Table Talk: TOWN Review
Town by Brian Nagao, Cubus Building, Causeway Bay - combines Japanese and Hawaiian influences to create beautiful, well executed food.
Polished, Refined Style at TOWN
We recently headed to new Causeway Bay restaurant, TOWN, which is the brainchild of celebrity chef Bryan Nagao. Combining his Japanese and Hawaiian roots with lighter and healthier ingredients, TOWN offers cuisine that is interesting and innovative.
Occupying 3,000 square feet, TOWN is a polished industrial style space, which benefits from floor to ceiling windows allowing light to flood into the restaurant. The styling is cool and comfortable, using soft greys, warm blues, wooden floors and distressed mirror finishes to create a interesting and stylish space. There’s a bar with small outdoor terrace as well as private dining available for up to 12 diners.
We sampled the lunch offering, which combines a buffet replete with healthy salads, cold cuts and antipasti with a choice of main course, dessert, tea or coffee. The buffet starter was impressive, and as always, the challenge was to not over stack the plate with all the delicious options on offer. I was particularly impressed by the roast pumpkin and healthy quinoa and rice salads – everything I sampled was well executed and there was a definite nod to focusing on healthier options, which is ideal for a lunch buffet.
As this was a media tasting, before we enjoyed our main course, we were lucky to sample some of TOWN’S other menu items. The first dish and my highlight was the heart of palm salad, served with red red quinoa, endive, figs, pumpkin and mustard. Showcasing Nagao’s Hawaiian routes, this dish was delicately presented, and combined a little known ingredient – heart of palm, with sweet figs, crunch quinoa and slightly bitter endive. This is a stunning dish and for $128, it’s also very good value. It’s usually available on the dinner menu.
We also sampled the guinea fowl roulade with pistachio, lardo, salami, buckwheat, fennel and quince. The roulade was crispy on the outside with a beautifully tender filling, packed full of rich guinea fowl. The powerful flavour of the meat was balanced with the fennel and pistachio.
The main course choices on the lunch menu included breaded chicken breast, roasted lamb chop (3 chops so a very good portion), herb seared Halibut, beef and pork Bolognese, Wagyu beef burger and mushroom risotto. I’m somewhat of a burger snob, and am always on the look out for my next favourite patty, so there was only option on the menu for me, particularly considering the meat used is Wagyu.
Served with Cheddar cheese, salad, red onion jam and fries, I was not disappointed with my choice. The tender, melt in the mouth meat was diced rather than minced and the rich flavour was showcased in each mouthful. It’s definitely up there on my list of Hong Kong’s best burgers!
To finish, the lunch set includes a dessert and tea/coffee. I couldn’t get enough of the granola, rapsberry sorbet, and strawberries dessert. The crunch of the granola with the sharp tang of the marinated strawberries was a mouthwatering treat and the perfect finish to an interesting and varied meal.
TOWN is a well thought-out and well executed restaurant. From the industrial design, offset by large light windows and high ceilings to the delivery and presentation of the food, I was very impressed with the quality of what was offered to us. The prices are also very reasonable with plates ranging from $88 to $1188 (for the 1kg ribeye Wagyu).
Lunch (served daily from 12:00 – 2:30pm): Set lunches include an antipasti buffet or soup of the day followed by a choice of mains and dessert for HK$168 – HK$210.
Dinner (served daily from 6:30pm onwards)
Happy Hour from 5:00pm – 7:00pm.
The wine list is approachable focusing on reasonably priced, yet good quality wine including bio-organic varieties. Prices range from HK$388 to HK$2,500.
Address:
10f, The Cubus, 1 Hoi Ping Road, Causeway Bay 2568 8708
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