La Vache! (Admiralty) — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

First the good. The steak is ok. Not too fat a cut but has been salted before cooking. For true steak enthusiast that's a no no. However, the steak wasn't too toughened by it. The cooking is spot on for the doneness requested and cut is fresh and tender enough.

Service is laissez-faire. Works for the ambiance. Just enough and not intrusive. The whole experience is the ambiance. For a little moment you would feel you are in a Bistro somewhere in Europe. Just for a little. Maybe a few drinks would help prolong.

Now the bad. Plates are glossy and white. That means fingerprints and anything nasty shows up like a sore thumb. They either prepped the salads onto plates first and refrigerated it or the plates were chilled. That highlights the fingerprints even more from condensation. Also, the plates reflect the spotlights overhead into your eyes which could be distracting. They should just go with non glossy plates.

Fries are way too salty. They either brined or salted the fries before deep frying to make them crispier. That made them already too salty and lose the potatoes own fragrant taste. Then they salted the fries after deep frying before serving. It was close to bitter salty. McDonald's fries are much better. They did give us 1 free dessert after for this and did provide us with unsalted fries right away. But the unsalted fries are a bit on the salty side. I think a light Prosecco would save the day here.

Both our steaks had an odd end piece from a donor steak. Probably to make up for the weight since our cut might be ends. They have no other use from odd end cuts or trimmings since it's an one item menu. That's a big no no. Especially when it's an one item menu they'll need to be exceptional at execution. The price isn't cheap either for what you get. Maybe it's the rent. The donor was over cooked and left out too long turning colour already. It looked like it was from someone else's unfinished food scrap. Steaks are also on the salty side.

Salad could be plated better on a larger plate. Hard to eat with fork and knife which is required to cut down or fold to bite size. I prefer dressing on the side and eat with fingers.

Steak on metal plate over tea candle although a nice gimmick rendered a bad result. The steak directly above the candle would ooze meat juices that curdle under the heat. The heat doesn't keep the steak warm one bit besides that 1 inch diameter section above it. Which is a good thing since you don't want your steak to keep cooking and drying out.

I was looking forward to enjoying a great steak meal from reading all the positive reviews. It was definitely a letdown. Nothing that couldn't be fixed easily but just too many issues all together.

If you're in the area and want steak...

First, I'm not a fan of corporate restaurant chains in HK and their 'concept dining' nonsense created by marketing teams who know as much about cuisine and restaurant management as the accountants that keep them on a tight leash. Fortunately for them a lot of diners in HK know even less and are too drunk or preoccupied with their social media accounts to care.

The decor in La Vache is tasteful (as it should be given it's in Pacific Place) suggesting a European bistro concept. But the music is old pop songs from the 60s and 70s played at an excessive volume. The waiting staff have uniforms that resemble Victorian chambermaids and that really denigrate the staff. Consequently any theme is totally lost. Maybe the design team were feeling schizophrenic when they put this together or they just didn't care.

There's no menu, it's printed on the table placemats but don't worry because the only things you can order are steak and chips anyway. The drinks menu is limited. I saw Stella as the only beer and the mocktails were really sweet.

Our salad was unremarkable and tasted like it had been sitting since first thing that morning. It was also drowned in dressing and surprisingly walnuts since the sever had not enquired about any food or nut allergies. We both ordered steak that was medium rare but when it arrived was very rare (seared on the outside very lightly but otherwise raw). They must have known this since the steak is sliced before being served.

We declined desserts as we watched the poor waitress try desperately to navigate the dessert trolley past unhelpful guests who refused to move their chairs. Tables for two guests have been squeezed into what should be a service corridor with larger tables on either side. Clearly as an after-thought to maximize seating by the management which is what you'd expect from Black Sheep, Pirata and those other clown shows. The staff were without exception friendly, professional and pleasant to deal with while they struggled with the high diner-to-waiting staff ratios.

Overall, very underwhelming. Go to one of the owner-operator, family run steak houses dotted around HK instead of here. You'll get better food at cheaper prices without the loud, tasteless music and other drawbacks of La Vache...

I was curious about the name of the restaurant “La Vache” what it means in English so I googled it. Interestingly, “La vache” is a French expression that translates literally to “the cow” but it used informally to express surprise, admiration, or disappointment, similar to Holy Cow”or “Damn!” This really sums up our feeling and comments on the Restaurant….DISAPPOINTMENT! We did not expect a French restaurant of this kind of ambience, service and food quality. First of all, the seating is extremely tight and uncomfortable. We are not heavy people and just wonder how heavy people can get around to sit in!! The music is extremely loud. When asked the waiter to adjust and tune down the music, he wasn’t too friendly or helpful and refused to do so right off the bat. People tends to raise their voice in a noisy environment and the restaurant is getting so noisy like a market place. We had to shout at each other at our table. It sounds like we are having a fight. We could not even hear the food server when he was taking the food orders. We ordered 4 rib eye steak dinners, one was rare and three were medium rare. But we found no difference in rare or medium rare. The meat was tough. We were stuffed with French fries. The fries quality is no difference than the MacDonald’s fries. No wonder they are unlimited supplied. It is completely sprinkled heavily with salt. We could not stop drinking water during the entire meal. The service is lousy. The food servers mainly walk around to serve more fries than anything else. When requested to speak to the restaurant manager to address our concerns, the food server did not send the manager to our table. No explanation provided. We did not expect a so called “French restaurant” of this quality of service, ambience and food quality. Price does not match our experience. Extremely...