W28 Steak House, which claims to serve French food, would, without argument, cause any decent gourmet, one who is knowledgeable of the cuisine of France, that is, to shudder at the thought that the food, dished up at this restaurant, could, in any way, approach that of imaginative and refined dishes of one of the centres of epicurean delights of the world.

In a word, this Wanchai eatery’s dishes are, simply put, a wash. 

TARGET (泰達財經) visited W28 last Monday-week and, after having to wait a while for the lift to take the team to the 9^th Floor of QRE Plaza, located at Number 202, Queen’s Road, Wanchai, Hongkong Island, entered the 70-seater restaurant and was shown to an assigned table.

The laughter of other guests was deafening as they exchanged jokes about business and other matters of interest to the assembled Chinese businessmen, numbering 9 bodies in all.

Emily, the waitress assigned to Table W31, mumbled something to TARGET’s team on being seated for less than one minute: ‘Soup: Vegetable Boss … like minstoney.’

After studying the menu, this was that which was selected:

Soup of the day –
Vegetable Boss (sic!), similar to minstoney

Escargot

Grilled US Sirloin Steak

Slow Cooked Baby Lamb Shank

The total cost of the above along with a bottle of San Pellegrino mineral water was $HK337.00.

The soup of the day tasted quite good, actually, this reviewer, having learned to be fond of Campbell’s soups, during university days, because, inter alia, it was comfort food which could be consumed, quickly, without interfering greatly with one’s studies.

As for the escargot, they, too, came straight out of a tin to which some tomato sauce or something had been mixed in with the tin’s contents of snail meat.

As for the US steak, assuming that it was, indeed, US beef, it appeared that it had been blanched in hot water then quickly seared in order to give the rather generous chunk of meat the appearance of having been grilled.

As for the alleged lamb shank, well, really, it is highly unlikely that a lamb, being less than 6 months old, could have had legs of the thickness of the full pound of meat that was placed on TARGET’s table ... unless it had been suffering from obesity.

But the worst part about the lamb dish – or mutton dish, whatever it, really, was – was that it tasted like nothing that this reviewer had ever eaten in the many years of reviewing food outlets, standalone outlets or those in a the finest hotels.

It tasted as though it was badly off – that is going bad – but one could not be quite sure because one is told that mutton from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has a peculiar flavour, unique to the phylum ovis aries.

Whatever had happened to this chunk of meat, it was, as far as TARGET was concerned, inedible.

There was a whitish, soft blob of what passed as potatoes on the same plate as the meat, and this was, without question, powdered potatoes which were on a par with the mutton as far as taste went.

There were, also, 3 tiny carrots, each measuring about 2 inches long, that had been laced, heavily with sugar, and, then, having been cooked to such an extent that they fell apart at the slightest touch.

It appeared, as far as the 3 carrots were concerned, that they had been regenerated daucus carota, first having been used to make a soup or a sauce and, then, being laced with sugar in an attempt to make them appear Frenchified?

At this point, the TARGET duo called for the bill: Enough was enough.

Emily never returned to serve TARGET’s table and, when the bill was requested, a black-jacketed man came over to take care of the matter of having the bill settled.

There is little else to say about this restaurant because it is, clearly, a fast-food restaurant, making pretentions of serving French cuisine.

As far as TARGET could see, the serving staff, for the most part, is untrained, but they are pleasant and try hard to be efficient, but having been limited due to their obvious lack of training.