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Libertine
Housed on the horrendously steep slope of Aberdeen Street (note to girls: don’t wear heels), Libertine is Soho’s latest venue to jump on to the French brasserie bandwagon (better late than never, we guess). The space is gorgeous – an expansive, high-ceiling dining room with wooden chairs and plush red banquettes inside, and a few high tables and stools set outside for those who want a coffee or a glass of wine after dinner.
The menu appears equally enticing at first, a single page dedicated to fuss-free French dishes. We stick with the classics, beginning with the duck liver terrine plated with a simple side salad ($98). It’s delicately seasoned with an ever-so-slight gaminess balanced by the tart cornichons. We love that it’s served with thick slices of grilled country bread but the charred smokiness overpowers the faint flavours of the pâté. It’s best to eat these separately. Next up – escargot smothered in a subtle garlic pesto ($88). The dish is lukewarm and some of the snails arrive drier than the others. But the sauce is delicious, perfect for sopping up with the thin slivers of toast served on the side. We can’t complain too much about the hors d’oeuvres though, because they’re arguably the best part of Libertine’s menu.
The homemade pappardelle with truffle, almonds and parmesan cream ($138) is the first let-down, arriving poorly under-sauced. But it’s not quite as disappointing as the steak frites ($288). The charred, 10oz slab carries no discernable meat flavour and is unevenly cooked with the centre parts being much rarer than the rest of the steak. Then we get to the frites, which are soggy in the centre, reminiscent of store-bought, frozen goods. For dessert, we bypass the tiramisu (what’s that doing at a French bistro?) and opt for the chocolate fondant ($75), which is dry with only a few moist crumbs in the centre. Skip this and go for a coffee.
Libertine has to work much harder if it wants to be taken as more than just another pretty new face. We do hope it picks up its game soon – after all, we’d hate to see such a beautiful venue go to waste. Dorothy So
26 Aberdeen St, Soho, 2858 2022. Mon-Fri 8am-11.30am, noon-5pm, 6pm-late & Sat-Sun 9am-5pm, 6pm-late. Dinner for two: around $700.
18 Comments Add your comment
Just ate there. Thought it's pretty good and lovely space. I think they may have taken your criticism on board, which is good.
The place is very lovely. The review hadn't come out when I tried, our table ordered a few steak frites and they were all pretty good actually.
Showed up at 930am on Saturday, to an empty place. The chef refused to make an egg white omlette because he was "too busy" and the manager apologized to me for not being able to convince the chef. My 2 friends waited an hour for their food. We got our food at random times. Expect to get out of your seats to make your order because service is no where to be found.
Ate there last night, service non-existent. Food quality ok but they "ran out" of a lot of things so I guess they basically have not stocked some of the ingredients as they don't have that many customers. Food came at different times (my order of main came in between my friends' starters and main) and their crepes tasted good but cold. None of the staff are knowledgeable of what is offered on the menu. I am amazed how bad service can ruin / affect the perception of the evening. Unless you cannot find a table at Marmite or Classified or other similar places, I would not go back. Prices are not cheap albeit not overly expensive. Bathrooms have no paper towels or even soap. I would give this place 3 months to live if they don't drastically change the service.
Had lunch twice this week had a lovely experience both times: good, quick, nice music and people, fair price (120HKD for 2 dishes and a coffee) perfect! looking forward to having my first dinner there on Frid... Also just noticed a french manager is on post, seems really nice! :-)
First time for brunch few weeks ago - food was great and arrived fast, and the waiter was nice and accomidating. I though - great new place for a simple Sunday breakfast/brunch. Second time - two weekends ago - the apatic waitress didnt even bother to write down our order, they made a mistake in our order, wait time for at least 45 minutes, and on top of that - when we ordered dessert this also took half an hour (they forgot to process the order) so in the end we gave up. However - food was still great. Third time this morning - 7 tables and 2 waiters, both of whom were unfriendly and not helpful - when asked if I can have salad instead of tost with my eggs (even at additional charge) the response I got that they have already set menu (sounds strange....) and cant change the dish. We didnt bother to stay and left for another location. Too bad the service in Libertine is so bad that good food doesnt ompensate. Won't be back.
