Uno Mas
For an authentic Catalan meal, Uno Mas is as close to Barcelona as you’re going to get here in Hong Kong. Virtually everything has been imported from Spain – even the Valencian husband and wife team who run the kitchen and floor staff.
The kitchen produces a range of regional fare such as Fideuà, a seafood paella made with broken vermicelli instead of rice and braised in a fragrant white wine and saffron broth. The tick-your-own menu says this Valencian speciality is suitable for two people but it would easily satisfy four, especially if you start your meal with plates of tapas. And it would be a shame if you didn’t.
In Barcelona, you can stroll from cafe to cafe, tasting the best of each tapas house and getting a little exercise between bites. Here, we were seated on a generous balcony overlooking Lockhart Road, consuming far more calories than we were burning. Wan Chai cleans up nicely when it wants to.
We started with croquetas de bacalao (cod fish and potato croquettes, $65). Hmmm... They looked like deep-fried fish sticks and tasted like them too. The croquetas de jamon queso (ham and cheese croquettes $65) were much better; warm ham and oozing cheese held together with a creamy potato filling.
Our drinks came out with a plate of olives and assorted pickles topping the glass. Someone has done their research. Spanish bars often place a small plate on top of their drinks to keep the flies at bay and, rather than leaving the plate empty, they started adding some nibbles. It’s a nice touch.
The restaurant’s limited wine selection is pretty affordable, ranging around the $250 mark for a decent bottle of red. Another option is the Estrella Damm Inedit, a Catalan wheat beer, and at $100 for 750ml, a steal. Creamier than a Hoegaarden while crisp like a sparkling champagne and presented in a stylish bottle chilled in an ice bucket, this beer has class.
With drinks in hand, we ordered chorizo frito (chorizo fried in a red wine reduction, $58) and the tortilla de patatas (potato omelette, $48). It was a case of hit and miss: chorizo – hit; tortilla – miss. Okay, it’s not difficult to mess up fried sausages, but the wine reduction was perfect, and great for sopping up with bread. The tortilla was a crispy shade of brown on the outside, smeared with aioli, but the inside was a naked nest of steamed potatoes that would have benefited from a heavier hand in seasoning. We wanted to like it, but it tasted of nothing.
Our favourite tapas dish was the grilled sardines ($72), a generous portion of whole sardines straight from a hot grill. The meat was salty-sweet and brightened with a squeeze of lemon that rendered the accompanying small side of salsa verde superfluous.
The Fideuà paella ($320) was something special. Although Valencia is famed for its rice, this paella is made with vermicelli, which becomes incredibly creamy when cooked in the broth. Embedded with large unshelled prawns, scallops and clams and topped with red peppers, this dish is a winner but it must be eaten right away as the noodles quickly harden and absorb all the liquid. The paella takes 30 to 40 minutes to make. If you have an hour for lunch, call ahead so the kitchen can prepare it in advance. Forward planning might be the antithesis to Spain’s relaxed style of dining but in this case, the rewards are many.
Angie Wong
1/F, The Broadway, 54-62 Lockhart Rd, Wan Chai, 2527 9111. Kitchen is open daily noon-11pm.
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12 Comments Add your comment
It´s a pleasure to tell you that this excellent profesionals couple are my friends and I´m sure than your restaurant is going to be succesfull withou any doubts!!!... from Mexico, I give my congratulations and i hope to be there a.s.a.p
Last night saw some sleepy service; granted, it was Tuesday night, but there are better excuses for a fuddled house special--the potato tortillas. Cold, powdery potatoes and spongey egg base. The ones at Tapeo on Wyndham street are way better. To counteract the letdown, I ordered a promising dish of almond-crusted ham and chicken croquetas. Lightning does strike twice: cold in the center, with an unpleasant gluey-gummy (instead of oozy-melting) texture. The flavor was great, though. So don't order the house special, or the croquetas. Do order the lentil-stuffed squid: smoky-spiced, toothsome lentils with tender squid and a smooth alioli. They also do a good flan. Or, you could save yourself some time and go to Tapeo, but as Uno Mas is relatively new I think they deserve a second shot.
Three of us going to Uno Mas 5 May. First of all nice to have the quality of food in WCH picking up - and Uno Mas does that. The dishes where all quite good. Lamb was outstanding and the Tortilla was ok aswell. Boqquerones left some room for improvement (not sour enough). Will return. PS why are you guys not open for breakfast?
This review is slightly odd. It awards the restaurant four stars, yet offers no justification for this. "We wanted to like it, but it tasted of nothing" is a pretty fitting description for all of the dishes I tried last night. The decor is fairly nice, the service decent enough, but the food is mediocre at best; as reviewers elsewhere have suggested, save yourself the bother and go to Tapeo instead. It is considerably better.
We tried several items from the menu and nothing stood out, in fact, the meatballs I tried were made with cheap, gristly meat - the only great thing was the margarita so well done to the bartender. it's all very well having hype but at least try to deliver something memorable!
My friends were already on their 2nd bottle of wine, but I wanted to try the cava, asked for a taste btl but it was totally flat. The waitress apologised and left but never came back!
nothing surprising on the menu , seen it all before , would like to see more creativity out of the kitchen, jamon was overly salty and dry , they used to use 5J which is the one of top jamons from Spain what happened? Seems chef went cheap thinking customers would not notice.Think again chef! Uno Mas still better than Tapeo, I was served minging stinky prawns there and the manager tried to tell me they were fine! Uno Mas al least gets the prawns fresh!
Tapeo was a huge disappointment. Over-priced and under-sized dishes. Taste was mediocre. I would not visit again nor recommend to anyone.
Food is good but service needs huge improvement. I made a reservation and the person on the phone never wrote it down. That was a huge disappointment.
Grilled sardines was amazing... also liked the mushrooms and the lamb...
The kitchen is not open every day from noon to 11pm. We've gone several times to be told that there is no food, even once on a weekend. They won't even bring out simple tapas like bread. Call first.
Have tried out Uno mas 2-3 times in the past month (and with clients) and it was a huge success ...3 out of 3. Food was tasy, not too oily, sardines were divine, staff could do with getting their act together (agreed). Overall a v pleasant couple of evenings and lunch.
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