Hard Rock Cafe - Paris

Visiting Hard Rock Cafe has been in my itineraries for most of my trips. Marking my 3rd Visit to Paris Hard Rock Cafe, I was surprise when my dining partner decided that we should settle our dinner there since we were buying the collectibles.

Hard Rock Cafe

Securities in Paris had been tightened after various terrorists events and that applies to crowded area like shopping malls, restaurants and even Cafe like Hard Rock.Though its

Dining Area

Just right after we enter the Cafe, you will be able to find the Rock Shop on the right.

Merchandise

Like most of the Hard Rock Cafe, the accent of their English is not far away from our understanding. The friendly service make us feel very comfortable.

Menu

Good blend of orange, mango and pineapple juice infused with Bacardi Superior Rum, Bacardi Dark Rum, Disaronno AMaretto and grenadine, served with orange and maraschino cherry.  A really good mix of tropical fruits living up to its name.

Hurricane - €12,90

Another item under their Comfortably Rum Menu. Pina Colada is a frozen concoction of Bacardi Superior Rum and pina colada mix.

Pina Colada - €10,90

Worrying that the European size dishes were too much for our stomach to contain, we decided to share a combo meal between ourselves. There is a choice of duo or trio combo with a difference of 0.30 difference. Combo is a perfect choice for people who want to have more variety as it gave you a choice of ribs, chicken or pulled pork.

Hickory-Smoked Barbecue Combo - € 20,95

Having tried Hard Rock Cafe Food from different countries, we were quite comfortable with its quality and service. The Smoke House menu is awesome with signature fork-tender meat marinated. These baby back ribs were rubbed with their signature seasonings and basted with hickory barbecue sauce, most importantly these baby back ribs meat fell off the bone easily.

Fried Onions on Ribs

Sticking onto the Hickory Barbecue sauce will be the delicious fried onion that got me hooked.

Fried Onion

Striking a balance with the meaty meal, we order Salads topping up the combo meal. The romaine lettuce was tossed in their homemade Caesar dressing, topped with grilled chicken breast, croutons and shaved Parmesan cheese.

Caesar Salad

What I like best is their variety of homemade dressings, ranging from ranch, honey, mustard, Caesar, blue cheese, balsamic vinaigrette, lite Italian and oil & vinegar. It just make having salad a never boring dish!

Caesar Salad and the Choice of Sauce.

As far as visiting Hard Rock Cafe is concerned, I was not only impressed by the level of service they had rendered in Paris but also the rest of the outlets I have been to Internationally. Servers were very fluent in English and were good in recommending the dishes to us which make us feel as good as home.

Hard Rock Cafe Paris
Location: 14 Boulevard Montmartre, 75009 Paris, France

Majesty Chinese Restaurant 金御海鮮酒家

Having Hong Kong Dim Sim in one of the local recommended places without being too touristy is something I have always wish for. Skipping the over commercialized and publicized tourist recommended Dim Sum Places, we headed to Majesty Chinese Restaurant with the recommendation by my pal's local relative.

Being a tourist in Hong Kong, we took a Escalator up the building and only to find out that Majesty Chinese Restaurant is only accessible by the lift on the entrance level.

Lobby of Majesty Chinese Restaurant

While the building where Majesty Chinese Restaurant is housed is still quiet as most of the shops were still having the shutters down and not yet open for the day, I was shocked when I entered into the restaurant. The entire place was bustling with locals and were full house in one of the section.

Environment

Environment was furnished just like any typical Chinese style restaurant,  spaciously planned with grand red carpet and plushy chairs accompanied by white table cloth. This style would probably fit in time from the 70s to early 90s in Singapore.

Service crews were smartly attired and was seen busy as ever running from tables to tables. However ordering was made easier with menu chit. Just indicate the amount we would like to order and raise our hands frantically to grab the attention from the crews.

Menu

As they served the dishes, they will stamp the price of the dish on the card and wait for these stamps to accumulate and it will give a total of what we had spent at the end of the meal.

Tea

Initially, these plain rice rolls were served in their unappetizing form, lacking the usual gloss and moisture from their translucent rolls.

