Wednesday 4 December 2013

Food: The Search For Great Curry -- Part 5 @ Wine and Deli by m.a.x. concepts


Image from Locky's English Playground
Wine and Deli by m.a.x. concepts at Cityplaza has been around for quite some time, but it was really my first visit last week. Located right besides the ice-skating rink, the cafe had an entrance that resembles a Paris cafe on the road side. 

Green-looking cafe
Image from Locky's English Playground
Or, to be more precise, the entrance is like the junction of a pedestrian walk which leads you to even more eateries, when in fact, it is one restaurant as a whole.

Lighting is fantastic!
Image from Locky's English Playground

A restaurant that is semi-food court-like, where diners queue up to buy their food and then collect a number stand to wait for your food to be delivered to your table.

Frozen Yoghurt counter
Image from Locky's English Playground

As a restaurant, no surprise to see that they sell froyo there,

Hong Kong-style tea sets
Image from Locky's English Playground

What is surprising is that the restaurant actually offers food of a Cha Chaan Teng -- a Hong Kong local cafe.

Curry Beef Rice
Image from Locky's English Playground
A glance through the menu on the wall unveiled several curry dishes. As always, a chance as such cannot be forgone, so I ordered the classic curry beef rice, which cost HK$56.

Image from Locky's English Playground

The look was actually quite average, but the lightning made it looked way better than it deserved, so I give 4 star for the clever use of lighting.

The taste was really quite good. The temperature was at its optimal making the curry taste sweet and rich enough while keeping the spicy tone at a touch-and-go level. The beef portion was "really generous" at first glance but consisting the price paid I had to downgrade it to "reasonable". Marinating was slightly over for my taste causing a minute loss of beefiness, still, it is way better than all so many Cha Chaan Teng around.

Smell-wise, it was barely noticeable at nose tip, with the addition of fried onion bits, it smelled like a Singaporean curry with much less coconut milk. It's not bad, but not as good as I would have expected.

Overall, it is still a decent curry rice with a stomach-fulfilling amount of beef (and potatoes). If you are looking for a high-class Cha Chaan Teng with nice curry, this may be the one for you!


Scores:

Look:            ★★★★☆ 4/5
Taste:            ★★★★☆ 4/5
Smell:            ★★☆☆☆ 3/5
Textures:       ★★★★☆ 4/5
Temperature: ★★★★★ 5/5
Overall:         ★★★★☆ 20/25




Resources:
m.a.x. concepts
http://www.maxconcepts.com.hk/tc/deli_n_wine.asp

Food: The Search For Great Curry -- Part 4 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2013/07/food-search-for-great-curry-part-4.html

Food: The Search For Great Curry -- Part 3 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/04/food-search-for-great-curry-part-3.html

Food: The Search For Great Curry -- Part 2 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/04/food-search-for-great-curry-part-2.html

Food: The Search For Great Curry -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/03/food-search-for-great-curry-part-1.html