TaKorea

I noticed this sitting on Wellington Street last Saturday morning (proud moment for me to be in Central on a Saturday morning) where a tea place used to be. Although the entrance is on the ground floor of Wellington Street, the store itself is actually in a basement which is closer to Pottinger Street. When you are walking into the restaurant you will think to yourself, oh dang, that's a hell lot of stairs. Don't worry, there is another exit in there that doesn't require you walking up a bajillion steps of stairs when you are done eating and in a food coma.

Though not a fan of Korean entertainment, I am a fan of Korean food, so naturally I was excited to see a new Korean fast food looking place in Central. Mentally I put this on my to try list and on my calendar for Tuesday lunch and tada, I made it there (with 2 other colleagues).

To be honest I cheated and looked at their online reviews before going and was quite disappointed that their price range is very similar to K-Roll. I've been reluctant to try K-Roll because I find it too pricey and don't really like Korean style sushi. In any case, I've been bored of my usuals for lunch so was determined to give this a try despite the price tag. We got there around 12 and was going to get it to go but then decided to stay since there were still quite a bit of seats.

The menu is super simple, basically, you pick one of each of the following:

• The base: rice, burrito or taco (comes in 3 small tacos)
• The "meat": beef, pork, chicken or eggplant
• add traditional kimchi or butter kimchi for an additional $10

Their "side" menu includes a fried chicken salad, kimchi fries, sweet potato fries, and something else that I cannot recall. As you can see... there really aren't that many choices, and the cheapest dish (the sweet potato fries) was $40. Not exactly fast food priced...



Taco flavored kisses

We got the beef burrito, chicken burrito and chicken taco. I went with the burrito as I saw online that it contains rice so I knew it would fill me up. We went baller and I added the butter kimchi instead as I've never tried it before. You can choose between no spice, regular spice and Korean spice (which is the spiciest). We skimped on the drinks because we wanted to get some Chinese herbal tea down the street after instead, and our bill totaled to $90 each.

Our food took around 10-15 minutes to arrive which was reasonable. My burrito actually tasted like a bowl of bibimbap with fried chicken wrapped in a burrito blanket. It was quite interesting but nothing life-changing... Plus bibimbap is not my thing. My favorite Korean dish is the japchae, and I think it would be so dope if they had they wrapped this in a burrito or in a taco and slap it on their menu. Bam, FUSION!

After the lunch the 3 of us were wondering how long they can survive for. The logic being that given it's setup as a casual eating place, the prices don't actually match up and the place isn't exactly obvious so not that many people may notice it. My colleague also doesn't think that people will actually go there for dinner.

The burrito

To be honest, Mana down the street is in the same price range (just under $100 for a full wrap), however their selling point is healthy, vegan, and glutten free food. While my colleagues are pessimistic about this place's future and I myself will likely not return (high price tag and not healthy enough), I think they have potential to become the next K-Roll.

Location: 55 Wellington St, Central
Website: NA

Ozawa 小澤

Had a whole post drafted for California Vintage but deleted the whole thing after going there on Monday. Their lunch sets are now so generic that there is no longer a point in going there, for me at least. Sigh, I guess that's the thing about Hong Kong, things change, FAST. If you know about a good lunch deal, you got to write about it before it's morphed into another generic piece of ______!

With that said, I would like to introduce Ozawa to you before it turns... sour. This is a small Japanese restaurant on Graham Street next to The Globe and Chilli Fagara, introduced to me by one of my colleagues. They have a really good lunch deal which is $100 for your choice of 3 sashimi on rice / rolls / sushi / tempura / gyoza etc etc. There are probably close to 30 things you can choose from so it's one of those places where you can keep going back to until you discover your magical combo that works best for you.

Given the price, you can imagine that there won't be things like uni or toro on the menu, but then again if you are on this blog I'd sure hope those aren't the things you are looking for at LUNCH. Save your baller moments for other times... Anyway, for $100, I think their sashimi is quite fresh (I'm pretending I know what that really means). I have no standards so maybe this would be a better point of reference - my colleagues find their sashimi quite fresh, so for $100 it really is a steal.

