The Bellbrook, bistro oz by Laris (Lunch)

Hello fellow foodies! Thought I'd share my lunch experience at Bellbrook which I went to on Thursday. It had an open kitchen (if you've read any previous posts you'd know I love open kitchens!) and the restaurant had a very rustic relaxed dining vibe. If you have been to Australia you will know it is very rich and diverse in culture; you have Italians, Greeks, Malaysian, Indonesians, Chinese, Vietnamese and all sorts of ethnicities that have been living there for generations. Food from all these wonderful places have become embedded in Australian culture. To me, that is what Bellbrook represents.

I had a reserved a table for two for 12:30pm, was going to have a nice lunch date with a good friend. I found Bellbrook to have very reasonable lunch sets. They are available during weekdays and this is what they currently have up. My friend and I decided to share our lunch sets, we went for the Haninan Chicken Salad and Grilled Pear for our starters, for our mains we ordered Blackened Salmon  and Beef Terderlion. We also ordered their Black Pork Scotch Eggs on their a la carte menu. I really wanted to have dessert after but I was just so stuffed after eating our mains, I had to pass.

 

Before our starters came in they served us some hot steaming bread with what seemed to be a tiny bucket of dirt (or so we thought) with a sprout. In my head I thought, "oh...kay, they surely can't have served dirt just for presentation..". I took my fork and picked up a few specks and it definitely looked like dirt. I wanted to try it to see if it was edible but then again, I didn't want the take the risk of eating dirt. I took the safe route and asked the waiter what it was and he was happy to explain it to us. This little pot/bucket had their edible soil which was made of black olives, mushrooms and pine nuts! Underneath it was some soft butter. Slather some of that on to your bread with the butter underneath and oh boy it tasted amazing! It had crunchy texture and you taste each component of the "soil". Food like this gets me so excited! Creations like this add a whole new level to your dining experience. It is not just the quality of food, service and atmosphere, it is much than that. I would say this added a tiny bit of excitement and theatricality :) 

Our starters followed fairly quickly and they both looked lovely. I really enjoyed the Hainan Chicken Salad, there was a generous amount of chicken on it, which was great. Very fresh salad packed with flavor and lots of contrasting textures. The meat was moist and I loved the addition of spring onion and sesame seeds on it, the peanuts added great crunch and hoisin dressing just made it all come together.

The Grilled Pear was my friends favorite dish of the afternoon. The pear was soft but still had a bit of bite to it (there was more than one piece, it's just not in the picture). The balsamic cream on it went really well with the sweet pear and added a bit of tang and it almost candied the pecans which was really tasty. Very light salad with great flavor composition, salty, sweet and tart.What else can you want?

Next came their famous Black Pork Scotch Eggs. Before we came, my friend was the one who said we better try this out. I read a bit online about it being really good, but I've had scotch eggs before and never thought they were anything special. Boy, was I wrong about these! The scotch egg was hands-down my favourite dish of the afternoon, I just couldn't believe how good this was! The exterior of the scotch egg was so crunchy and crispy it reminded me of crackling, the pork in the middle was super moist and that soft boiled egg just melted in my mouth. It came with a horse radish creme fraiche (you need to have each bite with it), very tart and a great compliment to the egg. I would like to make a side note here about their service. The waiter had placed the scotch egg on the table (we were still in the middle of eating our salads), after a few minutes he came to us mentioning that it would be best to eat the scotch egg first because it tastes better while it's hot. I thought that showed great attentiveness, kudos to the staff! 

Our mains took a little longer to get to our table than expected, but not too long. The salmon was cooked all the way through (my personal preference is to have it to be a bit underdone in the middle though). Over all flavors were nice, you could taste cumin on top of the salmon. I'm assuming that's why it is called blackened salmon? Not sure. The potatoes were soft with a crispy exterior, it had this sweet/smoky bacon flavor, I could have eaten a bowl of it on my own.

Their Beef Tenderloin was amazing! When I cut it, the knife went through like it was butter. It was cooked to a medium-rare, which is how I like it. The mash was creamy, super smooth and not too overpoweringly garlic. That sweet red wine honey sauce was just divine! It was thick and syrupy and coated the beef which left a nice sweet aftertaste in your mouth. It's one of those dishes that you just have to go back again for. Loooooveeeeed it! I think this one is probably a crowd pleaser, hits all the right spots. 

 I really really wish I had space for dessert, sadly my tummy could not take anymore :( I shall be back again some time, not sure if the lunch menu will remain the same but it definitely is bang for your buck. The quality of the food was great and staff were friendly and attentive. If you are going to Bellbrook, DON'T FORGET TO ORDER THE SCOTH EGG! I'm excited for my next visit when I come for dinner and try their a la carte menu!

The Bellbrook, bistro oz by Laris
2/F, 77 Wyndham Street,
Central, Hong Kong

Tel: 2530 1600

http://www.diningconcepts.com/bellbrook/