Super Mom Saturdays: the SoHo Expedition

I noticed I am a little behind on the Super Mom Saturdays updates. Sor Sor. Been busy for the past few weekends, so there were a few 'canceled' SMS. Now its back to full swing....

First off, Dorothy, my old high school friend & idol food columist for HK magazine, tipped me off on a new restaurant that opened up in town. The place is an experimental restaurant opened up by the famous furniture shop 'Homeless', an trendy stores that sells a variety of designer furniture. It's not your average IKEA, the place is always stock with the latest gadgets and gizmos for the house that makes people go 'Ohhhh!' or 'Ahhhhh!'. Always a prime location to show around for tourists who wants to see the designer shops around the SoHo area.

Anyways, for a creative shop like this, it would be interesting to see what innovative ideas they could come up for a restaurant. Modestly named 'Basement', it is situated right under the original 'Homeless' store on Gough street, it sits hidden in a very run-down and dirty looking alleyway. Dorothy claims that it has a 'medieval cellar' like dining experience, and has uber SoHo cheap Italian lunch sets starting at $88HKD. The decor inside is honestly as crazy as it sounds, with half of the shop decorated in a wine cellar look...(photos from open rice)
And the other half of the place decorated like an art studio....So the meal started off with bread, salad and soup. Nothing too special here. Bread is nicely homemade and baked. The disappointing thing is that the soup kinda tasted like Campbell Canned veggie soup... I was more intrigued by the utensils and kitchen wares they use, from the odd looking shaped butter spreader to the weiner dog shaped salt and pepper holders (not in photo)I ordered a Grilled Sea bass with pesto sauced Rissottto....
This dish turned out to be AMAZZINNGGG. The risotto dissolves in the mouth in every bite, as it absorbed both the olive oil and the fish oil from the sea bass, giving a fresh Mediterranean taste. The good mix of olive oil and herbs makes the risotto not too dry in texture and also not too oily.

My mom had a cream sauced and mushroom parapadelle, a sort of like a big fatttt fettuccine. It was a little experimental as both of us have no clue what parapadelle is, and it turned out to be big wonton wraps looking noodles ahahaha. Sorry forgot to take photos. But it was equally as awesome as the risotto.

The only disappointing thing about the restaurant was that the proportionals were small. Extremely discouraging given by the looonng hot trek up the hilly district of SoHo. But for the fine quality, service and decor. The place is worth visiting again.......if I want another Supermodel diet....

Another funny thing was that not a SINGLE chair in the restaurant were the same! All imported from their parent designer store upstairs, we were given a choice to sit around odd assortment of stools, benches and chairs, from chess pieced shaped chairs to a bird nest looking ones. A few customers were actually leaving their tables to try out different chairs in the restaurant throughout the meal. Rather amusing and a smart marketing campaign IMO.

So for dessert.....
I guess I was a little too hungry to take a photo aahahhaa. We trekked up to near the top of the SoHo escalators...all the way to the mosque to find this little corner cake store...It's a tiny bakery that has a window stool seat of 3, and is always swamped with a nice buttery aroma steaming from the kitchen. I have been here previously with Kelvin and Moeha to try out their cake selections, most of them were rather average....EXCEPT FOR THIS!Their mouth waterinngggg White Chocolate Cheesecake! Originally discovered by Moeha, its starting to become the cake shop's specialty. In fact, a pair of couples were picking up their order of White Chocolate Birthday Cake when we entered the shop.

The cheesecake itself has a very creamy texture and not hard and dry like other crappy cheesecake you regularly get in cafes. The cake itself is mixed with coco butter giving it a hint of white chocolate in every bite. And the cake selection itself.....sad that only one thing in the whole bakery is good...but the White Chocolate Cheesecake is delicious enough to make me coming back :D

Final Verdict: I guess you get what you pay for, the cheap lunch set will come in small proportions. But the fine taste makes Basement worth the trip up to SoHo if you are looking for some European Food. Vanilla is not even worth asking, you should go NOW for the white choc cheesecake!

Basement: http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=31877
Vanilla: http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=15046