Rice Rolls 黄沙猪潤肠

Not long after the rolls were served, we managed to grab hold of the soy sauce that elevated the presentation to something more stomach grabbing. At least now we would not go plain without some salty taste. In fact the soy sauce played a very important role giving it a finishing touch, adding the water content to the dish making it smoother for consumption.

Rice Rolls with Sauce

Fish Porridge is one of their recommendation. Straight forward dish in plain gluey form. Shredded ginger was added to reduce fishy taste.

Fish Porridge 生滚鱼片粥 

Another porridge that we had ordered was century egg with pork porridge. Comparing to the fish porridge, it has more flavours due to the ingredients used. Anyway both taste as good!

Century Egg with Pork Porridge 皮蛋瘦肉粥

Looking at the tray of fluffy Cantonese Char Siew Bao, they were hot yet tempting.

Char Siew Bao 蜜汁叉烧包

Sweet savoury char siew fillings were all as expected. Don't expect entire fillings consist of lean meat. In fact a good proportion of fats and meat are definitely what makes a Char Siew Bao.

Char Siew Fillings

Prawn Dumplings to dip into the given salad sauce. Serving was hot and not too oily.

Salad Prawn Dumplings 沙律炸虾饺

I was excited when I saw these fried vegetables and meat buns available on the menu as it is not very often to see such item for order in our local dim sum place. They looked abit oily on the outside with handful of sesame seeds topped the bun.

Fried Vegetables & Meat Bun - 生煎菜肉包

However, it was the exterior that was seen oily a bit but if you were to peel open, the fillings were not too greasy.

Fillings

The carrot cake had my appetite, the soft and pan fried pieces were packed with aroma and hold the traditional taste of fried carrot cake with the use of yummy chinese sausage and had a textural taste with the shredded carrot.

Carrot Cake 香煎萝卜糕

While we will all expect Custard Buns to let out its powerful weapon once we bite on it but right here, it seems like there isn't such "kick" in the practice. They looked more humble. Hehe.

Golden Custard Buns 黄金流沙包

No sudden burst of oozing runny custard out of the baos but their fillings ratio to the bun was simply perfect. Fillings were not too sweet or too powdery and it was surprisingly good.

Custard Filling

Shapes of the fried wantons looked too similar to the silver in the olden days. Wanton was very crispy and you can literally hear the crunching sound as you bite them down.

Fried Wanton 鲜虾炸云台

Filling up the stomach with some glutinous rice. This little dish had ingredients like chinese sausage bits found among the rice with charred peanuts that gave a substantial amount of fragrance to it. Shreds of egg can also be found in there.

Glutinous Rice 腊味糯米饭

"Har Kau" or Fresh Prawn Dumplings are always the staples in dim sum. However the style did not really fit us. We will prefer the transulent skin to be thinner as this is too thick to our liking. Other than its exterior, I would say the prawns as the fillings were springy enough.

Fresh Prawn Dumplings 金御鲜虾饺

With roes topping the 4 Siew Mais in the tray, what I like about these Siew Mai were that they lend a very chewy bite and they don't have the kind of strong meat taste as compared back to what I had in Singapore.

Siew Mai 蟹子烧卖皇

All in all, it was a good experience to observe and enjoy the local culture in having breakfast. For pricing of food, its worth the money well spend and absolutely cheaper as compared to those tourist guides recommendations in the mall.

Majesty Chinese Restaurant 金御海鮮酒家 
Location: 3/F Wu Sang House, 655 Nathan Road, Mong Kok

Hilton Hotel - Bandung

It seems like travelling to Bandung has been very popular among my friends recently. Thanks to my recent company bonding trip that gave us this opportunity to have a 2 nights stay at this luxurious 5 Stars Hotel.

Enjoying the cool climate, Hilton at Bandung is located right in the smack of the city, about 2 hours drive from Jakarta. Hilton hotel needs no further introduction as they are very well established and reputable in the hotel industries.

Approximately 4km or 10 minutes ride from Husein Sastranegara Airport, it gave another reason for us to select our stay there.

Hilton Hotel at Bandung

It is also 650m away from Bandung Train Station.

Train Station

Regardless of individuals or vehicles that enter into Hilton's boundaries, securities are their main concern. We have to go through electronic scanning gates with securities check. It gives the hotel guests a sense of assurance and safer with them around.

Trained Dog

Enjoy free WIFI connection in the public area with helpful and smiley services from all their staff.

