FoFo by el Willy
Posted:
2 Mar 2010
It’s an interior designer’s dream to get a blank box and be given the permission to play. Double points if this box is also brand new and has open city views. Well, the assignment for the design team of CL3 was exactly that (CL3 is the collaborative behind such projects as Sands Singapore, EAST Hotel and Adrenaline at the Jockey Club), with a condition that the owner wanted a few penguins and pigs thrown into the mix. The playful décor might sounds strange to some, with rows of wooden penguins and the dining room being bookended by “sliced” pork, but it’s all done, somehow, in good taste.
The story goes like this: the banker-turned-restaurateur in question went to Shanghai and fell in love with tapas at the 1928 Spanish colonial tapas house el Willy. Chef Willy encouraged her to travel to his hometown of Barcelona to get the real experience, and when she returned to Hong Kong, she leased the top floor of M88 to start her dream project, and brought along Chef Willy to consult. The result is FoFo, which sounds vaguely like “fat fat”.
And so to the table, and our first impression was a perplexed one. From left to right we were presented with fork, plate, knife and chopsticks. No one told us this was fusion food. Some of the diners might prefer using chopsticks, said the waitstaff. We shrugged off this fairly odd-for-a-tapas joint detail; the food was why we came.
Now, 65 degrees Celsius is considered the perfect temperature to cook eggs and, for our huevos estrellados, which was cooked at this ideal temperature using a sous vide, the white came out as smooth as custard, while the yolk was leaky and creamy. It coated our bowl of potato matchsticks and diced chorizo. What they were going for was a gourmet’s delight of perfect eggs sitting on top of a bed of potato hay. But what came out was a mess of cracked eggs in a bowl of fries. It didn’t look nice, more like a $98 hangover delight.
The cubed suckling pig was served on little potato stools then glossed with jus and mojo picon (red pepper wine reduction) and green oil made with parsley and spinach ($98). Like siu youk the belly crackled at first bite, but unless you enjoy eating straight pig fat, you’re unlikely to enjoy this dish. The sauce made little difference to the taste; seemingly it was for decorative purposes.
We fared better with the croquettes filled with creamed potatoes, chorizo and porcini with a crispy jacket ($110), a classic combination of ingredients and complementary flavours. Of all the tapas, this most resembled our eating tours of Barcelona. Creamy on the inside, crispy on the outside, this was our pick of the dishes we tried. The juicy rice ($135 for half portion) was more like a very wet risotto than Spanish paella, and so may better suit local tastes. It was delicious, plump with mushrooms and topped with a thin slice of prosciutto.
Tapas is traditionally a casual affair. But here it’s gone upscale. Judge for yourself whether that’s a good idea or not. They do, however, have one of the best rooftop bars in Central, and that should help keep the cash register ringing even if the food doesn’t. Carl Huang
20/F, M88 2-8 Wellington St, Central, 2900 2009. Meal for two: around $500.
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Dear Carl Huang, My name is Guillermo Trullás Moreno (Willy) and i am the Chef & Owner of "el Willy" restaurant in Shanghai and consultant of "FoFo" by el Willy in Hong Kong. First of all i would like to to thank you for your review, it is always positive to recieve criticisms from our guests as those make us improve day by day.. Certainly some of your positive and negative comments are also agreed by myself. Anyway as i would like to kindly give you my point of view on a few of your comments regarding the food part: As you say "Huevos Estrellados" the exact translation of it in english is "Smashed eggs". This is a version of the traditional spanish dish where the eggs are fried in olive oil and later broken on a bed of potatoes and served with iberian ham or chorizo or blood sausage etc.. But Always "Smashed" so the egg yolk is mixed together with the rest of the ingredients. In FoFo the only difference with the traditional dish is that the eggs are cooked at 65 degrees in order to make it less oily. Regarding the "suckling pig", it is of my knowledge that on the first weeks of soft opening operations Chef Alex was having some issues with getting the right suckling pigs and portions were coming out of the kitchen too fatty. I agree with your commnet on the fatty level and we do apologise for that. As you write in the food column of Time Out i would like to comment on your explanation of "Mojo Picón" as you mention (Red pepper wine reduction??). "Mojo Picón" is a traditional sauce of the Canary islands, although they are several kinds as each family has its own twist, it is basically a sauce made with Chili, garlic, olive oil, Vinegar, spicy paprika, cumin seeds a bit of water and salt but i had never heard of wine reduction before.. Regarding the green oil, it is made with parsley, garlic and pine nuts but definately not spinach. The Croquettes in FoFo are made with iberian ham, but NEVER with Chorizo, potato or porcini mushrooms. "Croquetas" are made with a "Bechamel" base (Milk, butter, flour and a bit of onion plus iberian ham in this case). As a native from Barcelona, i would love to be your guide on your next food trip and show you how to make them. Regarding your article, i fully respect and recognise that "FoFo" is far from perfect and has a lot to improve and agree some of your comments. But as a food lover and chef i think that before reviewing a restaurant with a cuisine like Spanish, wich is not native for yourself, you should get more information before doing so. Anyway this is my opinion. I will be in "FoFo" on the 23rd and 24th of March, feel free to contact me on the email (below), will be more than happy to cook for you a tapas festival and discuss impressions.. Cheers, Willy willy@elwilly.com.cn
Hi a few remarks from a Spaniard (native from Barcelona) living in HK moco picon: "(red pepper wine reduction) and green oil made with parsley and spinach" croquetas: "filled with creamed potatoes" Tours in Barcelona? ....aya! Carl...i am afraid you have NO idea what you r talking about but when someone like you knows nothing or very little about something is worth to get informed to avoid embarasment...mostly when you are supposed to know what you are writting about and show some kinf of taste...of course, this is not your case.
