Oolaa Petite on Star Street, is a lovely open and airy restaurant which I find such a rarity in Hong Kong. It used to be down the road where Wagyu now is, and took over from Nuevo 1/5th. The restaurant reminds me a lot of the clean and bright wine bars back in the UK, and they have a drinks and food menu, which is similar to those bars back home too.
The food is a mix of Western dishes like lamb shanks, pasta, salads. All the sort of gastropub grub you would expect. It's reasonably priced, with pasta dishes costing around HKD130, and a full 1/2 roast chicken HKD190, but could do with being a bit better prepared.
On a visit today, starters were fab, the calamari was fried to perfection in a crispy light bater, and actually featured some large pieces of squid, the duck spring rolls were again large, very tasty, and worthy of sharing. These sharing type of starters were around HKD130. Unfortunately the mains were a bit blah. The roasted chicken was dry and a bit small, the pastas were perfectly fine, but their sauces felt a bit out of a jar, the cauliflower cheese was not cooked enough. The crab and avocado salad main was very good though, perfectly ripe avocado, but could do with being a bit bigger.
The service was a bit blah too. Drinks took a very long time to come, wine measures were scant (we had to actually send a glass back to ask that they actually put some wine in it). Getting the attention of the staff was OK, but then getting them to deliver on any request was tricky. They seemed to be on auto-pilot most of the afternoon, so it took a few pokes to get them moving.
All in all, a perfectly nice place to go for an easy Saturday lunch. I wouldn't expect earth shattering food or service, but it's not bad. Get enough wine in, and you'll stop worrying anything! read more