Sunday, August 31, 2014

R&B Research & Bakery - Great food concept but.......

R&B Research & Bakery has almost everything you can ask for from a good eatery - a convenient location, a creative menu that spurs anticipation, chic decor and even a beautiful banyan tree right outside the window. 

But what's missing, and most fundamentally important for a restaurant, is the cooking...no matter how well the food is being plated afterwards. On the up side, R&B has great potentials, and it's mainly the chefs to be counted on to make things right as they are supposed to be. Let's just hope, it doesn't hurt to stay positive right? 

Really love this natural light and tree view idea... :)

Here comes the food...let me start with the best - Elote - grilled corn cob with chili, butter and LOTS OF CHEESE! It doesn't look like a lot but in fact every kernel I had went with an abundance of cheese - amazing. The corn tasted really sweet and crunchy. The tricky part of this elote is you've got to cut out the sweet corn kernels from the cob, which is a bit large to handle, collaborative effort is recommended if you don't wish to make a mess. 

Here's another one worth trying - 
Ice cube coffee/ chocolate
Lovely concept about freezing the coffee/ chocolate into ice, and serving it with warm milk to melt it down. The end product is cool, not cold not warm. And the coffee I had was on the bitter side...it means quite bitter as I drink black coffee on a daily basis...anyway it was fun haha! The chocolate comes with mint leaves and orange peels, a thoughtful touch :)

Alright, you can stop reading from here as I have finished the 'recommendation' part. The rest of the food we tried only looked good. So if you have the leisure, read on~

Uni gnocchi
How exciting to see these two word being put together on the menu~ sea urchin and gnocchi...but when you have taken a bite and felt the sogginess of the overcooked gnocchi, you will be immediately turned off...putting the not-so-uni tasting sauce aside, I am more concerned about why the kitchen did not even prepare a simple pasta properly...

Chicken nuggets
I like the idea of it not using the processed McNuggets but chicken meat (with skin) marinated with lemon juice then deep fried. It comes also with fried garlic and a tartare-tasting mayonnaise. It's nice in general only the chicken was over fried, i.e. very dry...

Buttermilk fried chicken Benedict
There was an incidence with the Hollandaise sauce of our Fried chicken Benedict...didn't eat it and cancelled the order in the end...no comment

Chocolate blackout cake
It's huge!!! 4 layers of fudge and (very firm) choco pudding can feed 4 people after a normal to big portion lunch. The cake wasn't bad, very chocolaty. I could taste marzipan(?!) in the pudding in the rim part..okay

My friend and I literally blacked out after eating...haha! Will give it another try...have faith!

R&B Research and Bakery
Address: 3/F, Pacific Mansion, 172-174 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui


Sunday, August 3, 2014

M&C Duck 美中鴨子 - Chic Peking Duck

Partly curious about the food and partly appealed by its fame, 美中鴨子 M&C Duck at Harbour City turned out to be a nice choice for a girls dinner.

Forgive my superficialness for being easily impressed by nice looking food :P The sliced pork in garlic and chili sauce (蒜泥白肉) was one of them~ and the taste was stimulating too. Every slice was a perfect combination of thin sliced pork and cucumber, crispy garlic and subtle spiciness. I like the efforts they put in the presentation~ it's already appetizing by the look :)



Their famous Peking duck was okay, with light-flavored and lean duck meat, which was good. Probably a bit more seasoning of the skin would be better.

 <-- comes with a duck bone broth

Duck slice with osmanthus pudding (桂花糕凍伴鴨件) was a fun dish~ can't say the two ingredients match very well but not bad to experiment. Let me further explain the anatomy for better judgement - duck skin + mayo + cucumber + osmanthus pudding + Pringles chip --- like it or not it's totally subjective :P

Chicken thick soup with vegetable(翡翠雞茸羹)- delicious soup with flavorful chicken broth, don't remember tasting any vegetable, probably it refers to the splash of green soup on top? 

Also had xiao long bao and minced beef cake~ not bad


“M&C Duck” is Maxim's Chinese Cuisines’ latest brand created under a youthful and minimalistic concept. It offers young customers an innovative experience of the Barbecued Peking Duck and a chic, relaxing go-to in town.

美中鴨子 M&C Duck
Tel: 2347 6898
Address: Shop 3319, level 3, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui