Loyal Dining

66 Wellington Street, Central Tel: 3125 3000 Open: 7.30am-2am (Friday and Saturday until 4am) Cuisine: retro Hong Kong-style, Western and dim sum

Price: about HK$180 without drinks and the service charge.

Ambience: consistent with the concept, the decor of this four-storey, 150-seat eatery achieves a kind of time warp back to 1970s Hong Kong, when plaid wallpaper and black-and-white floor tiles lived happily with leather booths and hand-blown glass light fixtures.

Pros: the extensive menu is a greatest hits list of Hong Kong nostalgia. Service was attentive, if slightly hovering, but we appreciated the steady supply of wet wipes when we were enjoying the signature sweet, soy-simmered pigeon (HK$98 each), which was tender, delicate and finger-licking good.

Cons: while overall satisfying as cosy comfort food, there were a few misses in the dishes we tried: our baked lobster and seafood (HK$148, with a substitution of pasta for rice) came nicely presented with a yin-yang of bechamel and tomato sauces, but these were a bit too thick to coat much of the heaping portion of pasta, making the dish too dry. We also had to dig hard for the two thin slices of lobster. We ordered the toast with preserved bean curd and caster sugar (HK$16), which had that uniquely pungent, salty and sweet flavour combination, but the toast itself was drier and chewier than we would have liked.

Recommended dishes: aside from the pigeon, my guests enjoyed the cream of mushroom soup with a puff pastry crust (HK$53) - dunking the sweet buttery crust in the smooth, velvety soup with little morsels of brown mushroom worked wonders for each spoonful. The char siu rice topped with foie gras and sunny-side-up egg (HK$118) came with a side of the sweet soy sauce; the char siu was properly juicy, and the combination of liver, runny egg yolk and sweet soy sauce gave this classic an extra unctuousness. The Loyal souffle (HK$88), which was airy with just the right touch of sweetness, made for a light and delicate end to our meal.