Fiat Caffe - By an Italian car brand truly deserves to be liked

The Fiat brand philosophy is to produce cars with attractive styling and exciting engines, cars that are accessible and improve the quality of everyday life...blah blah blah...but Fiat seems to be one of the few car brands that walks the talk, and bothers to extend its brand experience to even non-drivers, ingeniously, by running a restaurant, Fiat Caffe, in its showroom.

What's more intriguing is that, Fiat might have foreseen "showrooming" as a new fashion in consumer behavior since years back, and decided to make the brand name and their cars "sticky" to people who visit them in the showroom. Putting a chic-looking Fiat 500 by GUCCI in the middle of the restaurant is a cool enough idea for diners to take a good look while enjoying a meal or drinking coffee next to it. (reminds me of attending the Geneva Auto Show some years ago...good old times)

There is a sales office in the back of the restaurant. If you appreciate up-selling with a touch of Italian humor, here I recommend you take the "Most Expensive Coffee in the World" - coming with an Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari (HK$799,888).

I wasn't exactly craving for a car so it's a regular cappuccino I had with illy espresso in it :P

The food was classic Italian and tasty, here are some I recommend:

Ricotta and Fig Salad - The subtle sweetness of figs compote and honey complement well the light fresh arugula and ricotta cheese. Interesting texture mix of creamy fluffy ricotta with crispy salad leaves.

Baked Potato Skins - Baked half potatoes with the core part removed and stuffed with minced beef, topped with cheese. Crispy and substantial~ it makes perfect food for HH :D

Wild Mushroon Truffle with Trofie - Thick mushroom cream sauce with overflowing mushroom aroma... I can't tell if the sauce was too thick with heavy cream or the truffle fragrance was too strong, the sauce was a bit heavy for the palate, but it's very tasty overall. Trofies were lovely and chewy too ;)

Very decent quality food and ingredients (esp. the salad, really fresh for all components). Two of us paid about $200 each for those above including coffee, nice price for this quality!


Fiat Caffe
Address: Shop G5-G6, Leighton Centre, 77 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2808 4777

Macau Soul - A Portuguese wine paradise

Nice Portuguese wine lounge near the Ruins of St. Paul's (大三巴)!! 

We opened a bottle of Quinta do Crasto Douro 2008 Reserva, I am no expert in wines but what I can only tell is this is a blend red wine with 35 grape varieties, which is produced by one of the very best wineries in Portugal. You could tell from first sip it's a wine to enjoy but not to drink. It is full bodied, intense, complex and fruity in taste, and very smooth to the palate.

The owner David told us Macau Soul is the only place in Macau that sells this wine. It only costed us MOP350, which it's normally sold at over HKD2,000 in restaurants in HK!! Such a great value of money for this quality! The prices for other wines (only Portuguese) are friendly too. You could get a good wine at under MOP200 and spend an evening there. But I'm sure you will not limit yourselves to only tasting wines coz. they have delicious home made food, and generous portion of cheese plates too! 

This is David decanting the wine (he and his wife, Jacky, are enthusiasts in travelling and photography, and of course in wines too!).

We managed to ask for a Pecan and dried fruit cake served with double scoops of homemade vanilla ice cream and a splash of Jack Daniel...omg...speechless!

One last tip, call in advance to visiting to make sure they are open and make reservation. David and Jacky run the lounge themselves but this lovely old couple travels a lot!

Macau Soul 澳感廊

Address : 大三巴街31A

Tel : (853) 2836 5182,(853) 6686 2205

URL: www.macausoul.com