New Flavours
If you are in the mood for a nice burger, do you think you will be tied to junk food like fries and a soda as well? Not in the recently opened Burger Room (7 Caroline Hill Rd, Causeway Bay, 2890 9130) which matches quality Italian coffee with their well-made burgers, and provides customers with a spacious and relaxing atmosphere to enjoy their meal. Owner Evan Lam highlights the Chili Ling Fish Burger for the ladies, where the fish fillet is grilled instead of fried and served with a wheat bun for a more healthy diet. For meat-lovers, the various beef burgers including the Classic Burger ($48), mushroom beef burger ($58) and chili burger ($58) use 220gm of American beef. Luxurious choices are the foie gras beef burger ($128) and lobster burger ($188) but only a limited quantity is prepared every day and Lam recommends an early lunch if you are really looking for a treat. Free internet and Wi-Fi also are available at the eatery.

Mackie Study may be one of the favourite places for book lovers in Hong Kong, but now the love of Mackie extends to fine dining and coffee as well. Mackie Kitchen (9 Caroline Hill Rd, Causeway Bay, 2808 0351) opened in January and is establishing itself as a café and restaurant for book and music lovers with a book-exchange corner. Indie music of Mackie’s choice plays all day and the place is full of fine details like the lovely hand-made menus, the ornament with quotations from artists on every table and the notice board. The café serves lunch, tea and dinner, and owner James Chong’s recommendation would be Study’s Coffee – that is coffee to which malt is added for a bitter or sweet flavour, according to your choice. Stay tuned for updates as they look to hold live music performances there in the near future.

Many foreign restaurants in Hong Kong have adjusted their flavours to suit local tastes but the recently opened Mexican restaurant Izote (8/F, LKF Tower, 2905 1168) is not one to compromise. Owner Carmelo Lopez spent time in Mexico to explore the latest trends in Mexican cuisine. What he brought back wasn’t only ideas – but also a chef who used to work in a six-star hotel. This chic and modern restaurant offers high-end Mexican food, and from what we tasted, we would say it is really worth visiting. Even with very basic items like tortillas, you can tell why Izote isn’t just another neighbourhood eatery. Warmly served with your starter, tortillas are soft and made with corn instead of flour, as many of the Mexican restaurants make do with nowadays.

For a main course we tried shrimp in tamarindo sauce, where the slightly sour sauce definitely works to whet one’s appetite and the shrimp has not been stuck in a refrigerator for weeks before coming to the frying pan. And if you are still looking for dessert after the main course, a corn cake is a recommendation for something not too sweet. Don’t forget the shot or two of tequila before the meal – that is the Mexican way of doing it!

It’s easy to walk past the simple entrance half way down Arbuthnot road that offer ingress to the newly opened beo* (16 Arbuthnot Road, 2868 0625) (*beautifully organic). That simplicity offers a hint as to what’s hidden away. The brainchild of French first-time restaurateur Joanna Kalfa, beo* offers a modern and funky two level design with a minimalist white colour scheme which is surprisingly comfortable and intimate. The ground floor features a central “cloud bar’, which serves up a wide range of cocktails, and looks out onto one of the few trees in Central.

The 4.3m high basement resembles a cocoon for more relaxed dining. Starters include grilled scallop with pomegranate reduction and mushroom quinoa ($100) or curried cauliflower and slipper lobster soup with savoury vanilla crème fraiche ($85) while the mains include arugula and beet fettuccine with spanner crab ragout ($150) and mustard crusted Alaskan halibut served with warm green onion potato salad and fennel stewed tomatoes ($185). Portion sizes are generous and all the ingredients used, except for a few dairy items, are organic. But don’t think of beo* as your average organic restaurant. It’s
not. Instead, beo* strives to be a quality restaurant which uses organic ingredients, and from what we tasted last week it’s off to a good start.

To many, asparagus may just be a side dish, but it can also be the essence of a meal. White asparagus is often considered the best, and April is the time for it. Head chef Vittorio of Angelini at Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel (64 Mody Road, Kowloon, 2733 8750) is presenting a special four-course menu focused on this esteemed vegetable. You can start off your meal with steamed white asparagus with Maine lobster, almond sorbet and green olive bread, home-made cannolo with white asparagus or black truffles and aged Bufagella cheese.

Then choose from seared tuna with white crispy asparagus and pancetta, onion and cherry tomato sauce or roasted beef tenderloin with colonnata lardo, white asparagus and caramelised shallots for your main dish before ending your treat with a white asparagus tiramisu with chocolate and rhubarb compoté – yes, asparagus can even be a part of your dessert. The set dinner is priced at HK$780 per person and is available from April 13-22.

Newsflash
Yummy and Fun – Kids Cooking Class 2008 is now taking place at Mijas Spanish Restaurant (1/F Murray House, Stanley, 2899 0858) and King Ludwig Beerhall (2/F Murray House, Stanley, 2899 0122) every Sunday afternoon starting from now till June 29. Just show up with your kids and they can learn to make culinary concoctions such as swan puffs and strawberry shortcake.

Jimmy’s Kitchen (G/F, South China Bldg, 1-3 Wyndham St, Central, 2526 5293) is offering a special Rugby Sevens lunch on March 28 in which you can choose the smoked Scottish salmon appetizer or mulligatawny soup to start, and Rangers Valley rib-eye on bone or lamb jalfrezi as a main course for $380. On Mach 30, the dinner special includes a daily soup or fresh prawn cocktail as a starter, and a Jimmy’s Beef Wellington for the main course. Both the lunch and dinner special will come with Jimmy’s selected farmhouse cheese.

Cammino Italian Restaurant at The Excelsior (281 Gloucester Rd, CWB, 2837 6780) is focusing on an authentic Italian culinary element many of us may have overlooked – risotto. Highlights of the promotion include lobster risotto with asparagus and truffle ($248), saffron risotto with scallops, shrimps and broad beans ($238), and risotto with goose liver and truffles ($238).