Dinner at Olive

Recently Michael and I went to dinner at Olive in Soho, which bills itself as a Greek and Mediterranean restaurant.  I had pretty low expectations because it is a Dining Concepts restaurant, but I now think it is actually pretty good.  At least the restaurant is trying to do something slightly different and push the boundaries a little.  It's by no means a cheap or budget option, but then again I'm starting to think that there is just no bargain to be had in Hong Kong.

We started with the deep fried haloumi cheese and "watercress salad."  As you can see, frisee is what they meant by watercress, and garnish is what they meant by salad.  Pretty ridiculous.  But the cheese was delicious.

 Can never have enough of fried cheese.  I thoroughly enjoyed the fried haloumi, especially after generous squirts of the lemon wedge.

 Michael's entrée was duck breast on top of a bed of creamy risotto.  He said the risotto was perfect (I concur), but the duck was disappointingly tough. 

 My entree was pretty amazing, simply because it was so unusual and unlike anything I had tried before.  Michael sampled some and pronounced it to taste "like Christmas."  That is a pretty accurate and succinct way to capture the flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon punctuated by bright bursts of pomegranate.  The dish consisted of pieces of chicken with bits of chestnut, kale and chickpeas, cooked to a meltingly tender point, in an "envelope" of bread, siting in a broth and topped with a generous clump of cold sour cream.

 Dessert: I decided to splurge and ordered a milk pudding with a lot of candy floss.  This candy floss was very innovative and unusual, but the downside was that those razor sharp bits actually hurt to swallow! 

Pretty, right?  The dessert was not my favorite in terms of taste or texture but I very much liked the appearance of it.