did not taste fresh.  He accepted our comments and said that other non-local patrons have said something similar.  He then explained that the use of fresh local produce is frowned upon by local diners, so all the produce are flown in (frozen) from France. He said this is what, the industry understands, the Hong Kong patrons expect from up-market French restaurants in Hong Kong. Apparently, the same is true for restaurants serving other Western cuisines.

Petit Fours

In Hong Kong French restaurants, they proudly boasted that all their ingredients, including seafood and vegetables, are all imported from France.  When most of the culinary capitals of the World are working towards paddock to plate and all the chefs and critics cannot stop talking about the importance of fresh local produce, it is hard to believe that Caprice prides themselves in having flown frozen ingredients in from thousands of miles away?!

It is a pity that Hong Kong’s Western restaurants seem to think that they can only appease their patrons by importing all their ingredients from overseas. It may be true that Hong Kong is not as privilege as some countries and does not have many of the natural produce they have.  But a place surrounded by sea surely have fresh seafood, you just have to walk into any Chinese restaurant and you are bound to see LIVE fish, lobsters, crabs (you name it) swimming in the tanks! It just doesn’t make sense!  Can someone explain to us why Hongkongers who expect their dishes to be made from fresh produce at Chinese restaurant would want a Western restaurant to serve them food prepared from produce that has been frozen for a week or more???  We just don’t get it!

Follin Arbelet Corton Grand Cru 2005 – Modern, upfront, fruity, powerful but lack subtlety and complexity of a great burgundy

We were also told that Caprice’s signature dishes are not in their “Taste of Caprice” menu and that we should go back and try their signature dishes… Umm… we think the excuse that our “signature” dishes are not in the tasting menu is a bit lame.  It is not a patron’s job to second guess what your signature dishes are, especially when there is a degustation menu called “Taste of Caprice”, isn’t it just commonsense to expect to get the best of the best from the kitchen when you order this menu. Why called it “Taste of Caprice” when  you are not showcasing your best food?!?!

From our “Taste of Caprice” menu experience, we honestly do not think Caprice will be 1-star if it were in Europe, New York or Tokyo or even 1-hat in Sydney.  Most of the 1-star restaurants we have tried were, justifiably, 1-star because there were usually some  dishes (sometimes up to 50% of the dishes) that would taste wrong or not very good (though quite interesting and creative), but then, there were always other dishes that were really good to compensate for the bad dishes.

We genuinely hope that the philosophy on food in Hong Kong will change in the future.  Our suggestion to these fine dinning restaurants is to liaise with local producers to get them to  grow/rear what they need locally rather than flying their produce in from half way around the world.  This will surely be better off for both the environment and the diners.

Food we keep going back to #3 – Sausage Roll @ Ganache Patisserie Francaise

Bourgogne boeuf pie and sausage roll

I know what you are thinking. Ew, sausage roll?! Exactly what I was thinking the first time I was told I must try the sausage roll at this small Patisserie in Castlecrag.

But after one bite, we fell in love with Didier Sockeel’s pastries – they are light, thin, crispy and flakey with moist flavoursome filling- and, to my surprise, they tasted GOOD – so much better than the mass manufactured sausage rolls or pies you get elsewhere!

We are not fans of sausage rolls and meat pies, so we can’t vouch that these are the best sausage roll and beef pie in Australia.  But they are good enough to get into the Foodies’ Guide to Sydney year after year and we keep going back for more!  Needless to say, the croissants are good too!  If you plan to go during the weekend, get there before noon, otherwise you may be left with nothing but pastry crumbs!

India 2012 – Sneak Peek

We have not abandoned this blog.  We are back!

Ah, India.  Second time round, it is still incredible in every possible way you can imagine – beautiful, interesting, astonishing, unique, chaotic, dirty, polluted, noisy, annoying, weird, selfish, violent, rude… It can only happen in India!

Six years ago, armed with only the plane tickets in and out, first night of accommodation and the stuff on our back, we were fascinated by the grandeur, beauty and chaos of Rajasthan and Mumbai.  Six year on, the trip was much better planned and very luxurious, at least we consider it to be.  We still dressed like and had the demeanor of backpackers, but we stayed at nice hotels and travelled mainly by flight (the 18-hour train ride from Mumbai to Jaipur with no toilet break in-between 6 years ago is still as fresh in our mind as ever!).  As usual, the Fat Duck checked out local food guides and booked all the top restaurants in all the cities we went to – that was before booking accommodation, btw!  But we both reckon this luxurious trip was less bearable than the last.  Are we getting old? Or is it Utter Pradesh?

