Restaurant review: Neighborhood - comforting French-Italian fare
Newcomer scores highly for risotto, handmade pasta and indulgent dessert
This is a place worth walking around the block to find. Tucked away in a quiet lane, David Lai's Neighborhood removes you from the usual party traffic of Hollywood Road, slowing you down, mentally at least, for a relaxing meal.
With a short French-Italian menu to choose from, the ordering of "weekly food" came easily for our table of four. One page listed around 20 small- to-medium-sized dishes, including two sweets and a Brie de Meaux (HK$175) infused with black truffles for three days to bring out the earthiness of the soft, unpasteurised cheese. We loved it.
But that was the only dish in which we could actually taste the delicacy. Deciding to buy the smallest of three black Italian truffles available (the restaurant sells them whole and by weight), we chose the dishes that were recommended to accompany the fungus: scrambled eggs with a porcini emulsion (HK$135), handmade tagliolini (HK$135), and sea urchin "carbonara" spaghetti (HK$150).
We couldn't fault the handmade pasta; the tagliolini was eggy and al dente. The sea urchin spaghetti also delighted my Italian guest, who enjoyed the flavour and creaminess.
But all agreed the truffle — which was an expensive HK$896 treat — underperformed. It wasn't because it needed some warmth, or was better atop sunny-side-up eggs, as it was as bland at brunch the next day as it was on our scrambled eggs.
The wines change with the menu. On the Saturday we visited, there were four reds and four whites, all French, to go with dishes such as bone marrow risotto (HK$150). The latter was as comforting as it gets, and it proved to be everyone's favourite because of its velvety, unctuous qualities.
Another indulgence worth every bite was the "chocolate palette" (HK$70), a no-nonsense small cake with smooth dark-chocolate flavours and a biscuit-crust crumble.
Shared by four, dessert disappeared as quickly as the first-sitting tables that were cleared to make way for the 8.30pm crowd.
All in all, we wished we could have stayed longer.