I can't really comment about the authenticity of the food on offer, but can say that everything my friends and I ordered last Thursday was delicious. Highly recommended.
We have been to El Willy in Shanghai and we were hoping and dreaming that the day would come he would open a restaurant in Hong Kong. And now the day has come!!!!!!!!! We will go there in a few days and we hope the food will be as good as in Shanghai! One question for the real Barcelona natives: Once we were on holidays in Barcelona and we had tappas which were small green peppers, stuffed with......???? We cannot remember. Who can help us??? So we can try to find the recipi on the web, as otherwise we have to go back all the way to Barcelona!
Totally agree with Mr. Guillermo. Carl , just to mention, the way you do this critics are not the best. Time Out is always making reviews about Restaurants,but..... can you tell me please who is interested in a bad reviews? When i open your magazine and i´m looking for a place to have lunch or diner, i´m looking for a good one, not for a bad one. The problem is when you think (i write and i have the power) WRONG!! Wrong or maybe lazy, because once you go for eat in a restaurant and of course you pay to review it, if you doesn´t like then you write about how bad it is (also with not having a clue about any Spanish,Italian,Greek etc.....) can you write about the ones you like please? I think is more helpfull for your readers. But as i said before...... write about the bad ones is a lazy and easy choice when you are an 0 ON THE LEFT in International tastes and knowledge. Good luck and think about it.
Fill Del Mal>>> That kind of defeats the purpose of writing a food review doesn't it? Surely you don't want (so-called) food critics only gushing over the delicious meals at superlative restaurants? (Hello, real world here: there are more bad restaurants than good ones out there. Don't sugar-coat things, keep writing bad reviews if it truly is bad - and you are confident enough in your knowledge of the differences between spinach and parsley)
A writer that can't be bothered to google "mojo picon" is one thing; but a food writer that can't differentiate between a sauce (bechamel) and a vegetable (potato)? How is he even qualified for this job?
Thank you Time Out HK for deleting my comments which exposed (and have now confirmed) what many have suspected of your publication.
Moderator's note: One comment on this review has been removed. Please note we remove comments that are potentially defamatory or offensive.
Thanks for clearing that up Editorial - from now on, it appears we shall all have to be highly constructive in our feedback or be in danger of censorship. Ergo, perhaps it wouldn't be amiss for the guys upstairs to take a closer look into the journalistic veracity and suitability of current and future employees because quite frankly, what gets published leaves a lot to be desired.
To the reader who posted the comment regarding mojo picon. I feel I should respond to this seeing that I edited the review. In a telephone conversation with the chef after the reviewer had visited FoFo for his review, the chef told me the ingredients that went into the sauce. Mind you this was not the consulting chef (el Willy), but the chef (Alex) who mans their Hong Kong kitchen. Therefore we did our fact-checking before printing this review. Also, as another reader pointed out in this comment section, there are many recipes for mojo picon, and every kitchen has their own recipe. I hope this clarifies your question. If you have any further comments, please email me at angie.wong@timeout.com.hk
Carl's review represented his experience at Fofo, it is what it is, hopefully, Fofo will take it as constructive criticism and not have their own friends/owners posing as readers/fans to submit comments to defend the restaurant. Personally, we visited the restaurant before the grand opening and simply was not impressed, from the first impression to service and food quality. Is Fofo worth a return visit for us? Simply put, there are too many restaurant options out there!