I have yet to discover my magical combo, but I think I really like the following:

• diced sashimi on rice (like... chirashi?)
• spicy salmon roll
• minced salmon with spring onion on rice

I've tried the following as well which were not bad:

• unagi on rice
• unagi/cucumber rolls
• spicy scallop on rice
• scallop sushi
• tempura

I must stress that you will HAVE to book a table in advance, because this place is very very small. So small that they can only have one server working, which is why you can imagine how (not) happy she is manning all these tables at once. She is quite rude but can be ok after you get used to it =D At night time I am thinking their menu would be pricier, but I have no idea how much pricier so... go for it if you would like.

Spicy scallop, minced salmon with spring onion and diced sashimi on rice, oh and a miso soup! It might look small but trust me, 3 bowls of rice will fill you up even if it's just a small bowl! You even get a small scoop of ice cream (flavor changes every... day I think). So far I think sesame was their best flavor.

Website: NA
Location: Shop C, G/F, 49 Graham Street, Central









HH: Taz + Wagyu Lounge

Ever since I started working, I've preferred happy hour over regular late night drinking. There is something liberating about finally being off work and having a drink with your friends or colleagues, or in the rare case, yourself :) Plus, you are already out so there is no getting ready to go out factor. For me it's extremely tough to go out on Saturday nights because there simply just isn't enough "momentum". I'm either coming from home which means I got to change and take a 45 minute bus ride out, or I am coming from my sister's place which is still about 30 minutes away from Central. In the latter case I am also usually suffering from food coma since I like to stuff my face when I'm eating at my sisters. Fun fact, did you know that you eat more as you are dining with more people? The amount of food you eat is correlated to how many people you are eating with. In other words, if you would like to eat less, it's a good idea to dine solo.

Back to the topic, I'm trying to think of the place that got me excited about the idea of happy hour. It was either Taz or Wagyu Lounge, so why don't I just talk about them both today.

Taz (Tasmania Ballroom)

• The deal is buy one get one free from their happy hour menu from 6-8pm. I usually get the Riesling which is around $100. Beers are around $70-80 I believe, so when you divide that by 2 I would say that's a pretty awesome deal. The best part about this deal is that is comes with FREE FOOD. Free good food. They have dimsum, sometimes sushi, and some other delicious items on the buffet that is totally worth going for. Added bonus: they have ping pong and pool tables if you're interested.
• Location: In the LKF Hotel... second or third floor? anyway, not hard to figure out once you are in the elevator or on Wyndham Street
• Downsides: given the awesome deal you can imagine that the place get's packed by around 7pm. Next "problem" is the crowd. I'm not a fan of hardcore bankers, and this place is usually in excess of this population. Also, you've got to be super quick to the ha gao and siu mai, otherwise it's usually all gone by the time they are on the buffet!
• http://www.tazmaniaballroom.com/main.html#/philosophy

Wagyu Lounge

• Last time I was there, the happy hour menu had drinks for around $30-40. Food menu was mostly below $50 for amazing mini burgers and hot wings. I like the vibe there since there is much less hardcore bankers there and the crowd is much more chillaxed than Taz.
• Location: LG/F, Hollywood Commercial House, 3-5 Old Bailey Street, Central, Hong Kong (next to the Flying Pan)
• Downside: Oh! there are quite a bit! First of, the deal is only until 7pm. Second of all, it's hella far for most people working near the Landmark area. It's far even for those in the IFC area. Third of all, they keep bumping up their prices! I get that rent prices are rising... but seriously...?
• http://www.casteloconcepts.com/our-venues/wagyu-lounge/wagyu-lounge-hong-kong-menus?locations/hong-kong/wagyu-lounge-hong-kong/wagyu-lounge-hong-kong-menus