Town | Hong Kong
Rating: ❤❤❤1/2
Located in Cubus along with one of my favorite dim sum place Cornucopia, Town supposedly delivers Hawaiian, French and Japanese fusion cusine with a twist but its lunch menu fails to showcase much of it as it is quite standard with offerings like roasted chicken, sea bass, burgers and pastas. The chef is Bryan Nagao who used to be the former head chef for Felix and has worked for Roy Yamaguchi - founder of Roy's in the US. The restaurant was brightly lit with lots of sunlight shining through its floor-to-ceiling windows.
Currently, the restaurant is running a promotion for anyone to adopt its Chef Panda! All you have to do is 1) take a photo at Town, 2) upload the photo to Facebook or Instagram, 3) check-in and hash tag with #townhk and 4) show it to the staff to get the adorable toy (while supplies last).
Town offers a light lunch option with an anti-pasti buffet, soup and dessert for $168 and a 3 course menu with a starter, main and dessert ranging from $188-$238. There were 6 options of main to choose from but as mentioned before, the choices were quite standard and typical.
After placing our order, bread was brought out soon after and they were of good quality as they were warm and soft to eat.
J went for the anti-pasti buffet which had quite a few cold appetizers to choose from but the one offered at Penthouse for lunch was better. [3.5/5]
I chose the fish soup with saffron rouille for my starter and it was solid with strong flavors. I especially loved the rouille with its sharp character which contrasted nicely with the soup. [4/5]
Steak and Eggs ($238) - served with porcini mushroom hash, the medium rare steak was quite flavorful and tender which went perfectly with the oozing yolk from the slow cooked egg. [4/5]
Duck and Pork Ragout ($198) - with morel mushrooms and spaghettini, the pasta was quite average and uninspiring as the flavors just tasted like a regular tomato sauce with no duck or pork flavors at all. [3/5]
The first dessert was the lemon curd with mixed berries and shortbread which looked like a froggie to me (not sure if it was on purpose). The lemon curd was too sour for my taste though while the berries and shortbread failed to balance it out. I also wished some more thought was put into the presentation as the lemon curd is just a blob at the moment. [3/5]
The chestnut puree with mascarpone and raspberry was much better executed as the chestnut puree was soft and smooth which blended very well with the mascarpone. [4/5]
Verdict - we didn't come away feeling impressed with the food at Town after our meal. Maybe it is due to the lunch menu as we didn't get a chance to try what the chef has to fully offer with his culinary background. Perhaps a la carte at dinner will be much better as you can try signature dishes like Sicilian red prawn carpaccio with yuzu and black ink udon with Spanish prawn which sounds a lot more exciting than its lunch menu. Service on the whole was acceptable - some of the staff was friendly but some were...not. Good service can go a long way sometimes. People will love a restaurant if the service is great even if the food is not, but people will not like a restaurant if the service is bad even if the food is spectacular.
Town
10/F, Cubus, 1 Hoi Ping Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2568 8708http://www.townrestauranthk.com/
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