some weeks ago at a dinner, i was talking about this blog and how i am still figuring how to make it relevant and interesting.  we got into talking about wine & restaurant reviews and i told my friends that i preferred to keep this blog positive and focused on good experiences. after-all, i said, we are about passion and the love of food and wine.  if an establishment does not gives us good value, why waste time on talking about it at all?  one of them disagreed with me completely.  passion is also about talking about a bad experience so that others are warned and put on notice.

and so last week, i visited 3 different restaurants in hong kong with 3 different but very similar outcome.  perspicacious readers that you are, you will already have guessed that i was disappointed in all three occasions:

last monday after my wine class, maria and met for dinner at "canuck" , a new restaurant on elgin street in hong kong's very own "soho".  i was told about it by a friend at quebec contact, a group for french-canadian expats, that it was all about canada: the food, the wines, the chef.  that his canadian "contemporary" cuisine from my home country would tell the world that canadian dishes are much more than poutine and maple syrup.  more than that, i was told, the wine list includes the largest selection of canadian wines in hong kong!  and so we went.  we tried and we were disappointed.  first the menu was too long.  we were unimpressed by our appetisers and equally by our mains.  quite frankly, i lost my notes of those menu items we sampled and even if we went there only last monday, maria and i still can not remember what we had for dinner.  so much for an impression...  they did not have half the wines available on the menu and the music was taken directly from a cbc radio feed from the internet which played some soapy canadian western country music until it changed program with some guy going on and on about beethoven.  sorry, but if you want your concept to stick, please do not make it so cliché.  at the end,  i prefered not to go to the washroom, in case i would see an autographed hockey shirt from some toronto maple leaf player...

a few days later, i invited a friend for lunch to "bricolage" on hollywood road.  i hadn't been in a long long time and it was a first for my guest.  since my "discovery" of it last year, even though it has been opened for 5+ years, i always had a soft spot for the place.  in fact, each time franco comes to hong kong, it's the 1st stop he wants to make after he lands and has unpacked his suitcase.   this week however was a totally different experience.  first the service was different.  curt and business like.  then, our food was completely out of character.  my guest's meat-ragout-penne was dry and seemed to have been re-heated in the microwave and my streak-frites was dry, hard, and well done even though i asked for it rare.  disappointing and embarrassing.  yet, the place was packed and i still do not understand why.

finally, today we went to "watermargin" at the central star ferry for brunch.  maria and i went there for dinner some months ago and generally, the experience had been good.  so, when micheal suggested we went there for our meeting, i was quite open to the idea especially that the location is sensational, being on top of the ferry terminal with absolutely amazing views of the harbour.  somehow, the views turned out to be much better than anything in my plate and perhaps the only reason to go there at all.  the food was standard buffet fare with eggs anyway you like, meat carvings and roasted potatoes, the token asian dishes, and the super cliché chocolate fondue.  there was a very loud jazz band playing old standards and somehow  the place felt tired and out of steam.  for the same price, isola, across the street offers a much much better experience.

and here is the rub, our brunch today is what drove me to write about these 3 meals.  first watermargin.  quite frankly, if it would not be for the location, i am quite sure no one would go, the food being so standard and the place being generally soulless. i can only think the reason is that the management is generally lacking in imagination and take their views of the harbour for granted.  bricolage must be going through a tough time these days, most likely having difficulties with chefs and to keep the standards that made it our favourite in the first place.  finally, canuck, wanting to make it in a city of 100,000 restaurants, he is trying too hard to create a concept that feels out of place and without focusing on the essential: simple, wholesome, characterful fare that i know canadian chefs can and do very well in their kitchens back home.

a pity.  i think today, we are so bombarded with so much thrills and frills at each experience that people seem to forget that in the end, it is the quality, the authenticity, and the consistency that drives us back.