Thought I'd update the customer reviews a bit later than everyone else as I just went 2 weeks ago. I was so disappointed as I was really looking forward to finding a great, homely French restaurant with a 'bistro' feel. They didn't provide enough bread with the rillettes and pate, when I asked for some more it took the kitchen 25 minutes to do it (is the bread frozen and needing defrosting?), but they tried to bring us our main courses before the bread had arrived! We asked for them to be taken back, which they did, but we had to wait for another 45 minutes after the starters had been cleared. I wouldn't have minded so much if the restaurant was busy, but we were only 1 out of 3 tables in there. We ended up cancelling our mains as we were so fed up of waiting. There was also a table of French people sat next to us who had the same bread problem, and also sent back the mussells as they were cold and bad.....twice! It's such a shame as some of the food is pretty good (rillettes), but it's very overpriced for the portion size and quality of service. So disappointed!
Went there for dinner last night with my dear. It seems that many people are still coming to enjoy their happy hour. So we arrived around 8 for dinner and they put us on a table in the middle the drinking and yelling crowd. I almost had to yell to speak with my friend. They advertise for their mussels that are actually not available. So we took the rillettes and paté which was not bad (the bread was just so so). Then comes the 'best' part. We waited for one hour before getting our main courses served (steak and sea bass). After complaining the waitress told us that they were quite busy tonight (3 tables dinning...) and finally when decided to cancel the dishes, she came back from the kitchen with our food. Non tasty steak and Mc Donald french fries... We didn't finished and just left after settling the bill. I'm usually not picky about food, but for this price and being French, I really expected more than Mc Donald's French fries....
worst place ever!!! no way the owner just copy PASTIS NEW YORK!!! wtf??? bad service, food take 30 minutes to get out of the kitchen, cockroach in the toilet, anyway, if you want to be sick go there!!!!
such a waste of time as i wait 30 min to get a hot meal, which was overcooked... thought this place gonna close soon as its not working at all, never heard a good comment on this place
We went there on friday night and we had a great experience. Staff were really nice and helpful. We ordered moules and steak and were more than satisfied with the food. We would definitely come back.
Thought the service was rather good in fact. Friendly and attentive staff, and a decent dinner I had with my husband. A nice Goat's Cheese Salad followed by the Sea Bass. Thinking of coming back with my girls for the happy hour offer.
Just had an amazing brunch here. The seafood buffet was one of the better deals I have seen recently at only $180. It gets busy on the weekend but the decoration and the deal makes up for the wait. I love, love, love their Truffled Eggs, how Parisien!
Finally a place in this city that is serving simple bistro food. We had a fantastic home-made Duck Liver Terrine and the Cassoulet de Toulouse - a dish that I can only attempt at home as we can rarely find it anywhere. The Duck Confit was very tender and fell off the bone which was served with some really good crusty country bread, something else that is so hard to find in this town. We washed this down with some reasonably priced red table wine. The service was friendly and genuine which after living in this town can be hard find most of the time. The French Chef, who apparently just arrived from a Paris bistro went out of his way to check in on us who wanted to make sure we were enjoying our food. Our dinner was fantastic and can't wait for the Bourgignon which I've heard is excellent. A beautiful interior.
First time here. A nice and relaxed place for taking friends or even a date. Had the Steak Frites with Bernaise and a carafe of Beujolais which hit the spot. An unpretentious and relaxed atmosphere. A classic venue with a great happy hour deal, best in SOHO from what I hear.
Love the place. Great vibe. One of the best old school martinis I've had in a while. We had an excellent, excellent, Mussels Mariniere and a generous Hangar Steak with Morel Mushrooms. Delicious! Highly recommended for a quality meal in a lovely setting.
Attentive service, exceptional food, lovely venue. Keep it up!
I think the previous five comments are fake reviews put there by the management of the restaurant. They all have the same writing style and are unrealistic compared to the rest of the comments. They read like advertisements. This whole place has been copied and pasted from Pastis, New York. Except that the owner and management obviously have no idea how the industry works, how to train staff or how to provide an enjoyable experience. Nice decor does not a good restaurant make. I have been there a few times (regrettably) and I will concur with the other (real) people here, it is truly terrible. There is not a single French person in the venue. It is actually a Nepalese/Filipino bistro. Ask the staff how long they have been working there, I doubt any have been there for more than one month. Nobody knows anything. The kitchen have no idea what they are doing and don't know what a Western dining experience should entail. We all received our food at random intervals, with no word of explanation as to why we didn't get our food together. Talk about awkward. I hope I don't get dragged here again - I don't want to spur them on. They need to shut down ASAP and get replaced by a restaurant worth its salt.
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