Hong Kong: The Blue Butcher
It’s a NYC style steak house, with ‘antiques and old dark railway decor’, and a ‘walk-in pink salt dry aging room’; in addition, it claims to ‘prepare, bake, age, and hang everything in- house’, aiming to bring back the atmosphere of the ‘Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1920s’.
Quite some statement, but well, it’s Hong Kong, to do better than surviving, you’ve got to play big!
Truth is, I’m not the easiest person on earth to please in terms of steaks; that said, we went to the Blue Butch and had their ’32 Oz Wagyu Bone In Rib Eye, Australian Mann River Farm’ for two (HKD 1360).
I did like the steaks here – great meat quality, good cut, neatly done, absolutely no mistakes – but it was, well, not amazing, lack of a ‘wow’. The side dish ‘Danny’s Pig Neck Mac & Cheese’ was pretty good, cheesy, tasty and very American; though the ‘Prime Steak Tartar’ (with sweet shallots puree, Dijon mustard, sherry vinegar and egg yolk on toast) didn’t really meet my perhaps-too-high-again expectation, or I just hopelessly prefer the French style, in which the meat is almost never over-seasoned nor too salty.
However, what I really loved about this place, is their cocktails!
They have such a sensational list of creative recipes with a unique ‘meaty twist’, yet the formulas are so finely done that the tastes are never too strange nor too wild; in fact, they are all very smooth, gentle and elegant, like the ladies who can handle and tame even the most avant garde fashion trends.
I loved my ‘Pork Chop and Apple Sauce (Bacon Washed Blended Scotch / Housemade Sour Mix / Apple Schnapps / Fresh Apple Jam)’, ‘Fig & Cheese (Black Label Scotch / Cointreau/Homemade Blue Fig Syrup / Compressed Citrus /Wormwood Bitters / Blue Cheese Foam)’, and the light ‘Pomegranate Margarita Don Julio Reposado / Orange Liquer / Fresh Lime Juice / Salt Air’, which tastes almost like a summer tea…
Here my advice:
Don’t get scared by the strange ingredients or weird combinations on their cocktail list, they know what they are doing, just take a leap of faith, and surprise yourself!
Price: HK$ 500-800 per person.
Address: 108 Hollywood Road, SOHO, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. +852 2613 9286