I went for the first time late March and went again this Monday. Things tasted superb. We are Americans and Canadians so I guess we cannot confirm the authenticity, what I can say was the the Omelette with potatoes and Chorizo, the Chicken stuffed with lobster (!), the Citrus Salmon salad, the garlic prawns, suckling pig and the lobster paella was all good. We didn't go for the beef cheek as we weren't too impressed the first time. Alex came out to greet every table again, although he doesn't look like a chef I think he is serious about what he does. Overall it was a very good experience, ambience, lighting, utensils, distance of table - EXCEPT for the sub-par service. There was a moment I really thought I was dinind at Tsui Wah. There is huge room for waiting staffs to improve and even the manager-looking guy all behave like they work in Tsui Wah. Nothing against Tsui Wah though... That said, we will still go back next time.
They have chopsticks on the table... Don't expect an authentic Spanish experience here. This is very much catered for the Chinese customer, so don't come in expecting the real thing. I've been twice, once for lunch, and once for dinner. I find eating tapas as a full meal somewhat wrong. And it is served on fancy plates. The food is okay, but very small portions. And too expensive for what you get. I came the first time to check it out, but I don't think I will be making a return trip. Too many other better places to eat than this.
I dropped $1k at this place. What did I get? 3 croquettes,
Dear Time Out, I have been a reader for many years and also a good friend of the owner of FoFo. from reading all the comments on this review It is very obvious that the bad postings are made by someone who has never even been to Fofo. Such irresponsibile postings should not be displayed on the account of someone's restaurant review. Just looking at all these bad comments, I'm not sure I want to eat here. Bad taste Wagyumama. Time Out, you should ban this sort of stuff. The owner is very upset over all this. I would not want this on the page that describes my restaurant. Please consider removing this the non-irrelevant comments from this page.
Bad service/ bad management I had invited around 16 people for a birthday party there. Two days before the party, I called them to confirm. They told me fine, but they don’t have a liquor licence yet, so no wine. I told them I would bring some wines and ordered a case of Bordeaux. The manager called me again to say they were going to charge me corkage ($250 per bottle). WHAT?! You don’t have a liquor licence and you are going to charge me corkage? Are you out of your mind? Who is the management here? It must be a first tie restaurant owner. With two days to go, I had to find a new venue b/c no restaurant I’ve ever been to would charge a customer a corkage fee when they don’t have a serving licence. Then the manager called me back to say FoFo will give me a special deal. First bottle’s corkage will be waived. Great. And the other 11 bottles in the case? Oh that will cost $250 each. These guys have no mind when it comes to service. They are all flash and have no common sense when it comes to service. There are better places to get tapas in this town. Ones that care about customer satification.
I went to Fofo for the second time last Friday . My first experience, a few weeks before, had been excellent. The food tasted good and authentically Spanish, the chef came talk to us and was very friendly, the waitress was pleasant and swift. This second time , the experience was quite different. I had booked a table the morning the day before and when we arrived a 7pm, the restaurant was still mostly empty. The table that was given to us was placed in an uncomfortable location, so we asked the head waiter if he could change it. He said, sorry, he could not because all tables were booked. Later when the guests of the next table left , we asked again, same answer although the restaurant was still quite empty. So much for the service. The food tasted not nearly as good as the first time,. Had I not seen the Spanish chef passing by that night, I would have thought that he he had left the restaurant and that the food was prepared by locals. The ham croquettes and the fried calamares were unispiring, the oil they were fried in was maybe too old. The sardines and the boquerones were ok,but not great. The suckling pig was crispy and juicy. The real let down was the carabineros rice with tomato and shrimps. It tasted extremely salty with an heavy smoky flavor. The kind of dish you may expect in a local fast food restaurant . The fig tart and apple tart were good. The highlight of the meal was the wine, which had been recommended by the chef, during our first visit. At 600 HK$ this wine, Cruor, is a good choice, very pleasant,with berries taste, long and powerfull in the mouth. The total bill was 2700 HK$ for 3 persons, including 2 bottles of Cruor. For this kind of money there are better choices in town in terms of service and food. The decoration of the place is rather blend but the view from the 20th floor over central makes up for it. That is, if the head waiter is willing to place you near the windows ... Too bad, I had really higher expectation for that restaurant, but as often in HK, when the business is too good, the quality suffers. I would NOT recommend this restaurant to my friends.
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