Kinsale

Weekend brunch by the water. Relaxing ambient, live music, chic crowd, good food with big portion.

Food was alright… Definitely sounded better than it tasted. Portions were way too small for the price. Quite an unsatisfying meal.
Our waiter seemed to have a poor understanding of the menu, and when we asked her for a recommendation she couldn’t really tell us anything.
The two things I liked about this place was he décor and the live unplugged band that was playing in the corner. But those things wouldn’t even matter if your food is mediocre to begin with.
This was my first experience dining in the ktown district and I’m sad to say that it didn’t live up to my expectations. I’ve heard that great things are happening but it’s definitely not happening here. They’re famous for their ANGUS BEEF BURGER. I wasn’t feeling like it today, but I’m not sure if I’ll come back to try it.

Ventured into Kennedy town with the girls to try Kinsale. The venue is great. Floor to ceiling windows, open atmosphere with a modern feel. Unfortunately, the rest was lacking.
The staff, although friendly, we’re not put together. I asked for table water and they served everyone in the group but me. The table was also quite wobbly, and we asked them to fix it — they took out the broken piece to explain why and then expected us to be okay with a wobbly table.
Onto the food, the starters were okay. We had the tuna, crab cakes and risotto balls. The mains, however were a big disappointment. We all went for the corn-​fed roast chicken. The chicken was tasteless (I had to add salt, which I never do) and the veggies, unfortunately, were undercooked and tasted like they’d come out of a freezer bag.
The saving grace, were the Bellinis; but that’s not saying much as you can get s good Bellini in most places. Sorry Kinsale, not sure I’ll be back.

You can tell that the owners have gone all out with the décor in the restaurant, it is very nice, airy and modern — it has got a lovely feel to it as you walk in the door. It is a pity though they didn’t also decide to spent money in the kitchen … the food is not that good.
We had crab cakes and tomato/​mozzarella salad to start — the crab cakes needed seasoning and the tomato’s were tasteless. For main we had the fish and chips and the fish pie, neither of which were much chop– we asked for a side of green beans but the waiter informed us that they had run out of beans at lunch. Huh? — couldn’t they have gone down the road and bought some more? At 55 a dish you would expect them to make sure they have adequate supply. Over all the food was poor.
The service, well we had some issues there as well, but giving credit where credit is due, the front of house/​manageress stepped up to the plate and fixed the problems we were having.
The Verdict, will we go back? (Yes, No, Maybe) — No.

Weekend Brunch
Environment: By the water, clean and open, live music
Parking: Street
Food: The Sunday brunch was all tasty with good menu to choose and select from.
Service: Attentive

Didn’t eat here. Came here after a really rough previous night, looking for a place to chill and nurse my hangover. So we just ordered several rounds of drinks instead.
The drinks were ok albeit taking a while to arrive (my friend’s beer took 15 mins), and the atmosphere was really nice, seaside, nicely spaced seats, and a lively airy environment all around. But maaaan the waitresses just took an entire star away from what I was about to give. They did not seem to understand English, or maybe they didn’t know the names of the drinks on the menu
«Bloody Bacon please»
«a whaat?»
«a Bloody Bacon»
«huh»
‘here, it’s on your menu, the bloody mary with bacon vodka”
«oh, k.»
On top of that, they seem pissed whenever me or my friends tried to order something. As if they were napping and I just woke them up. Yes, we were hungover but we weren’t obnoxious or messing up the place. And as a disclaimer, we were ok when she didn’t know what we were ordering, nor did we give them any pressure to speed the service up. Were these people not getting paid or something?
Three stars go to the bloody bacon, the décor and the location. The servers manage to take a sunny Sunday and sap it of its enthusiasm. Skills.

Great location great décor, this can be the best brunch spot in K Town but the food fails to deliver. The bubbles and squeak is a cold messy piece of potato, and the truffled scrambled eggs is overcooked and lacks the truffle flavour it promised (Hey just a drizzle of truffle oil would do?) For it prices, there are better weekend brunch options in K Town and SYP!

Been there once for weekend brunch with my other half. We ordered crab cakes, a «sweetcorn fritter» and a fisherman’s pie.
(1) The crab cakes (HKD98) were well executed — they had a nicely crisped breadcrumb exterior, with a generous amount of crab meat inside; nice herby tomato salsa on the side as well.
(2) Contrastingly, the «sweetcorn fritter» (HKD118) was soggy on the outside (and it wasn’t even deep-​fried!) and doughy on the inside, on top of the fact that there was very little corn; nice poached eggs and cured salmon on the side though.
(3) The fisherman’s pie (HKD198), despite being one of their signature items, was the most disappointing dish of all. The top layer of mashed potatoes didn’t have that golden and crisped-​up look which a properly baked-​then-​broiled pie ought to have. As for the roux underneath, it was underseasoned and watery. Based on what we were served, this is definitely not a dish I would recommend.
We also ordered two of their «signature weekend cocktails» (HKD68 per), both of which tasted curiously non-​alcoholic; and one of them even had a considerable amount of lemon (?) pulp sitting at the bottom of the glass. Definitely not one of the better cocktails I’ve tasted.
Service was also (alarmingly) sub-​par. My other half had specifically arranged his cutlery on a plate to indicate that it was an unfinished dish, but the waitress collected it anyway — almost slamming the plate in his face — and told us off for taking back a fork from the plate when she was collecting it, her exact words being «You don’t need to grab it! I will give you a new one!»
Not a pleasant dining experience.