Read full review
2013-03-24
26 views
Dining at AVA is an exquisite experience - from the moment you walk through the carpeted pathway at the front door towards the elevator, overlooking the extraoridinary Victoria Harbour through the elevator window, dining at a sleek designed room with exquisite cuisine, you will be impressed.The restaurant has a contemporary and extravagance design with electronic music playing at the background. The ambience is romantic with dim yellow lighting and candle lights on the table, which is best for a
The restaurant has a contemporary and extravagance design with electronic music playing at the background. The ambience is romantic with dim yellow lighting and candle lights on the table, which is best for an intimate dining for two. Just imagine seating by the window with your beloved, sipping a glass of champagne while overlooking the magnificent view of the Victoria Harbour? That sounds heaven on earth right?Approaching spring, AVA Head Chef Massimo Santovito, also the executive chef of Il Bel Paese, a talented Italian chef, designed a refreshing and interesting spring menu for AVA. With his knowledgable background and excellent culinary skills, Chef Massimo uses edible flowers (Mainly Muguet, Coquelicot, Vioelette and Lavender) as the main ingredient to introduce a taste of Spring, bringing both a refreshing sensation and vibrant colours onto the table. The prix fixe menu includes 4 courses which is available throughout March at HKD$468 per person.
Ava-tini
I started off the dinner with AVA's signiture drink, Ava-tini (HKD$ 118). It is a cocktail with Absolute mandarin, Belvedere raspberry and Malibu, shaken with orange juice, cranberry juice and stirred chilled with nitrogen gas. The presentation was amusing with the smoke flowing out from the drink. Although it did not taste like traditional martini as it is not Gin based, the taste was good. It was not crazily sweet even though it is made up of sweet liquor and juices.
The Duo CrabBefore the Spring menu, we ordered an additonal signature dish from AVA from the a la carte menu - The Duo Crab. The presentation was beautiful. Sitting in the middle of the light reflecting, glossy and tear-shaped ice cube, was the famous crab cake in three layers - The Alsaka Crab at the top, avocado and fruit salad in the middle and Maryland blue crab at the bottom. The Alsaka crab was meaty, fresh and nice while the Maryland blue crab was sweet and creamy. The avocado and fruits paired well with the crabs, bringing extra taste to the dish. The overall taste was very refreshing, and was a good appetiser to whet our appetite.
Spring Menu - Duo of Zucchini Flower and CrabThe Spring menu started off with Duo of Zucchini Flower and Crab, a dish of zucchini flower tempura with blue crab stuffing served with lavender honey sauce at the side. I never tried zucchini flower before but the stem. Zucchini flower has a stronger touch of crunchiness and also sweeter than the normal zucchini stem. The lavender honey sauce was a bomb with the right sweetness and very floral. I wish I could have the sauce every morning to go with my toast.
Spring Menu - Celeriac and Thyme Cream SoupNext is the Celeriac and Thyme cream Soup with a delicate violette floating on top. What's special about this soup is the use of celeriac which is basically the root of celery. Celeriac has a more refine and delicate taste than celery and went really well with this creamy and smooth thyme soup. Celeriac isn't available in Hong Kong, so he has to source the celeriac from Italy/ France (I can't remember where exactly, sorry.)
Spring Menu - Beef TortelliniFor main we had the Tortellini and the Charred Halibut. The Tortellini dish's presentation was appearling. The tortellini was shaped like a petal with colourful editable flowers on top. The tortellini was a bit too hard for me, probably because the inner pancetta and beef cheek were sauceless as well. In between the tortellini lined the Wagyu Beef Cheek which was awesomely tender and flavourful. The burnt coconut was also heavenly tasted with a caramelised crispy outside and aromatic cononut taste.
Spring Menu - Charred HalibutI also loved the Charred Halibut. Although not as appealing as the Beef Tortellini, the charred aroma kills! The skin of the halibut was SO crispy and the meat was succulent and smooth! The insanely sweet tomato was roasted to give a lightly crispy skin. Another nice dish to get.
AVABefore dessert I ordered another signature drink called AVA - a champagne prepared with crushed ice with slices of strawberries and fresh mint leaves. The drink was refreshing and was a nice drink to freshen up the palette after the main.
Spring Menu - Lavender Ricotta CheesecakeLast course of the Spring Menu was this beautiful Lavender Ricotta Cheesecake with drops of lavender and raspberry jelly across the plate. The cheesecake was delicate and light with the ricotta cheese but full of lavender flavour. I absolutely loved it! It is one of the best cheesecake that I have ever had in my life!
Signature Raspberry & Rose Ice-cream Finishing the night, we had another signature dish from AVA - the Liquid Nitrogen Rose Petal Ice-cream. The whole experience was fun - First he mixed the milk, cream, vanilla pot, rose water and sugar together into a batter. He then poured liquid nitrogen at 160C into the mixture from time to time until the ice-cream reached a consistency that he likes. Next, the chef quickly mixed some fruits into the ice-cream and moved the ice-cream over to a shortbread tart. For garnishing purpose, the chef pour liquid nitrogen over a rose. The rose then became brittle, so he could snap and crushed the brittle petals onto the ice-cream for final garnishment. Amazing presentation and what's most important is that the ice-cream was creamy to the max!
Concluding the Spring MenuThe Spring Menu was very refreshing and shone with vibrant colours with all the beautiful flowers on each and every single dish. The culinary team takes note of the tiniest details and sourced topnotch ingredients across Europe. Each dish was meticulously prepared, and tasted great. But if I have to chose the best of the night, I will definitely pick the celeriac and thyme soup.
The night was enjoyable with the spectacular view of the Victoria Harbour but more importantly the warm welcome of Chef Massimo. During one conversation with him, we discussed about how little ice-cream choices and boring the flavours are in Hong Kong. He told me he had already decided to make fig ice-cream as dessert for next month. That's sounds really good and I can't wait to try! When I went back home and did a bit of background research on Chef Massimo, I found he had previously co-operated with i-Scream director Paolo Predonzan for a 7 courses ice-cream meal. How unfortunate that I have not met Massimo back then, if not I will definitely go and support him.
Other Info. :
Side Topic: When the chef explained how the ice-cream should be made, he also mentioned overdosing the liquid nitrogen could make the texture of the ice-cream very chewy. You know I have always wondered why the ice-cream at Lab Made, Tai Hang was so chewy in a bad way. Now everything was explained.
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
Post
