Chinabites

Posted: Apr. 04, 2009

I met up this morning across town with two friends at a restaurant we'd heard good things about called Cru. Cru is located in Central near Soho, just to the west and up the hill from the main bar district. Cru, despite having a name that sounds like a pretentious fragrance for men, did have a reputation as a pleasant place that served a good brunch. So we sailed in at around 11:00am with high hopes and our appetites at the ready.

There were 15 tables on the bottom floor being covered by approximately one and a half waitresses and a manager. Almost all of the tables were taken, but we had already made a reservation in consideration of its reputation. Their brunch menu was expansive. The specials actually required both sides of the special menu insert. While the options seemed plentiful and not outrageously priced, the first warning shot across the bow of our dining experience was that the set brunches did not include drinks. Having becoming accustomed to all set meals in Hong Kong paired with complimentary tea or coffee, I found this a bit off-putting. One of my dining companions did order a fancy cappucino, to which he gave a thumbs up on taste.

I ordered a mango smoothie and five minutes later I was less than elated to see a very weak, milky shake on its way to our table. A subsequent tasting not only confirmed my suspicions that there was more shake than mango, but also filled my mouth with downy white mango fibers, which may be many things, but refreshing and tasty are not among them. To their credit the mixed berry smoothie which my friend ordered seemed much tastier.

The same friend proved to be deadly accurate in her description of our appetizer, the bruschetta. She compared the preparation of the bruschetta at Cru in Hong Kong to sushi in the United States, where volume of portion is the sole arbiter of quality. The slices of bread were the thickest of any bruschetta I've ever eaten and were topped with mealy, flavorless tomatoes.

The three entrées we selected were decent, but enough had gone wrong that I was not inclined to give Cru the benefit of the doubt. I ordered a bacon, avacado and cheddar omelette which was awfully light on the three central ingredients despite the size of the portion. Toast is a joyless exercise without butter or jam and sadly, Cru did not think to provide these.

I'd be more inclined to look past all of the shortcomings of the meal if the price had been lower, but at USD 70 for brunch for three in Hong Kong, I have to say that there is far better value to be found elsewhere. We paid the bill, said adieu to Cru, and will not be recommending it for the short list of places to get brunch on your trip to Hong Kong. If you're looking for a memorable brunch in Hong Kong we'd heartily recommend a trip to the Bookworm on Lamma Island, which has the distinction of great surroundings and fantastic organic meals.