I need some time to organise the photos, so I will give you all a sneak peek for now. In the meantime, I will continue to do my other food posts.

North Western Frontier food @ Bukhara, Delhi. Btw, it is the Bukhara tradition to eat with your hands

The notorious traffic jam of Delhi that took us half an hour to get through … ON FOOT!

Kashmiri cuisine @ Tarami, Delhi. Interesting!

Degustation @ Indian Accent, Delhi. After being shoved, pushed, crushed, touched on a jam-packed subway, abandoned by the cycle rickshaw in the middle of a highway and stuck in traffic for an hour in a auto rickshaw inhaling pollution, we finally got some peace and quiet and tried some Indian flavours with a modern twist

Hand me down @ Fatehpur Sikri, Agra

They may not be rich but they are happy!

Tasty melt-in-your-mouth kebab at the Capital of Kebab @ Tunday Kebab, Lucknow. We had to eat in the dark tho due to power outage…

Bhapa Ilish @ Oh! Calcutta, Kolkata (probably our favourite restaurant for this trip) which serves Bengali cuisine

Mouth Freshener @ Oh! Calcutta, Kolkata. We reckon this is where they got the idea of Harpic Toilet cleaner from…after sucking on these!

Warqi and Ulta Taua Parantha @ Sonargaon, Kolkata. The best parantha we have ever had!

Bengali sweets @ Kolkata. We love that yellow cake at the top left hand corner!

A dawn boat trip at Varanasi gives you an entirely different perspective of this holy city. The chaotic Varanasi covered in early morning fog is tranquil, peaceful and very mythical! We got this eerie feeling that we were being rowed across River Acheron to Hell! No wonder this is considered an auspicious place to die and be cremated for Hindus.

The cheeky elephant @ Khajuraho. All the elephants on the temples look straight except this smirking elephant, which is looking at a couple doing “something”!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We are off to India! See you next year!

 

Nibbles #4 – Belgium Chocolate Brownie

Phillippa’s Belgian Chocolate Brownie

If you love chocolate, you will love this. Even if you don’t love chocolate, you will love this!

This handmade brownie is truly wicked! With each bite, you crave for more! The slightly caramelised thin layer of baked chocolate brownie crust, the soft fudgy and rich chocolate melt-in-your-mouth brownie, the crunchy walnuts and the not too sweet decadent dark chocolate taste are all to die for.

The fine print on the back of the package recommends you to cut it up into rectangular pieces and eat them warm. We would not argue with that. This wicked treat tastes even better when it is warm – softer, fudgy, enhanced dark chocolate taste with a little bit of chocolate oozing out… mmmm… simply irresistible!!!

High-end Thai food @ Sailors Thai

There aren’t that many high-end Thai restaurant in Sydney nowadays. Sailors Thai was originally operated by the Internationally renowned David Thompson. A lot of chefs in the modern Thai restaurants around Sydney are ex-Sailors Thai and are all David Thompson’s “heir”.

We love Thai food and we like places such as Spice I am (the Wentworth Street branch) which serves authentic Thai street food, and Prasits Northside Thai (it used to be takeaway joint), one of the first Thai restaurants in Sydney.  We have also had some very interesting Thai, including:

- House (Northern Thai, in particular, Issan): The food was hot, no coconut milk, tangy and full of fermented flavour and smell.

- Caysorn (Southern Thai): Not for the faint-hearted. All we remember was, the food was so spicy that we drank 6 jugs of water and our tongues were still burning  after sipping ice water for more than 30 minutes!

Yet, we have never tried Sailors Thai until now. Don’t know why? We believe that the essence of Thai food is the combination and balance of Sweet, Salty, Sour and Spicy. We were probably worried that Sailors Thai is a fine dinning Thai restaurant that caters for the very sweet Westerner palates.  And…

Most of the dishes we had at Sailors Thai were balance, not too sweet and tangy (which is quite rare in a Western style Thai restaurant).  We think it is a nice Thai restaurant that is a cut above the others. We prefer Sailors Thai to Longrain (arguably, the most popular Thai restaurant now). Longrain’s dishes are way too sweet and it kind of loses the complexity and balance of the tastes

Pineapple with pork, prawn and coriander

Pork crackling and quail egg with pork and tomato relish on sticky rice

The pork crackling on sticky rice was very pretty. But the chef seemed to be more interested in showing up combination of textures and flavours and forgot to make it tasty. The banana blossom salad was off balance and way too tangy. The same salad at Prasits is much better!  The dessert dumpling was also off balance and overly sweet.

