We got an very pleasant surprise at lunchtime in The Waterfront Bar & Rest. today, see below.

This was the very best Indian food we've enjoyed on Lamma in a long time. Everything was so tasty, even the simple dal, all dishes so well-balanced and exploding with a wealth of spices and many flavours, without being too hot.

Even Lamma-Por who's usually not a big fan of Indian or Vegetarian food at all tucked in and grabbed morsels from my $75 Vegetarian set as well as finishing most of her own set. Each huge set looks like a mini Indian buffet, see below. Our compliments to their Indian Master Chef!

For some reason, we've underestimated the Indian food in The Waterfront in the past, usually ordering their Western set meals, or choosing from their wide variety of fine Western dishes, or ordering just 1-2 Indian dishes a la carte. Their good-bargain lunch sets are often something tasty and satisfying but basic, like curry chicken rice with soup or salad, available today as well for $68.

But these new Indian sets are something completely different and way above and beyond in quality and taste of what you'd usually get in Indian places in Wanchai, Causeway Bay or Central for a lot more money.

As these new plates are so big and such great value - see prices on their daily changing blackboard below - we'd recommend to share one Indian set and maybe add a desert like their fantastic chocolate volcano. Or order a set each and have enough takeaway for a big dinner at home, like I did.

We'll return very soon or order from their extensive and comprehensive Takeaway Menu.

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Have to say the fare under the new management is extremely disappointing. I have tried three times - breakfast and lunch. I ordered standard dishes that can be used to compare restaurants. The fried lunchmeat and egg sandwich was totally uninspiring and relatively bland. while eating it, the back legs of my chair buckled and I nearly fell while holding my baby daughter. Fat jokes aside, they seem to have purchased the cheapest thinnest gauge plastic chairs they could find.
Today I ordered dry fried beef noodles - a real Hong Kong standard. I've had this dish hundreds of times all over Hong Kong and this was perhaps the worst I've ever had. I sure hope they pick it up a little bit in future because it would be great to have another reasonable priced local option.

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Thank you for your frank review, Tavis.

You might have noticed that in my little restaurant story above I did NOT talk about the quality of the food at all, but the interesting venue, the rain, the friendly cat....
Better to remain quiet as not to talk badly about somebody or some place, that's my usual motto....

But the word of mouth around the local Chinese community has been pretty devastating so far, not a single thumbs up from the Chinese guests that Lamma-Por has spoken to, even though this new Cha Chaan Teng is the talk of the village right now and many locals were eager to try it right after reopening.

We'll reserve our own judgment till we've had a proper meal there and had a talk with the managers as well. Maybe the usual start-up and staffing problems, but let's give them some time to sort out the food and then give them another chance to get it right.

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Noted LG.
(I don't mind doing the dirty work)
I really tried to be fair - like I said - I have eaten there 3 times now.
If things improve in the future, I'll make a point of re-posting.

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I visited there the first day it opened. I had fish fillet with corn and rice (one of my favourite rice boxes) and it was delicious!

The service was great. And 'Emily' who has taken over the business from her family, sat and had a chat. Lovely lady.

Not sure if it was because it was the first day of operation, but I had a lovely time. Will give an update next time I visit

A little review of Prime's new Sunday Roasts:
Lamma-zine, Sun 21, 2013

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Jing Jing is open for dinner now! No more closing at 5pm, just in time for Diesel's opening on weekdays. Jing Jing will continue to serve their great breakfasts and lunch specials, of course. Open every day, except Tuesdays.

They organised a little free tasting of new chef Marlon's dishes the other night and the feedback seemed to be all-round very positive. They even invited people from some of the other Western-style YSW restaurants, like Prime and Lamma Grill.
As occasional guests of all these establishments, we're looking forward to some friendly competition between these places. We'll try to figure out which one does the best versions of some of our favourite dishes.

One advantage of Jing Jing we could see right away is something I've been missing in most other YSW restaurants:
a full page of dessert selections in their brand-new menu!

Pictures to follow....

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A few pictures of Chef Marlon's new dishes in Jing Jing, now open for dinner except Tue, plus the menu! All pictures by Lovely Sam who titled her Facebook album Food from my restaurant ♥.

Yes, these dishes taste as great as they look like. They've had a food tasting last week and we got to sample most of the dishes. We've already picked our favourites to order next time. A new favourite spot for their full-page Dessert Menu, a rarity in YSW.

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An email addressed to me about the reopened Mr Ma & Restaurant,
from A Lamma Housewife, curious and snorting with indignation like a red flag to a bull. Published here with her permission:

"I would like to ask you and your lovely partner to possibly do a restaurant review and a little detective work on the new(ish) cafe in the middle of YSW where there is now a bunch of ugly red plastic fencing and vast expanse of flat concrete replacing a beautiful Bauhinia tree.

I am so amazed at the sheer drab, ugliness that it is making me unbearably curious as to who had the nerve to set this up and why? They have made absolutely NO attempt to lure customers in, advertise, give themselves a new name, prettify the huge space they are lucky enough to have by having any greenery, or canopies for shade or even using the concrete space out front they have just spent a fortune creating!

Perhaps if you like we could hold a competition to guess its real purpose. I am saying it's a Communist party meeting hall, or a DAB tea room, not open to the public, or a secret service spy room where all the members of the public are monitored on secret CCTV when they walk past. Any other suggestions? They are the PLAIN POLICE. THE ANTI beauty committee, disallowing anything beautiful that enters within (maybe you better not go there with the wife).