Lobby and Concierge 

Was impressed by the 45 square meter deluxe twin room, where we were welcomed with 2 queen beds and 4 pillows on each bed which I think is more than enough for two pax. What delighted us further was that the 4 pillows had different softness.

Deluxe Twin Room

Besides being modern and stylish, the spacious air conditioned rooms were furnished with marble tiles and with our beds surrounded by cushy carpet. Room is equipped with a flat screen TV, writing desk and of course mini bar.

TV & Desk Area

What excites me was its En suite see-through marble bathrooms featuring the toilet as well as the rain shower area. For those who feel shy about the see-through, there is an automated blind to cover up.

Toilet

Lucky were those who got their room upgraded to executive twin room free of charge (but at company's expense) due to the shortage of rooms. The size of room is comparable to the usual deluxe twin room but with the privilege of having additional bath tub and access to the executive lounge which serves complimentary and refreshments daily.

Executive Twin Room Toilet

If you are bored of "playing" water in the bath tub and have a chance, do drop by their swimming pool at Level 6 during the night time to enjoy such warming scene.

Hilton at Bandung Night Shot

Get your feet wet by taking off your foot wear and walk along the sides towards the Cabanas. The night view was so therapeutic and pleasant to the eyes.

Pool Side with Cabana

See, as compared during the day time, the mood and ambiance just get totally different here.

Pool Side in the Day

Even after a swim, you can get your meals / drinks over at the restaurant beside the pool.

In front of the Pool

Breakfast area is located at level 1 right next to the concierge area. It was good to have some traditional Indonesian Music Live playing in the background while you were around the area.

Purnawarman

Initially I have the thought that the hotel breakfast will serve the same dishes for the 2 nights of stay but apparently it wasn't the case. Majority of the dishes in fact were changed, thus you don't have to worry seeing the same thing again if you stay for a longer period.

Nuts and Long Beans

It may be too early to see such dish for breakfast but still I could not resist and took a few pieces of it on my plate.

Sweet Sour Fish

Selection of European to Asian cuisine in the Buffet service breakfast, pamper yourselves with all these food and enjoy your stay at Hilton Bandung.

White Sausages

For breakfast, this is the counter that I will never skip. It feels good every time to get your order freshly made on the spot. Order your Sunny Side Up and Egg Omlette here!

Egg Counter

Be patient, perhaps a minute or so after your order, you will get them on your plate.

Add caption

For the health consious, grab your salad and choose your own dressing.

Salad Bar

Juices and infused drinks are all prepared for you.

Juice / Drinks Station

Moving on to the Noodles counter. Choose your preferred ingredients and get served on the spot too.

Noodle Counter

There were simply too many ingredients to choose from and in the end, the service guy took everything for me. Noodles texture was closer to quality of ramen than instant noodles while soup stock tastes subtle without over using of MSG.

Noodles

I'm not sure if you will want crackers for breakfast but just help yourselves to those assorted crackers on the counter.

Assorted Crackers

The spread of food was wide, even with desserts like Pulut Hitam along the Bur Bur (Porridge) counter. Out of curiosity, I took a bowl of their traditional drink and realized its actually Gula Melaka.

Traditional Drink

Another traditional food that you may find at the entrance to the dining area.

Traditional FOod

Looks like putu piring to me but an improvised dish with your selected toppings like chocolates, cheese or even rainbow rice.

Kueh with your toppings

Engaging their Spa Services to pamper our legs to relieve the stresses. Jiwa Spa is located at 5th level of the hotel and Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 12 pm to 11pm while Public holidays, Saturday and Sunday will be from 10am to 11pm. Booking of treatment is recommended, call +62 22 8605 1365

Spa

After an Hour of Foot Reflexlogy, our legs felt very comfortable. Service was professional from start all the way to the end. Thanks pal for making such an arrangement. It costs about 21,000 Rupiah ($21 SGD approx.) for an hour of retreat.

Couple Room

Overall of our stay was memorable and I'm glad that I had a experience on their SPA Services. If ever I have got the chance to come back, I don't mind :)

Hilton Bandung
Location: Jl. HOS Tjokroaminoto No. 41-43, Pasirkaliki, Kota Bandung, Jawa Barat 40171, Indonesia