In Hong Kong, a restaurant’s success is often down to location, location, location. Second Street Comfort Food & Bar in the Island Crest apartment complex in Sai Ying Pun should be successful – there are so many residents there – but when we visited for dinner, only a few tables were occupied.

The interior looks very similar to that of its predecessor, La Viola. As its new name suggests, they serve comfort food and lots of it:portions are large, making this place relatively good value for money. The air conditioning was set to freezing (or so it seemed) but the staff were warm and eager to please.

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The two of us ordered an appetiser and two mains. The food came almost all at once, and we had to ask for one dish to be sent back to the kitchen before it became too cold because of the air conditioning.

The Spanish-style garlic prawns (HK$98) were a delicious start to the meal. Flavoured with chorizo, chilli and home-made spicy bravas sauce, the prawns were cooked nicely and we soaked up the delicious sauce with toasted bread.

Linguine with clams, garlic and parsley (HK$138) wasn’t served with linguine; instead, they used spaghetti that was almost as thin as angel hair pasta. It had a delicate taste and the clams were plump and juicy, but many had sand in them.

When the braised lamb shank (HK$188) came back to our table, it was still slightly warm, but some parts of it were quite dry while others were very moist. It came on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes with chunks of carrot in a delicious gravy.

We were quite full by this point – chef Daimon Corbett came over to see how we were faring. But after a short break we decided to have dessert.