Feast simply on mid-week seafood

Wednesday is usually the day when one needs a mid-week break or a treat to go through the week.

For those who are familiar with the lifestyle business hotel, East, in Taikoo Shing, there is something new to look forward to on Wednesdays. It's their new seafood line-up at their restaurant, Feast (Food by East).

When chef Colin Gouldsbury was asked why feature seafood, he answered quite simply, "Because I love seafood." The philosophy at Feast is "simple things, done well".

The seafood feast concept is therefore simple and straightforward - semi-buffet with antipasti starter buffet, choose one of the five main courses and a dessert buffet.

On the evening I dined there, of the five main course choices, there are four seafood options and one meat option - fish and chips, oven fried plaice Nicoise, butterflied prawns, moules mariniere, and ribeye beef.

The portions we were presented with were just right, and in line with their philosophy, simple.

The buffet itself was centrally located, which I liked, and did not span the entire restaurant like some of the more elaborate buffets that are served at mainstream hotels.

The selection was more than adequate with fresh salads, tuna carpaccio, salmon and dill terrine, egg and anchovy mousse, as well as a selection of quiches (three on the night I was there), large cooked prawns in the shell, and fresh shucked oysters.

As with almost any buffet, I wanted to eat more than my stomach would allow.

My "buffet strategy" is to try small bites of everything I think looks interesting and then have seconds of the ones I found to be really delicious.

At this meal, the items that I sampled from the seafood antipasti buffet were all tasty, but I really couldn't eat more and I needed to save some room for dessert, so I had to pace myself.

The tuna carpaccio and egg, and anchovy mousse were highly recommended, and the fresh oysters were sweet and briny, the way I like them.

For my main, I had the moules mariniere. They were tasty, but were not the highlight of the meal for me. The well-presented buffet table with its taste and textural contrasts had much more appeal.

The dessert section of the buffet provided a decent selection of cakes, cookies, mousses, mini ice cream cones, and a selection of cheese and crackers with condiments.

Coffee or tea is included with your meal for a very reasonable HK$360 ($46) plus 10 percent service charge per person. Children aged 12 or under enjoy 50 percent off.

sundayed@chinadaily.com.cn