Friday, August 28, 2015

SC's Birthday Brunch at Cafe Gray Deluxe, Upper House, Hong Kong

SC's birthday is normally our annual chance to seriously splurge on a meal and have a date night minus OB.

However, this year is a game changer. I asked SC if he wanted to bring OB and he said yes, he'd love to bring our naughty little monster. He felt that OB's so ready for fine dining.

He's of course - so wrong.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
OB is not the type of boy who could sit still and eat course after course of meal (not sure if such a 4 year old exists?), he'd try to stand on the chair and drop utensils on the floor.. argghhh.
To him, meals are boring unless it comes with a toy, or is made of chocolate, or is fries with ketchup.
Luckily, our appetizer did come with some sort of "fries" and OB asked for a couple of servings of ketchup. Soon, he started to enjoy himself and we could all relax a bit and celebrate SC's birthday.

This was the bread.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
Crunchy exterior, chewy interior. Tasty dipping. Love.

Wait.
Almost forgot to mention one very important thing.
This place has an AMAZING VIEW of Hong Kong, and we're happy to have been seated by the window.
Kenneth birthday Cafe Gray Deluxe 2015

Ok, back to food.
Beef tartare.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong

Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
So yummy!

Came with extra potato gaufrettes. Life savior. This kept OB busy.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong

OB kept asking for more ketchup.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong

SC had the barramundi as his main. Absolutely delicious. I love how it has enough acidity in it.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong

I chose the duck "shepherd's pie"
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
I love the flavors, tasty savoury with lots of acidity, but the texture is a bit like creamy porridge.
We had this with the remaining of potato gaufrettes from the beef tartare and ordered extra bread (low-carb diet FAIL) for some crunch.

Cafe Gray Deluxe has a kids' menu for Sunday brunch, which is awesome.
It doesn't make any sense to order a full adult meal for OB, and to have him eat our food... we wouldn't have enough.
Oh, I so love child friendly places.
They also have high chairs, kids utensils, color pencils if needed.
And there were other noisy kids too (so I don't feel that I'm the only one with a naughty kid teehee!)

We wanted to choose burger and fries for OB, but these days he wants to make his own choices and he asked for pasta instead, so we ordered the linguini.
The linguini arrived rather late, almost after SC and I finished our mains (which we did within 5 minutes after serving). Our servers were very apologetic and they waived this dish from our bill. We appreciate the nice gesture.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
Perfectly cooked pasta, tasty tomato sauce. We were worried about how it doesn't have any meat it in and OB may not like it, but we were wrong. The sauce's very flavourful with enough kick of acidity.

Did OB approve?
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
Yes, he likey!

Drinks.
I ordered espresso martini, but requested them to replace vodka with something else as I am allergic.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
Yummy laaaaa. Cheers.

Birthday boy had this redhead... carrot juice X ginger ale.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
I don't like the floating carrot bits in this... and I am not a big fan of carrots, so it's all SC's.

Desserts!
OB yelled "chocolate, chocolate, CHOCOLATE!" when we were choosing (I don't know this boy, really... whose naughty kid is that?)
So we had chocolate.
OB is not the boss of me, I wanted chocolate too #denial.
Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
Grand marnier chocolate mousse.
Nicee.

Kenneth birthday 2015 Cafe Gray Deluxe, Admiralty, Upper House, Hong Kong
Chocolate & key lime tart for the birthday boy.
The key lime tart was ace!

We were stuffed at that point, so we had our chocolates packed in a box to go.

Happy birthday again to SC!
Papa SC @kennethvalentine's birthday brunch ❤️❤️❤️

Will we go back to Cafe Gray Deluxe?
Yes, definitely.

Should I mention again that the view is amazing?
Yes.
I hope to visit again in the evening.
Kenneth birthday Cafe Gray Deluxe 2015

How much?
About HK$366 per person for this meal.
(OB's linguini was waived tho)

Cafe Gray Deluxe
Level 49, the Upper House
Pacific Place, 88 Queensway
Hong Kong
(Admiralty MTR)

Tel: +85239681106
Email: info@cafegrayhk.com
(Yay! Email booking - I hate making phone calls)

Website:
http://www.cafegrayhk.com/

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

A nice little hidden place in Kwun Tong, a good option for those who work around here, or happen to be in the area.
PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Set dinner starts with a little salad. I like how sweet and fresh the melon is.

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
We were so hungry, so we ordered quite a few snacks on top of our set dinners.
Don't be greedy like us ^_^
Buffalo wings were decent.

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Nicely cooked mussels in white wine and cream sauce.
I wanted to pour that sauce over everything.

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Baked oysters with creamy cheesy spinach topping.
Could use a little more salt, but not bad!

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Nicely seasoned creamy black truffle soup. LOVE this!

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
The lobster bisque. After adding a touch of salt, it's lovely.

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
I can never resist lasagna. Even in this super hot and sticky summer. The ultimate comfort food!
Eat it in air conditioned room, ok? :)

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
I hardly ever order risotto as I am often disappointed by it.
This was not my favourite from the dinner. It's for those who like subtle flavours, I like mine with a little more kick.

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Lobster spaghetti. A little under seasoned too for me.
But I do like how it's not overly creamy.

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
The pork knuckle was lovely. I love how crispy the skin is, and the meat's tasty.
Full of collagen too ;)

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Cheesecake. Not bad~

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Sawdust pudding. Also not bad...

PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Mango pudding. This was ok, but I personally like mango just the way it is without being turned into puddings and cakes.


PP Cafe, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
The 4 of us ordered so much food (I brought home most of our main courses) and the dinner costs us HK$225 each (including drinks). Great value for money.
I'll be dragging my colleagues here, I wanna try their meat dishes next time.

PP Cafe
Rm A, G/F, Good Year Industrial Building, 
119-121 How Ming Street, Kwun Tong. 
Hong Kong
(you have to turn into a small lane to find the entrance)
觀塘巧明街119-121號年運工業大廈地下A舖

Tel: +852 2345 5569