I am so sad about the tree and sad that they cut it down without replacing it with anything remotely pretty or green. Such a waste of a potentially useful spot too. It could be a great garden, with flower beds and a lawn in the centre and etc etc .... right now it is a typical example of Lamma shabby/ ugly. Please do, next time you visit, ask them what they intend to do with that space in the centre.

They could hire it out once a month for the handmade market.
Way back in 1989 we had a country fair / pop concert in there with Lamma expats. We were all quite new to the scene and of course the owners were being a bit adventurous allowing us to have a few bands and bric-a-brac and face painting etc in the centre there.

It was great though but it's never happened again. Saskia was the one who organized that I think.
The building was being used by a group of Born Again Christians but they didn't stay very long as I think they relocated to Sok Ku Wan."

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Just some of personal thoughts on some restaurants on YSW.

When I first arrived on Lamma I really liked the Bookworm, Pizza Milano, Spicy Island but found Waterfront to be too inconsistent.

Some years later I've noticed Bookworm has dropped in quality and increased in price, Pizza Milano has the same problem - I thought moving to a bigger location would be a double edged sword and it seem to be the case.

Waterfront has perked up quite a bit and is better on a meal to meal basis.

I enjoy the Beer Garden (just found it which is quite embarrassing to say) although many say it isn't very good but a change in kitchen hands recently may account for their my enjoyment.

Lamma Grill is fantastic and I hope it sticks around. Banyan Bay is a simple but effective joint, good for brekkie.

That's my quick summary done. Food, Beer 'n' footy ahoy tonight at the Beer Garden.

I used to be a local at the old place. Cheap and cheeful and semi outdoors.

I spoke with the new 'manager' Emily, who is the daughter of the original owner. She is lovely and speaks great English. She studied and worked overseas. We had a good chat about her taking over the business.

Why not go in there when it's quiet and ask for 'Emily'.... and maybe you could have a chat with her, about maybe renting the space in front?? Worth a try.

Email from Lamma Grill to their e-mail subscribers:

"30th August 2013
We are really sorry but the fish fryer thermostat isn't working and it's too dangerous to operate without it so we have had to turn it off.

We will get someone in ASAP to sort it out.

Sorry all fish fans!"

This must be the only Lamma restaurant informing their customers about news and specials, even temporary problems, via email. A few do Facebook updates, but that's usually missed in the flood of status updates on one's Wall.

Well done, Lamma Grill, thanks for all your welcome updates on weekend specials and this refreshingly honest update for all of us "fish fans"!
This must be the first time that somebody called me a fish face, err, fish fan in an online communication...

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Interestingly, the message that the fish fryer had been fixed arrived one hour 20 minutes BEFORE the off-message above.

Yes, online communication is both a (marketing) art and a (computer) science....

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A few photos from the other night's amazing sunset viewed from the old jetty besides Prime Bar & Grill, one of the very best sunset watching spots on the YSW seaside.

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Set lunch menus new at Jing Jing, looking like quite a bargain in YSW these days. We also love new cheerful chef Marlon's cooking a lot, and their new extensive menu with hand-pasted photos has an entire page of desserts, a real rarity in all of YSW.

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We've been following up on the many mixed reviews for the Mr Ma & Restaurant cha chan teng above and by word of mouth. It's been reopened just 4 months ago behind the "VV Parking Lot" and the "Property Agency Container". We had lunch there today and our first, very friendly chat with Emily, the new co-manager, introduced by Tigger.

Like me, Emily's studied computer science and business in Europe, so we hit it off right away. An indigenous daughter of one of Lamma's leading families, she grew up here and knows so much about village life & politics... but I'm not telling, staying out of potential trouble...

They've listened to the "improvement suggestions" from their customers and our lunch was actually pretty nice, especially at their very competitive prices, some of the lowest in all of YSW. We ordered simple food from their quite comprehensive, bilingual menu, like Singapore Fried Noodles and egg-corned beef sandwich. It was very tasty, non-greasy and fully satisfying. A new, very experienced chef will start work soon and I hope to do a more comprehensive review with photos soon.

Plus a new blackboard outside Pizza Milano and a whiteboard outside Jing Jing. We've got to try this daily changing dinner set or the below-$100 lunch set above later this week!

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We're becoming major fans of Jing-Jing's new, frequently changing lunch and dinner set menus. This was simply a wonderful, tasty and pretty lunch at a very competitive price the other day.

New chef Marlon is an attentive, smiling and jovial host, listening to customer's feedback, willing to make changes and even add some of our favourite dishes to the constantly evolving and improving menu.

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Oktoberfest on Lamma?! It takes more than German beer for that.
I've got to test the food as well, even though, being Swiss, I'm not an expert on German food. But their offer of a free pint for VIP card holders - easy to get for Lammaites after just one meal there - sounds enticing and refreshing; especially after a thirsty bike ride from one end of the Cable Road in Pak Kok to the other end at the Power Station, then back to Hung Shing Yeh beach.

Submitted by Concerto Inn:

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Is this the only place on Lamma offering traditional Thanksgiving dinners?

Got to try this as I haven't enjoyed this for several years. Stuffed turkey dinners are a very rare and exotic treat for us who've grown up without any Thanksgiving holidays and the associated customs and foods. It's at least as exotic for me as the Mid-Autumn Festival was for me when arriving in HK a quarter of a century ago. Almost as exotic and strange as Halloween.

Well, the more festivals of as many cultures as possible to join in and celebrate, the better!

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I didn't even know Canadians celebrated "Thanksgiving", but apparently they do, but on a different date then the Americans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_%28Canada%29
"Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day (Canadian French: Jour de l'Action de grâce), occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday which celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year."