Sugar banana blossom, roasted coconut, chilli and cashew nut salad

Duck breast roasted served with red curry with fresh coconut cream and pineapple

Most of the curry we have in Thai restaurant are nice. But, if you think about it, most of the time, it doesn’t matter what meat is put in them, they all taste the same.  The meat has usually been brewing in the curry for too long that it is overcooked and lost its natural flavours. Not at Sailor Thai though. The duck curry here was superb because, not only was the curry perfectly balanced, you can actually taste the tasty, tender and juicy duck!

Tofu simmered in fresh coconut cream with fresh vegetables

Beef rib slow braised with chili, lime, shallots and fresh mint

Tofu was great. The soy flavour still stood out amongst the powerful, complex and balance sweet, sour and spicy sauce.  The beef rib was also very good.  It was tender and with complicated flavours, in particular, a fermented fish taste.

Palm sugar dumpling

We notice that they like to use pineapples in their dishes, which, we think, is very clever, as  it gives a refreshing sweet and sour touch to the dishes.

The mix Thai dessert was not only interesting, it was very good. It has got that Thai style of mingling all the flavours and texture together and it surprisingly created harmony.

Mixed Thai dessert

Nibbles #3 – Nice Cream

Nice Cream

A boutique ice cream manufacturer in the South of Sydney. We understand they used to be served at Qantas First Class, not sure if they still are… maybe someone who has been on Qantas First Class recently can tell us!

Nice Cream’s ice cream is based on creme anglaise.  We reckon Nice Cream’s cream-base is superior to other Sydney boutique award-winning cream-based ice creams. Glaze Ice Cream’s base is good too but it is a lighter in style, so we reckon its fruit-based ice creams are better.  The only cream-based ice cream, we think, is remotely comparable is Gowdowring’s vanilla ice cream.  In general, Nice Cream’s cream-based ice creams are better than the fruit-based ice creams.

This is a traditional French ice cream. It is even richer and heavier than Berthillon in Île Saint-Louis in Paris. It suits people who like very creamy and rich ice cream that is slightly egg yolky. If you like the lightness of Gelato, you may not like this. Or you can be like us and like BOTH! Oh, we don’t know why, the ice cream is not rock hard (actually it is quite easy to scoop) when you take them out of the freezer… Interesting!

Our favourite is its White Belgian Chocolate.

As they no longer have any distributors on the North Shore, we must go to its Wolli Creek factory to get them… on weekdays during business hours.  So, we seized the opportunity and bought… SIX!

Farewell to our all-time favourite and most visited restaurant – il piave

I was planning to put il piave as my next “Food we keep going back to”, but we were suddenly struck with the sad news that the owner has decided to close it down and move on to a new venture. Oh no! This place has been our favourite restaurant since it opened in 1998.  It is also our most visited restaurant as we would come here at least once a year.

It is a small cosy restaurant in inner west Sydney with a small and well thought through menu that changes regularly.  Simple dishes that are not overworked or overcrowded with ingredients which gives each ingredient room to shine. It may not necessary be one the best Italian restaurants in Sydney, but everyone who has been here loves its excellent food. They do classic dishes with a modern twist, in that sense, they do it very well.  The chef always manages to achieve a balance in flavours which makes each dish a delight.

We went back for one last meal before it close.  Last night, we only ordered pasta, nothing else.  From the wait staff’s facial expression after we ordered, he probably thought we were a bit weird. Oh, what the heck, this would be our last meal here and we would order whatever we want!

Lasagna con proscuitto, provolone e zucca (Buckwheat lasagna sheets layered with roasted pumpkin, provolone cheese and proscuitto)

First off, we had the Lasagna with pumpkin and proscuitto. Have you ever had something SO good that you start to get goosebumps and feel a bit light-headed – as if you were floating amongst the clouds?! That was exactly how I felt after each mouthful of the Lasagna. The dish was simply stunning.  The buckwheat pasta, prosciutto, cheese and pumpkin were perfectly balanced and made each mouthful a joy. I felt like I was in heaven! Actually, it may sound silly, but I couldn’t stop smiling when I was eating this dish! One of the best pastas we have ever had! I think the last time we thought a pasta dish was this stunning was at Sorelle Picchi (a tiny trattoria behind a Salumeria in Parma, Italy)!

