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2013-04-09
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Angelini, the Italian restaurant at Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel last month welcomed world renowned chef Valentino Marcattilii from Ristorante San Domenico, Imola Italy as guest chef. Chef Valentino, co-owner and executive chef of the Michelin two-star Ristorante San Domenico, is best known for a more simplistic and conservative approach on the interpretation of traditional Italian dishes. He has great respect for tradition, simplicity and fresh ingredients which turned out to be his prelude to succ
Chef Valentino, co-owner and executive chef of the Michelin two-star Ristorante San Domenico, is best known for a more simplistic and conservative approach on the interpretation of traditional Italian dishes. He has great respect for tradition, simplicity and fresh ingredients which turned out to be his prelude to success. His apprenticeship at some of the best Michelin-starred restaurants in France including Auberge de l'ιll and Troisgros early in his career, also left a long lasting impression in his cooking.
We arrived right on time at 7pm. Situated on the mezzanine floor of the hotel, Angelini has a decent but unspectacular view of the Victoria Harbour and the Hong Kong Island skyline. The dining room was predominantly beige and red in color tones, providing a warm and modern atmosphere. It reminded me a bit of the Steakhouse from the Intercontinental Hotel.
This marked just our second visit to the restaurant, the first since we had a quick bite here back in 2005 when the restaurant made its debut. That dining experience as I recalled was a disappointing one with very average food and inept service particularly for a hotel restaurant. We were definitely hoping for a much better experience this time around.We started off with a very simple amuse bouche of seared tuna with onion and beans. There was a white bean puree on the side.
This was an amuse bouche that was indicative of Chef Valentino's style - simple preparation of food. I personally like simple but the taste of the tuna slice could have been much much better (2/5).
Not the start we were looking for from a 2-star chef. Perhaps the starters would turn things around.
I had the ginger marinated red shrimps with citrus flavoured extra virgin olive oil which was fairly good. The ginger flavor was minimal and that allowed the naturally rich flavor of the red shrimps to be the dominant force here (3/5).
Another starter was a poached lobster tail with green pea foam and caramelised treviso chicory. I believe it was the lightest-flavored lobster dish I have had for a long long time. The lobster tail had the perfect texture but it desperately needed some sort of seasoning to elevate its sweetness. And unfortunately the green pea foam failed to deliver (3/5).
The seared goose liver escalope with crispy leek and white celery fondue was easily the best starter so far. The goose liver was seared to a perfect golden brown color and it was crispy outside with moist inside. Although seasoning was again minimal, the goose liver probably didn't need that extra push (3.5/5).
For my pasta dish, I took the toasted onion risotto and gravy caramelised with Marsala Wine and sugar cane. The risotto was very rich and honestly a bit heavy but nevertheless delicately delicious (3.5/5).
But the star of the night was Chef Valentino's signative dish - ravioli filled with Egg in “San Domenico” Style with sweetened Parmigiano truffle and nut butter. The taste of the ravioli was a little complex after having egg yolk, white truffles, mozzarella cheese, spinach and mushroom all stuffed under a single piece of ravioli. It was a little heavy but it was way too good for us not to finish it all (4.5/5).
Main course was a tough choice between fish and beef. First up was my dover sole fillet with artichoke in mint flavoured white wine sauce. In all honesty, I have never liked dover sole fish to begin with so it would really take a lot here to impress me.The dover sole fillet was curled during the preparation and it resulted in an extra strong and spongy texture. But other than the texture, there's nothing special to write home about (2.5/5).
Moving forward to our last main course - veal medallion with black pepper sauce, raisin and asparagus. We really had high expectation for this dish but were left stunned. I personally blamed it on the veal itself. It simply didn't have the delicate and flavorful taste that it was known to possess. The sauce also failed miserably to make up for the lack of flavors (2/5).
We didn't order any dessert after a rather heavy four-course dinner. So after a petite four, we called it the night.
With Chef Valentino's credentials, we set the bars fairly high but came up a bit empty. It did not meet our lofty expectations at all. I thought the staff provided by Angelini and not trained by Chef Valentino's crew, could also use a little more training to brush up their skills.Post
