In The Mood For Love, the name is funky for a sushi bar and is based off of the Wong Kar Wai movie. It sets the tone for their specialty rolls which are a mix of funky new styles and old traditional recipes. For the most part, the food was excellent but at the same time, quite expensive for a restaurant in Bangkok. The decor at the restaurant is quite cozy and the seating is nicely spaced.

Sweet 16 – eel . spicy tuna . avocado . shrimp roe . strawberry
The Sweet 16 is the restaurant’s signature maki and showcases their funkiness. Strawberries? I gotta say that I thought this was a bit weird. Who puts strawberries in their sushi? But upon trying it, the sweetness of the strawberries surprisingly went quite well with the spicy tuna. All in all, it was pleasant surprise.

Guilty but happy – shrimp tempura . ebiko . cream cheese . scallion . mayo . red sauce drizzle . wasabi mayo . nitsume sauce
You can’t really go wrong with shrimp tempura and cream cheese. The shrimp was nice and crispy and the roll tasted good, but perhaps could use a bit less mayo.

Aikamo toban
This is pan-fried duck breast with bunno sauce. The duck was cooked well and very tender whilst the sauce was not too sweet.

C4 – deep fried bbq eel . mozzarella . spicy salmon . cucumber . drizzle of nitsume sauce
Another funky roll as the deep fried BBQ eel was nice and crispy and tasted great with the spice of the spicy salmon.

Spicy tuna roll
There was good spice to the tuna roll and it tasted fresh.

Gindara saikyo yaki
Grilled black cod with miso. With cod being such a fatty fish, it should taste good no matter what you do it. It was grilled nicely with a nice colour and a squeeze of lemon adds nice acidity and taste to the fish.

Black widow roll – soft shell crab . avocado
Soft shell crab and avocado were fresh and nice.

Roku nigiri
More fresh and tasty fish!

Four seasons roll – Thai-French beef with four dippings
A nice light sear on the beef.

Recommended:

• Guilty but happy – shrimp tempura . ebiko . cream cheese . scallion . mayo . red sauce drizzle . wasabi mayo . nitsume sauce
• C4 – deep fried bbq eel . mozzarella . spicy salmon . cucumber . drizzle of nitsume sauce
• Aikamo toban

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In The Mood For Love – Sushi Bar & Bistro
9/9, Sukhumvit Soi 36, Klongtuey, Bangkok, Thailand 10110 (near Thong Lo BTS)
+66 02 661 5076

Located on Sukhumvit, Bella Napoli looks like a classic Italian restaurant with the red and white table cloths. Its walls are lined with articles of restaurant reviews and felt quite cozy. Its menu looks like it was slapped together on the fly as the words are not always lined up, with a mix of capital letters in sometimes odd places and certain words highlighted. But in the end, what the menu looks like is irrelevant as long as the food is great. In this aspect, Bella Napoli does it pretty well.

Spaghetti Misto Mare
The pastas at Bella Napoli arrive in a unique way in a clay pot and are covered with pizza bread. The pizza bread was excellent and tasted great with the pasta sauce. The spaghetti misto mare itself is a mixed seafood pasta and minus the squid rings, it also tasted pretty good. Note: I can’t comment on the squid not because it was bad or anything, but because I hate eating squid.

Lasagne del Chef Ragu’whit Tenderloin
The lasagna was just average. The beef was tender enough and it tasted fine, but unlike the pizza, it was nothing special and next time I would probably order something else instead.

Pizza (half-half) – Truffle White (mozzarella . mushroom . parma cheese . truffle oil) and Carpaccio (tomato . mozzarella . beef-slice . parmesan cheese . rocket)
In order to try more flavours, we ordered the pizza half-half. When ordering, it was the Carpaccio that I really wanted to try as it sounded really good. But during tasting, it was easily the Truffle White that blew me away. Everything on the Truffle White just worked well with each other and the cheese just flavoured the slightly crunchy crust really well. With the Carpaccio, perhaps it was just the high expectations I had prior to trying it that left me a bit disappointed.

