Mustard Bar & Grill is a new addition to Tai Hang’s food scene, opened by chef-turned-restaurateur Kong Wai Sing, who also owns nearby Tipsy Restaurant & Bar. It’s located on the third floor of Golden Wheel Plaza in the space that used to occupy Italian eatery Etna. The main dining room is dark and sleek, and there’s outdoor seating on both sides of the restaurant (dogs are welcome outside).
As its name describes, Mustard is a neighbourhood bar and grill, and it has both American and Australian influences. Chef Kong spent time working at former American hotspot Lily & Bloom in Hong Kong as well as at various venues under Melbourne Pub Group in Australia. Essentially, the eatery is aiming for comfort food with some sophisticated twists.
We started with the grilled romaine lettuce ($108) with a mustard-bacon dressing, pine nuts and croutons. This is surprisingly good. The dressing is a hit – there’s a great balance of salt, fat and acid, and the texture of each element is just right.
Another good starter is the swimmer crab cake ($188), served with red pepper chutney and sriracha mayo. This is on the pricier side but comes loaded with fresh crab, giving it a soft exterior and very meaty texture.
The grilled octopus ($198) comes with pickled beetroot, confit potatoes, crispy lotus root and paprika mayo. This one is more inventive and recommended for diners who like to try new flavour combinations.
While all the starters were good, my favourite was the pancetta-wrapped scallops ($198), which were fresh, large and seared to the perfect “just cooked” texture. They come with a lovely sweetcorn purée and are dressed with tarragon oil.
For the mains, we shared a US rib-eye ($468/400g), Australian Wagyu M6 sirloin ($488/400g) and Australian lamb rack ($328). Perhaps this is where the chef’s experience shines, with Mustard offering quality cuts of meat at fair prices. There are three sauces available for the steaks (mushroom cream, red-wine-shallot, honey-soy), as well as mint jelly for the lamb, though the meats don’t need them.
I highly recommend the homemade fat chips with aioli ($88; not pictured). They are pricey but good – they came out piping hot and crisp.
One dish that didn’t work for us was the Spanish red prawn pasta ($398). The flavour is a bit one-dimensional, the pasta was too soft and the prawns seem of high quality but are small in portion. For the price, we expected more.
For dessert, we tried the apple crumble pie ($98; not pictured), vanilla panna cotta ($98; not pictured) and baked truffle Alaska ($128). Unfortunately, the desserts weren’t to our taste, with the apple crumble and baked Alaska both tasting oddly salty and the panna cotta being too jelly-like in texture. However, we visited when the restaurant had just opened, so our concerns could just be teething issues.
Verdict
While Mustard might have a lot of competition in its category, the starters and meats are well executed and will likely satisfy discerning diners looking for a good comfort-food meal. Some dishes could use refining, but again, it’s still early days for the restaurant. Those working in the Tai Hang area might want to check out Mustard’s lunch sets (from $138 for 2 courses).
3/F, Golden Wheel Plaza, 68 Electric Road, Tin Hau, 3462 2700
This write-up is based on a complimentary media tasting provided in exchange for an honest review and no monetary compensation. The opinions expressed here represent the author’s.
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