Liberty Exchange Kitchen & Bar, Central - 28.09.10

I have heard a lot of talk recently about the new offering from one of Hong Kong’s best Private Kitchens – Liberty Private Works.  It was therefore with great anticipation that I attended a dinner at Liberty Exchange last night.

The restaurant is located at Exchange Square – a great position, one would think, for a trendy new restaurant to open up, given that Exchange Square, IFC and all the neighbouring sky rises house thousands upon thousands of expense account diners.  It was a bit of a shock therefore to find the restaurant almost half empty at 8:30pm on a Tuesday night - very strange for any reasonably new establishment in Hong Kong.

The menu is modern American, with the likes of burgers, short ribs, deep fried oysters and US steaks on offer.  All look pretty appetising, making my choice a difficult task as usual.   Upon the recommendation of the waitress, I went for two of the restaurant’s ‘signature’ dishes: the Caesar Salad, and the Short Ribs. 

Upon its arrival, I could already tell the Caesar Salad was going to be a disappointment.  Although a healthy sized portion, the cos salad leaves looked like they came out of a packet, and were covered in a very pale white creamy dressing that had absolutely no depth or indeed any flavour to it.  A couple of lardons, and some quite decent croutons did nothing to enhance the blandness of the dressing – a real disappointment.  I always feel that if a restaurant can do a Caesar Salad right, then it will probably do everything else right also.  I was therefore not looking forward to my main.  When the Short Rib arrived, it did look quite promising however.  A nice big chunk of juicy rib, accompanied by a creamy potato side.  The rib was reasonably tender and the sauce not bad - nothing spectacular though.  The potato accompaniment was in fact a potato salad – cold and really nothing special.  I had also ordered a side order of Mac and Cheese.  This is another American staple that really should be cooked superbly, with just the right amount of tangy cheese, and a whole host of spices or flavours that can be added to give it depth of flavour.   In this case, apart from the fact that the pasta was cooked well, the dish was bland, with only the few tiny morsels of chorizo adding any real flavour to it. 

I won’t go on, but needless to say, the rest of my group felt similarly about their food.  The one saving grace of the night was the dessert, which although not fantastic, were at least polished off.  The Charlie Brown Brownie especially went down a treat . . . but perhaps that was because everyone was still hungry after having left most of their mains?

To top off an already disappointing dining experience, at around 10pm, music suddenly blared out from the speakers above us – far too loud for a restaurant that was nearly empty.  Check please!

Liberty Exchange Kitchen & Bar

2 Exchange Square

8 Connaught Place

Central

Hong Kong

T: +852 2810 8400