Life as a Bon Vivant: Area

Friday, August 28, 2009

Amici @ MK

I am lucky enough to have the chances to try so many different kinds of food and gradually I have grown to be pretty picky with my meals. Well, "picky" is a word many like to use to describe me in all aspects of things; but in my opinion, I am just being a bit critical sometimes with my food because I truly value and appreciate each meal as an unique experience. Therefore, as a food lover, I am always ready for different cuisines, looking forward to a new experience every time no matter what the result is, be it a memorable one or a disappointing one. For this meal at Amici, it was a disappointing experience unfortunately.

I have to say that the menu looks cool with the pages inside a pizza box. It was pretty easy to read through as well. My friend and I sat there for 10 mins without being asked for any drinks or etc, we have to raise our request after the whole 10 mins for someone to come and serve us. Service certain has room for improvement.

This location used to be Simply Thai if I recall correctly and the decor certainly got polished up to look like an upscale but casual sports bar themed joint. Ambiance / environment wise it was pretty comfortable especially with the open spaces.

(1) Deep Fried Oysters
What the #$%#@? Pardon my language but I was pretty shocked at the quality of the dish and the presentation. Based on the menu, it is deep fried oyster topped with XO sauce, wasabi mayonnaise and hoisin sauce. First of all, the presentation was not appetizing at all. The oysters were mini oysters slightly bigger than the size of my thumb and they definitely don't tasted fresh or deep fried at all. (not to mention they were semi-cooked only, the center was a bit raw in my opinion. Although I like oysters but these type of oysters should be fully cooked in my opinion) O o o, did mention that the combination of the wasabi sauce was not the best match at all.

(2) Caesar Salad (w/ grilled Chicken)
It looked alright but the grilled chicken was overly salty with excessive seasoning and the salad was very warm! Part of the reasons can be due to the freshly grilled chicken on top which made the salad warm, but not the whole dish right?

(3) Amici Pizza
I like thin crust pizza because I believe that is the way it should be. The crust should be thin, firm and crispy instead of soft and soggy. I understand that it is not easy to make a good pizza because there are so many different factors to consider, for example, the use of oven. Alright, the pizza here was firm and crispy but it was too firm and too hard! If the pizza was not sliced, I can literally grab it and play ultimate frisbee with it as part of my much need exercise session. Also, the tomato cause was very weak and definitely not enough in my opinion. The same applied to the amount of cheese. Very disappointing.

(4) Full Rack of Spare Ribs (Amici Homemade Gravy)
Yes you are right, not only does it look overcooked, it was overcooked. The meat was very dried with overly rich / salty sauce all over it. The fries were really soggy and the so-called vegetables on the side were simply boiled vegetables without much taste, not even traces of salt. Well, depends how to like to see it, it is definitely much healthy this way I guess.

Likes:

Decor / Environment - casual sports bar feel

Dislikes:

Deep Fried Oysters - presentation was bad, taste was weird, the combination of wasabi sauce with the semi-deep fried oysters were not the best match
Amici Pizza - crust too firm, tomato sauce too weak
Full Rack of Spare Ribs - meat too dry and slight tough to chew as well.

Avg Spending: HKD 100 - 200 per person

Amici
L13-05, Langham Place Mall,
8 Argyle Street, Mong Kok
Tel: 2148 1009
http://www.amicihk.com/

Portal: Work & Play

Since its opening in 2004, Langham Place (and the Langham Hotel) has become a landmark in the busy district of Mong Kok for the its height and contemporary architecture. Within the area, the Langham Hotel is the only 5-star hotel to my understanding. I have only been to the Chinese restaurant, Ming Court, before and there seems to be a new Japanese restaurant named Tokoro specializing in robatayaki. Maybe it is worth trying next time.

While waiting for my friend to arrive, I wandered around the mall and I somehow walked towards the hotel trying to find some tranquility. Although it was not as tranquil as I hoped, it was way better than that in the mall, especially in the open podium level where there seems to have a huge echoing issue in my opinion. I like the name of the lounge, Portal - Work & Play, Work hard and Play hard ! Well for me it would be Work hard and Eat better !!

It was happy hour and 2 for 1 was the special deal. However, there were only a handful of selection that qualify for the deal and I mean only 6 - 8 choices of drinks of which already includes a limited selection of beer, wines and sparkling wines. I forgot the mark down the name of the sparkling wine I ordered but honestly, not worth remembering. It was overly citrus and overly carbonated in my opinion. One minor thing I really wanted to mention was its menu; the pages are all worn out and there were stains on some pages. I had to flip through the pages with my thumb and index finger only. Now that I think of it, it is not a minor issue at all, it is indeed a big concern especially for a 5-star rated hotel. You can call me picky if you want but minor things like this (considering all relevant underlying factors of course) really put me off.