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NEW AND NOTED
Seafood gems at Fishsteria
Issaya of Relief
Under the Sea
If you haven’t yet made it to Issaya Siamese Club (25/F, Soundwill Plaza II Midtown, 1 Tang Lung St., Causeway Bay, 2154-3048), now’s a good time to go and try the new semi-buffet weekday lunch (Mon-Fri, noon-3pm, $238-350). The original Bangkok restaurant recently rose from 39 to 19 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and is known for its colorful and playful menu that’s replicated to a T here in Hong Kong. While dinner can run upwards of $600, lunch is reasonable, with a buffet of signature items like yum som-o pomelo salad and the banana blossom and heart of palm salad with crispy shallots. Options for mains include grilled Iberico pork in a khao soi curry sauce and slowcooked smoked salmon with Jerusalem artichokes. Don’t miss the homemade Thai-flavored macarons and ice cream for dessert.
Seafood palace Fishsteria (G/F-1/F, 111 Queen’s Rd. East, Wan Chai, 2343-8111) is jumping on the oyster happy hour craze with a pretty great promotion: $10 bivalves with a purchase of any drink at the bar from 5-7:30pm (also available Thu-Sat after 10pm). Slurp down the aphrodisiacs—freshly imported from France—in-between sips of handcrafted cocktails by mixologist Mario Calderone. There’s also a sardinethemed set menu for March ($328 for four courses) with dishes including a hearty, Sicilian-style spaghetti with sardines, bread crumbs and fennel, or Spanish grilled sardines with parsley pesto. Finally, ladies planning your next girl’s night out should take advantage of “Mermaid” nights on Mar 16, Apr 13 and May 11 with first cocktails going for $18, DJs and discounted oysters and bottles of wine.
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Bindaas ★★★★★
Indian. LG/F, 33 Aberdeen St., Central, 2447-9998.
This modern Indian restaurant is riding the contemporary-fusion-small-plates trend with style, and reinventing the image of Indian cuisine along the way. HIT With a name meaning “chilledout” in colloquial Hindi, Bindaas draws influences from traditional street food and Indian tapas, with the bold, spiceladen Indian flavors we all know and love reimagined with cool modern twists. The sev puri ($68) was one of our favorite bites of the night—a bite-sized flavor bomb with three types of chutney and boiled potato sitting on fried puri bread, liberally sprinkled with crunchy sev chickpea noodles. We mopped up
the keema pao ($108), a savory ragu of minced goat meat masala with a side of fluffy Bombay-style buns, and also enjoyed the chili chicken “naanza” (naan + pizza), which had an Asian kick from a sweet glaze and wok-tossed peppers in addition to its Indian and Italian roots. From the curry menu, the saag gosht ($168) was a generous pot of goat meat in a spinach sauce; like the best of Indian curries, it was dark, murky and full of indistinguishable but potent spices. If you have room for dessert, there are four intriguing milk-centric sweets on offer ($78), including saffron milk with rose syrup, and betel-flavored panna cotta. MISS If we’re probing for faults, the big spoonful of ghee that rested on top of the garlic naan was too heavy-handed. BOTTOM LINE Bindaas offers a refreshing take on Indian cuisine that stays true to its chilled-out name. Open daily noon-2:30pm, 5-10:30pm. $$
Our Policy Reviews are based on actual visits to the establishments listed by our super-sneaky team of hungry reviewers, without the knowledge of the restaurants. Reviews are included at the discretion of the editors and are not paid for by the restaurants. Menus, opening hours and prices change and should be checked. New restaurants are not reviewed within one month of their opening. Reviews are written from a typical diner’s perspective. Ratings are awarded in accordance with the type of restaurant reviewed, so the city’s best wonton noodle stall could earn five stars while a fancy French restaurant could be a one-star disaster.
HK MAGAZINE FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2016
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