Authentic Tiramisu (homemade)
It says authentic, but the Tiramisu just didn’t taste that good to me. It looks pretty nice, but perhaps not enough mascarpone for me.

Authentic Italian Ice Cream (homemade) Drown in Coffee
I love ice cream, and I love coffee, so this was just excellent. The bitterness of the espresso went well with the creaminess of the ice cream making this thoroughly enjoyable. Simple, yet yummm!!

If for nothing else, the pizzas here are good. There were many many other types to try, yet we only got to try two, so definitely will need to try another one next time I’m back in Bangkok.

Recommended:

• Spaghetti Misto Mare
• Pizza – Truffle White (mozzarella . mushroom . parma cheese . truffle oil)
• Authentic Italian Ice Cream (homemade) Drown in Coffee

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Bella Napoli
3/3, Sukhumvit Soi 31, Bangkok, Thailand 10110 (near Asok or Phrom Phong BTS)
+66 02 259 0405

This place is like the Inside Out/Frites of Bangkok. They serve some Belgian food but its mixed with other fusion types, along with a decent selection of Belgian beers. What I was super impressed with though, was the availability of Trappistes Rochefort 10 (so far still the BEST beer in the world, IMO) at a somewhat reasonable price. A bottle was still 290 baht ($79), but this is still better than the $110 that I saw at Frites. I did think that their Chimay Blue though was overpriced considering I could get it in Hong Kong for $30.

HOBS is located in what appears to be a very cozy complex although its Ari branch seems it might be a bit far from the BTS. The complex though is nicely decorated with an open air, relaxing garden environment. There is also an indoor section for those that wish for air-conditioning.

Belgian Fries
The fries are supposed to be ‘Belgian’ fries, but were well, just fries to me. They tasted pretty good, and it came with 6 different dipping sauces. They include pesto, wasabi, garlic mayo, curry, ketchup (I think) and mayo (I think). I thought that the best two were the wasabi and the garlic mayo sauces. They are worth trying as a snack with your beers!

If I have time the next time I’m back in Bangkok, I will definitely be back for my favourite beer if nothing else! You can check out my simple review of beers here: https://anotherdreamytraveller.wordpress.com/beer-anyone/

Recommended:

• Trappistes Rochefort 10
• Chimay Blue “Grande Reserve”
• ‘Belgian’ fries

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HOBS House of Beers @ Aree Garden
Soi Ari Samphan 11, Phaya Thai, Bangkok, Thailand (opposite Ministry of Finance)(closest BTS is Ari)
+66 02 617 1600

I love breakfast for dinner and Matchbox has a Special Set and a Normal Set that is interesting. The Special Set consisted of the “Floating Platform Chicken Pie” (雞批浮台), Banana Pancake and Coffee/Tea. The Normal Set consisted of Buttered Toast, Scrambled Eggs & Ham, Roast Pork Macaroni and Coffee/Tea.

Special Set – “Floating Platform Chicken Pie” (雞批浮台) . Banana Pancake . Coffee/Tea
“Floating Platform Chicken Pie” (雞批浮台) – If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been going on about pea soup recently. Pea soup at Amber, Caprice and FINDS. Now for pea soup at a bing sut. Like I’ve said before, I hate peas but I have been relatively impressed with the pea soups I’ve tried so far. The pea soup that surrounds this chicken pie though, is super pea tasting and not to my liking… almost like mashed peas. BUT I have to say that when you mix the chicken pie with the pea soup together, it becomes something totally different and amazing. Add some ketchup with the pie and WOW! This mixture had to be an accident in the making. I cannot imagine anyone mixing these foods together saying that it would taste good, yet when it is actually done, it is simple and great! I will definitely be back for more of this!

