Review: Serenade

Serenade, a new Italian restaurant, just opened in Sheung Wan.  It’s across from Hollywood Road Park, so you can see trees while you eat – a rare and pleasant sight in this town.

The interior has a somewhat severe aspect to it, having been decorated mostly in grey concrete and muted tones.  The lights are fantastic – plexiglass globes suspended from the ceiling with small light bulbs inside.   A wine rack runs along one wall, and there are seats for around 20 diners in the room.  Further in, a semi-open kitchen is visible, and there is a short bar with a few stools.  The music was relaxing and the overall environment was quite calm.

I can’t remember what the tables look like, but the chairs are bent plywood and comfortable enough for an hour, though probably not much more.

The menu is extensive with 50+ items on it.  I usually get nervous with such large selections (how can you really be good at such a wide variety of dishes?) but it will take a few return visits to learn the best choices.  Admittedly, Pisco is not an expert on Italian cuisine, but it was not apparent if there are any specific regions that inspired the menu (Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmonte, etc).

Pisco and K shared a plate of mussels to start – the mussels were large, plump, and flavorful; hands down it’s the best plate of mussels I’ve had in HK, even beating out Frites due to the consistency of the large mussel size.  The broth was delicious and garlicky, without too much butter.  Yes, we mopped up the broth with the bread.  A clear A grade except for the bread, which, being spongy and flaccid, receives a D.

For mains, both of us ordered the crab linguine.  K originally wanted the linguine alle vongole but they were out of clams (helpful tip to server: the correct pronunciation of ‘vongole’ has three syllables, and does not rhyme with ‘Mongol’).  The linguine comes on a plate that is the size of a 12-inch

record, for those of you who are old enough to have ever seen one.  There is a large Asian pear-sized grapefruit-sized depression in the centre where they place the actual food – see photo.  The pasta was a little overcooked, but certainly edible, and the crab was rich and flavorful.  K remarked that it felt a little flat, and it was true that a shot of lemon juice could have brightened the flavor substantially.  Nonetheless it is a solid effort, adequate in quantity, and I would return to try it again.  Grade: B.

For dessert we split an orange soufflé.  It came out hot, fully inflated, and gently flavored of orange – a competent execution of a non-trivial item.

Orange soufflé

The service is reasonably competent and probably above the normal HK standard.  That said, I do not enjoy the constant requests of “Would you like to try our X dish which is amazing tonight?”  No, thank you, I don’t want another starter, I don’t want a glass of wine, and I don’t want the chocolate dessert.  How about you let me tell you what I want?  I appreciate the need to upsell but my tolerance in this area is quite limited as it detracts from my overall dining experience.

A plate of mussels, two plates of pasta, one soufflé, and a bottle of Pellegrino ran around 570 HKD.

Finally, one note on the name: searching for “serenade hong kong” brings up two other well-known entities of that name (one residential complex, one other restaurant company).  It’s not easy to find online, and the nonexistent website does not help matters at all.  Serenade should consider boosting their online presence as other customers who do not live so close may not bother with the effort to find it.

Ambiance: B+
Food: B
Service: B-
Value: B-
Overall: B

Serenade
Hollywood Road, across from Hollywood Road Park
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
[map]