Food review: Common Room in Central

Common Room
1/F Wo On Building, 8-13 Wo On Lane, Central
Tel: 2525 3599
Open: Monday-Friday 11.30am-2.30pm, Monday-Saturday 6pm-4am
Cuisine: international
Price: about HK$330 without drinks or the service charge.

Ambience: most of the action was taking place in the bar area, which dominates the long, L-shaped room. We were seated on comfortable seats in the small dining section.

Pros: there's a good list of creative cocktails, and the food menu wasn't large. The food is served tapas-style, so you get to try more things.

Cons: chicken liver and foie gras pate (HK$128) was too sweet, and needed more salt. Slow-braised pork belly (HK$108) was too lean, and the skin wasn't crisp. The tandoori octopus (HK$115) was a misguided dish that mixed Indian spices with sumac and mango, and the octopus was mushy. We each tried one bite and left the rest. The cryo-fried vanilla ice cream (HK$85) is good only for its novelty value: the ice cream, which had been dipped in batter and fried, didn't taste of much, and it had almost melted by the time it was served to us.

Recommended dishes: the burrata, served with cherry tomatoes (HK$98), was fresh and soft. Classic mac and cheese (HK$98) had good flavour, although it was a paltry portion for the price, and the parmesan "crisp" they garnished it was too soft. Grilled shrimp poutine (HK$75) was surprisingly enjoyable, with fried potatoes, melted cheese and shrimp. The best dish by far was the lobster linguine (HK$148) - something that the diners at the next table must have known, because they ordered one portion for each person.

What else? Common Room serves a set lunch of antipasti buffet plus coffee or tea for HK$138, to add a main course, it's an extra HK$30-HK$40. It is operated by the Privé Group, which also has Masu Robatayaki and Sushi in Central.