Tris di tortelli (a selection of herb, pumpkin and potato ravioli) @ Sorelle Picchi

Gnocchi al sugo di maiale (Handmade gnocchi served in pork sausage and tomato ragu with ricotta salata

Judging on the pasta on its own, we think A tavola is better (we don’t think il piave makes most of its pasta) with one exception, the Gnocchi – we don’t think anyone in Sydney makes better Gnocchi than il piave’s chef, Vanessa Martin.  Her melt-in-your-mouth Gnocchi are tender, light and has a hint of potato flavour. The Gnocchi quarttro formaggi has been one of our favourites! They don’t always have it in the menu, but if they are not busy, they are more than happy to accommodate. It is rich, over the top and cheesy but, oooh, it tasted SO good! Pity they were busy and couldn’t make the Gnocchi quarttro formaggi last night.  The gnocchi in this dish was still unbeatable but the tomato sauce was not comparable at all.

Linguine al nero di seppia con vongole (Squid ink linguine with NZ diamond clam, chilli, basil and cherry tomato sauce)

Their squid ink dishes have always been sensational as well. We are sure anyone who has tried them will agree with us! The best was their Squid ink risotto with scampi we had a few years ago! The strong umami taste from the squid ink and scampi was unforgettable! Last night’s linguine was good but not as spectacular as the ones we had before. The umami taste from the clams was not enough to beat those  from the scampi…

Pappardelle con sugo di coda (rough cut ribbon pasta, wet braised oxtail, red wine and porcini mushroom)

Last, but not least, was the pappardelle. As you all know, mushroom always gives a dish an extra level of flavour, and porcini brings that a few levels up. Oxtail and porcini paired with red wine makes a great sauce that was rich, deep and flavoursome.  The second best dish of the night!

There is only one complaint – my clothes always stink after dining at this restaurant…!

Ciao Ciao il piave! We still can’t believe il piave is closing down next week. We will miss you! Hope Vanessa won’t give up doing these sensational Italian dishes at the new wine bar at Gladesville!

Cafe #3 – Cafe Sopra (Fratelli Fresh)

One of the 20 iconic dishes of Sydney – Shaved Savoy Cabbage, Reggiano, Aged Balsamic

Another cafe in a warehouse.  This one is above one of Sydney’s Best, if not the Best, fresh fruits and vegetables wholesaler/retailer and Italian goodies importer, Fratelli Fresh.  This Cafe Sopra is only open for lunch and there is almost always at least 10 people waiting for a table.  Tried it once a long time again – thought the food was good but did not think it was worth the wait.  So, we have never lunched here again since, even though we visit Fratelli Fresh every now and then to marvel at the crates and cartons of highly desirable top quality fresh fruits and veggies…!  Then, Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living named its Shaved Cabbage Salad one of the 20 iconic dishes of Sydney, so we decided to give it another try.

Cafe Sopra @ Fratelli Fresh

Don’t expect beautifully presented dishes. In general, the food lacks the finesse you expect from a 1-hat restaurant. There is also minimal service.  All in all, in our opinion, it does not really deserve 1-hat.  But don’t forget, this is a cafe, so it is just normal that they serve cafe food. You will find good country-style Italian that truly reflect the flavours of the freshest produce and best ingredients.

Coppocolo Salad with Baby Spinach, Toasted Almonds, Gala Appe & Aged Balsamic

Since it is situated above a fruit and veggie market, we thought it would be best to stick to fresh produce. So, we ordered an all veggie/salad lunch.  We did see a lot of people ordering pasta and we said to ourselves that we would come back to try the dried pasta.

The iconic dish, Shaved Cabbage Salad, is a pretty ugly mount of shaved savory cabbage drizzled with the deep and complex 12-year aged balsamic and sprinkled with some sensational, pungent and creamy 3-year old cheese. Never thought a bland vegetable can have such interesting flavours. But does it deserve all the fame? Umm, let us put it this way: it was good but not as good as we thought it should be.

Field mushrooms, Portobello and Shiitake mushrooms from Fratelli Fresh

We order field mushrooms and tomatoes as sides.  The field mushrooms were sensational, they were so juicy, meaty and delicious that we ended up bringing a few home! This might have been the first time we bought something from Fratelli Fresh!

We happened to be close-by the other day, we went back to Cafe Sopra to try its pasta dishes. One hit and one missed.

The tagliatelle was a bit clumsy.  It looked a bit messy and gluey but it tasted fabulous! The Pecorino and Mascarpone were pungent, creamy and tasty.  You can tell they have used some good dried pasta as it was al dente and held the sauce very well.  The greenness and sweetness of the crushed peas cut through the heaviness of the dish.