Banana Pancake – Simply just pancakes, banana and walnut. This was much better the second time around that I tried it. The first time, there really was not enough sauce. The pancakes are average while the sweet sweet bananas were great, but I did not think that the walnuts were necessary. The sauce though, went well with everything.

Normal Set – Scrambled Eggs & Ham with Toast . Roast Pork Macaroni . Coffee/Tea
Scrambled Eggs & Ham with Toast – The toast was tasty and the ham added the saltiness necessary to the scrambled eggs. The eggs were a little bit overcooked (not always, so a consistency issue) as I love them runny.

Roast Pork Macaroni – Not much you can say about roast pork and macaroni, but the pork here was quite tender when compared with that at Capital Cafe, while the macaroni was average. Note that I do much prefer instant noodles over macaroni!!

Hot Milk Tea – I don’t think I’m a good judge of milk tea as I prefer coffee, but in this case, it was pretty good.

Overall, I would definitely come back for the Floating Platform Chicken Pie. Its just too good not to try again and again!! The other foods are nothing special, but aren’t bad

Recommended:

• “Floating Platform Chicken Pie” (雞批浮台)

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Matchbox (喜喜冰室)
G/F, Highland Mansion, 8 Cleveland Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
2868 0363

One Michelin Star? I struggle to understand. In fact, there are better Indian restaurants around such as Aladin Mess in Causeway Bay, which I still think is the best Indian restaurant in Hong Kong. I’m not saying that Hin Ho is a terrible restaurant, but there certainly could be improvements. Hin Ho Curry is located a bit out of the way in Shau Kei Wan, and it was only because I finished hiking in that area, that I decided to pay them a visit and see what all the fuss was about.

The restaurant itself was relatively small and could fit about 40 persons. While I’ve heard of lines outside, when we got there around 1:30pm, we could walk straight in and immediately get a table. The lunch sets are a great deal at $45 per set +/- depending on the drink you order. The set includes a daily soup, a main dish, naan bread or rice and a drink. There were lots of reviews reporting bad service, yet what we got was pretty good service overall. However, for some reason, I did get the feeling at times where I understood those bad service reports but they were not directed at us so I can’t really comment.

Despite my strong urge to try their beef tongue due to my love of beef tongue, in the end, we ordered the Tandoori Yellowtail Fish Tikka and the Baby Beef Flank Curry lunch sets.

Pea Soup (I think) – The pea soup came pre-peppered which is not normal. BUT the amount of pepper that they put in was perfect! The soup was amazing and up there with the pea soups I’ve tried at Amber and Caprice. I think that says quite alot about the soup!
Naan Bread – Although the naan doesn’t appear to be ‘burnt’ enough, it was actually pretty good. It was both hot and crispy and was perfect to dip with the curries.
Tandoori Yellowtail Fish Tikka – I ordered this rather than the Beef Tongue Curry only because I wanted to compare with a dish I enjoy at Aladin Mess. The curry for the Tikka was really good, but the fish itself was a slight disappointment as I had high hopes because the one at Aladin Mess was excellent everytime. It was just not as soft or juicy as I had hoped for but still decent though.
Baby Beef Flank Curry – Again, like the fish, the curry with the beef was excellent. The beef itself was not tender though and really tough to bite into at times.

Having said all that though, it is a restaurant that I would go back to try its other dishes especially the Tandoori Beef Tongue. The soup was superb and although the meats were not the best, the curry that supported the dishes were extremely tasty. BUT Hin Ho Curry is NOT a one Michelin starred restaurant. It is definitely not on the same level as a restaurant like Hoi King Heen (海景軒) and its not even as good as other Indian restaurants in Hong Kong like Aladin Mess (review to come).

Recommended:

• Any curry dish for the curry sauce… I just think the meat that comes with it is a toss up.

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Hin Ho Curry Restaurant
Shop 11, 59-99 Shau Kei Wan Main Street East, Eastway Towers, Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong
2560 1268