Diner’s Diary | Hong Kong designer in Donald Tsang misconduct case opens Italian restaurant – it’s all about food, not money, Barrie Ho says
- Ho says Crit Room in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan area is not meant to be a ‘money-sucking place’ but one for sharing ideas and having fun with friends
- He says he is diversifying his business interests, explaining things are slowing down in Hong Kong and mainland China
![Owner Barrie Ho Chow-lai at Crit Room in Tai Ping Shan, Hong Kong. [06DECEMBER2019 FOOD]](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2019/12/05/aa45ce82-15bd-11ea-9462-4dd25a5b0420_image_hires_121010.jpeg?itok=Xn3J8jHf&v=1575519018)
The newest kid on the block in Tai Ping Shan in Sheung Wan is Crit Room, an Italian restaurant. What does Crit Room mean? I’ll get to that later.
Sleek-looking with shiny black walls and tableware to match, the restaurant is diagonally opposite Nordic restaurant Frantzen’s Kitchen in the historic Sheung Wan neighbourhood towards the western end of Hong Kong Island. The food, at least that which we tried, needs some work, but owner Barrie Ho Chow-lai says he isn’t concerned about making money.
The menu features starters ranging in price from HK$128 for an heirloom tomato salad to HK$208 for a seafood soup cooked for 48 hours that is finished with a half baby Boston lobster tail, a scallop and some clams.
The soup came in a small bowl with a massive white bubbled rim to emphasise its tiny portion, while the soup itself was more like a thick sauce than a bisque. The lobster was quite meaty, but the scallop was too salty, and the clams tasted like they had been added just before serving; the restaurant manager told me they had been sautéed.
