Continental, Asian, Indian... There's a wide selection in the middle tier
Stephen
IT STANDS TO reason, I suppose, that in a special part of China its best moderately priced restaurants should serve local food.
That was my experience, at any rate, when I tried nine eating places in this price range. They represented a limited spread of national culinary styles ? Indian, Australian, Italian and even, unbelievably, German ? excepting one, which tried to cover the entire field of human kitchen endeavour by offering, on the same list, Thai and Mexican soups, Indian appetisers, Italian beef carpaccio and pizzas, curries, noodle dishes, sushi and sashimi. (That fellow was right who said it was difficult ? or did he say impossible? ? to be all things to all people.)
Of the non-Cantonese places I tried, MEZZ stood out. Very stylish for its price range, the restaurant features heavy white napkins and classically shaped stainless steel cutlery, two essentials for excellent eating, even if the offerings themselves are of superior standard. The food at MEZZ, as you will see below, also stood up to scrutiny.
DiVino too impressed me a lot. Its Latin approach is closer to the real thing than some of the more hyped, more expensive Italian tables around town. Chef Michele Senigaglia knows his stuff. After an hour?s conversation with him, I decided he was a dedicated culinary practitioner who not only seeks the best ingredients but takes a punctilious approach to preparing and cooking them.
For all that, two Chinese eating places stood out. Indeed, at Loong Yuen I ate utterly memorable stuff. Forget this basement venue?s famous fried rice, which seemed (despite an overcoat of cooked egg white buttoned up with a blob of lumpfish roe) as basic as most fried rice.