Mandarin Oriental: Pierre & Kinesis
Spent much of the weekend at Mandarin Oriental (the classic one). Had dinner with friends at Pierre on Saturday night, which turned out, to my surprise (because talk of Pierre Gagnaire's restaurants usually centers around Sketch's egg-pod toilets or the bill), to be a very good meal. However, service was appalling. I had been forewarned not to order the degustation menu, so I passed on this little bit of advice to the rest of the group. DH ran into some less fortunate friends; they had ordered the menu and were not at all pleased. My starter of seafood dishes came with a buckwheat pancake with uni and cauliflower and a very interesting and refreshing sorbet (if memory serves me correctly, there was endive and something else in it). I had a delicious guinea fowl for main. BL's langoustine appetiser was divine. DY ordered steak with caviar. We both found it to be a weird-tasting combination, but DH really liked it. On their own, the steak and the caviar were excellent, but together the two tastes were a bit too jarring for me.
As for service, here is where I start my rant about Hong Kong's unprofessional service staff. Even in a restaurant where you are easily paying HK$1,500+ per head, the staff don't seem to care about diner experience. The assortment of amuse bouche were dropped off at our table without a word of explanation. We had to ask them to tell us what we were eating. One waitress was particularly sulky all night. The general calm of our dining experience was broken twice by clumsy wait staff -- dropping utensils and a tipped over cheese trolley. When the cheese trolley was wheeled before us, the guy simply asked, "Would you like some cheese?". I had to ask him what cheeses were on offer before he introduced them one-by-one. We never met the chef nor the sommelier. Fortunately, DH ordered a wonderful red from Gigondas. It's a shame that our dining experience was marred by such poor service, because the food was quite good.
Took my grandfather to lunch at MO's coffee shop on Sunday (mother's out of town, so took the father of my mother out instead). After lunch, BL and I had a personal training session at the gym to check out the Kinesis system. EO, who's staying at MO, booked the session when he spotted me standing outside the gym, mesmerized, admiring the minimal-looking resistance-training system.
In the end, Kinesis actually looks more interesting than the workout it offers. The workout is basically like any other pulley-system resistance training machine. I had been expecting it to be more along the lines of gyrotonic.
Antonio Citterio (designer of Bulgari hotels and resorts) designed the home version of the Kinesis system, which is a space-saving and handsome-looking home gym system.
As for service, here is where I start my rant about Hong Kong's unprofessional service staff. Even in a restaurant where you are easily paying HK$1,500+ per head, the staff don't seem to care about diner experience. The assortment of amuse bouche were dropped off at our table without a word of explanation. We had to ask them to tell us what we were eating. One waitress was particularly sulky all night. The general calm of our dining experience was broken twice by clumsy wait staff -- dropping utensils and a tipped over cheese trolley. When the cheese trolley was wheeled before us, the guy simply asked, "Would you like some cheese?". I had to ask him what cheeses were on offer before he introduced them one-by-one. We never met the chef nor the sommelier. Fortunately, DH ordered a wonderful red from Gigondas. It's a shame that our dining experience was marred by such poor service, because the food was quite good.
Took my grandfather to lunch at MO's coffee shop on Sunday (mother's out of town, so took the father of my mother out instead). After lunch, BL and I had a personal training session at the gym to check out the Kinesis system. EO, who's staying at MO, booked the session when he spotted me standing outside the gym, mesmerized, admiring the minimal-looking resistance-training system.
In the end, Kinesis actually looks more interesting than the workout it offers. The workout is basically like any other pulley-system resistance training machine. I had been expecting it to be more along the lines of gyrotonic.
Antonio Citterio (designer of Bulgari hotels and resorts) designed the home version of the Kinesis system, which is a space-saving and handsome-looking home gym system.
Labels: restaurants, services
posted by 10000miles at 10:50
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