A new British gastro-pub has opened so close to my house, that I was hoping to smell home from my front door. However, I have been let down by great advertising and promotional offers, but no actual meat on the bones of by baby back ribs.
Gweilo Bar & Grill is new to the corner of Old Bailey Street and Caine Road. It's not the greatest of locations for passing traffic, but the real estate that they have is well decorated and nicely decked out into a bar and separate dining room. The bar opens onto the street, and the dining room has floor to ceiling windows, so you will be able to stare out at the road works on Old Bailey Street while you wait for your dinner.
The service staff are great, super friendly and courteous. Unfortunately, the service is a little slow, I suspect teething issues with the kitchen rather than the wait staff.
The restaurant promises "an impressive selection of western/fusion dishes, fine wines and liquor that will satisfy the most discerning of palates". Hmmmm, check out the "impressive" selection of food on their website, six mains, only one fish, and no vegetarian options. Mrs L gave that a black mark from day one. Most of the liquors were out of stock - OK, teething problems, but really - grrrr!
What really got me riled was the portion size. What people have to understand about the Brits, is that we have no portion control. It's as thought we are in a race with the US to see who can get fattest first! So when my "bought in a chip shop" (a much better description than the claims on their menu) cornish pasty arrived with seven chips (albeit fat chips), I started wondering how far the nearest McDonald's was. Mrs L's fish kebab was one piece of salmon about the size of a wine cork, one pice of halibut the same, and a single prawn. It was a starter at best.
To add insult to injury, the table next to us had the biggest of dishes, with their meat hanging off the sides off the plates, and enough chips to build another pyramid in Egypt - of course I exaggerate to make a point. I think the issue here is that we took advantage of their flyer promotion of 2-4-1 dinner for HKD89. I think they literally halved the potion for the promotion, which is a really bad idea if you are trying to attract repeat custom. Oh, and they charged HKD129, not the HKD89 as promised, and didn't serve the entire three courses.
Look, if I got what the ladies next to me had, this would have been a very different review. However, I didn't. I just got a bag of crisps from 7-11 to stave off the hunger.
Last note, there website doesn't seem to have a phone number, only booking online. read more