Tagliatelle with Saisiccia, Crushed Peas, Mascarpone & Pecorino

Fusilli Bugatini with Chat Potatoes, Green Beans & Pesto

The Fusilli, however, was under-seasoned and tasted very bland. Despite that, it was obvious they have used good quality ingredients – the potatoes, the green beans and even the Fusilli – the natural flavours really shone through.

Cretan Odyssey and the Commemoration of the Battle of Crete dinner @ Xanthi

Our favourite Sydney Greek restaurant, Perama, closed last year so that its owner and head chef, David Tsirekas can bring us Xanthi.  When we found out that Xanthi was doing a special dinner on Cretan food and saw Cretan wedding rice on the menu, we immediately booked a table. To us, this is what Cretan wedding rice looks like:

Rice pilaf as prepared for Cretan Wedding with Chicken and Lamb @ Alatsi

Polo @ Poplar Central Asian Cuisine

We tried this place called Alatsi which serves Cretan food at Kolonaki, Athens in 2010.  One of the dishes we had was the Rice Pilaf as prepared for Cretan Wedding. Yep, I know what you are thinking.  It looks kind of disgusting. We had doubts about this dish too when it was brought out. We thought… eww… this porridge thing must taste awful. But after a mouthful, we thought this opened our eyes to a new culinary experience! The rice  infused with all the flavours of the lamb and chicken broth had this sour and cheesy taste and it was absolutely delicious!  We fell in love with it immediately!!!

If you happen to be in Athens, we highly recommend this restaurant.  It is a must try.

The closest thing we found so far is a dish called Polo served at Poplar Central Asian Cuisine.  You can see that, like the dish at Alatsi, it did not look very appetizing either, but the intense flavours from the lamb broth used to cook the rice made the dish really tasty.

When I have time I promise I will tell you more about our Greece trip which was full of adventures and interesting food.  Now, let’s get back to our dinner at Xanthi.

Xanthi

Compare to the small and cosy home-cooking style of suburban Greek restaurant, Perama, Xanthi, which is in the City, is a bit posher and grander. It has a very Greek feel to it.  The food was great. With David Tsirekas at the helm in the kitchen, we are confident that the flavours would be interesting and excellent. There was, however, a lack of finesse and attention to details in his dishes. You can feel the old Perama home-cooking style lurking in the background.  Having said that, the prices may be an indicator that finesse may not be something that David is striving for. Plus, I don’t think Greek food is supposed to be very fine to start with.  Before David opened Xanthi, he said, ““My goal is to present the whole spectrum, from ancient to classical to traditional to modern.”  Xanthi may well be the place for him to showcase interesting good homey Greek food!

Mixed pickle

Selection Of Dakos

David tries very hard to bring Greece to us in Sydney.  In his restaurant, the music is Greek, the olive oil is Greek, the wine list is Greek, the soft drinks are Greek, the mineral water is Greek.  It is, however, impossible and not environmental to import the fresh produce from Greece. We have to say, the olives and tomatoes in the Mixed Pickle and Dakos were not comparable those we had in Greece.

Stuff Calamari

Thyme and Garlic Snails with mizithropita

The rustic stuffed calamari was plate-licking good! The sauce was strong, deep and full of flavours, yet it did not overpower the sweetness of the calamari and prawns. A hint of oriental spices gave the dish another level of taste.  The refreshing coleslaw on the side was beautiful!

Braised Yoghurt Lamb served with Cretan wedding rice and tomato braised beans

The lamb with wedding rice was heavenly! It did not look a single bit like the pilaf we had in Athens but it was every bit as good as, if not better than, the pilaf! The lamb had a strong woodfire aroma and taste. The rice cooked in lamb broth soaked up all the essence of the lamb and spices. Perfect combination of spices and the flavours were deep and not superficial.  There was not a single grain of rice left on the plate when we finished!

With no open fire, we were left wondering why the Roasted Goat tasted so much like an open fire spit roasted goat. Problem is, it was very unevenly cooked though. The good bits were tender, juicy and very tasty, but we also got some very dried and tough bits…

Roast Goat with antichokes

Xerotigana served with honey almond mousse

The snail dish and the dessert showed that the restaurant needed to pay a little more attention to details.  By serving the snail dish after a very strong flavoured stuffed calamari meant that a nicely cooked dish tasted very bland! As for the dessert, it was nothing compare to the one we had at Alatsi! The flavour was there but the pastry and mousse were just wrong.   The supposedly airy and crispy pastry was hard and oily, and the mousse was lumpy and heavy.

David who loves exploring regional Greek food told us to look out for more regional dinners to come.  This is exactly our cup of tea, so we will definitely be coming back for more.  Actually, we already have one lined up: The Tastes of Alexander the Great!