The French Window  

The Window View is awful, the lights in the back made the windows go white. (Glare)
Eight of us, came for dinner, on a wednesday night.
They were more than half empty. So the seafood bar was scrubing the floor loudly.
My sparkling water was too blend, so i add a quarter tea spoon of salt, in a full glass.
'Quin' the waiter forgot my starter
Then the kitchen turned my proached egg in cooked egg.
The birthday couple shared a steak tartar and the bread that came with it, had cling film on it.
The rack of lamb was unreasonably tough, the other one didn't let the meat rest long enough, so when it was sliced. Blood pour out and the whole plate was red.
The vegetables were overcooked, the potato is v.dry and tasteless.
I'm not a fish person, but the fish was so-so.
The desert menu is not heavy, it is medium to light, I prefer it to be light to fluffy, fitting for our Miss Birthday Lady.
The desert is not avant garde, simply french.

Hong Kong's Fine Dining is cheapest in the world!!!

I had been in this restaurant when it first opened some years ago when Michael Le Calvet was in the kitchen and I was very happy with both the food and the service, and it has always been the same with the other visits after that.
I decided with excitement, to visit the new version so I went for lunch.
I had 3 courses set lunch with the prawn Waldorf salad, the braised pork flank and the crème caramel, one glass of red wine cabernet franc from Henry Bourgeois 2010, and one bottle of Badoit.
First, the looks is more like a large cantine with super high ceiling, it does not have the grand feeling one could expect from a French Brasserie, it needs partitions, and plants, and the left over from previous concept does not match with the new one.
The service: the first impression is good, as the young waitress was really good finding me a table (I did not booked).
Then came in the taking of the order (by another waitress), like a robot, just taking order, no information on the dish, no recommendation, no asking if I wanted a glass of wine, or something else, pretty empty type of service.
The service of wine is simply horrible, how in a place like that, the glass of wine, served in a seriously cheap wine glass made itself of glass, can be brought to the table without a tray, held by the body of the glass, without letting the guess knowing what is in the glass and neither have the opportunity to taste it. At $85 / glass it’s ridiculous!
When one person order mineral water, that person being alone, should be proposed a smaller size rather that always trying to squeeze the wallet of the customer as much as possible with a whooping $70 +10% bottle of water that cost less than $15!!!
The use of table cloth is great and beautiful, the French Maitre’D, the full team of waiters and waitresses, but the crumbles are not even removed after the main course? What’s the point all the cinema if it’s not fully done?
The Food: for the price, it is pretty unimpressive, salad full of water, with dressing only lazily drizzled on top, (I guess too hard to dry the leave and toss the salad, the chef maybe too busy making coffee for himself behind the bar, pork flank I guess was supposed to have a crispy skin rather then chewy sticky but, maybe I’m wrong. The side salad with this dish had surely stayed a long time in the fridge, because the ugly shredded carrot on top were so dried they shrank. And of course forget about the salad being tossed with the dressing…to hard…too busy. As for the crème caramel, it’s like a cantine at school, dry (most probably because of the use of custard powder, plus over cooked in a oven too hot), without any of usually running caramel that comes with normal crème caramel.
Overall, a very poor and expensive experience…at more $500 this is NOT worth it.
The place was full however, so I guess others are not as picky as me or, they had choice, after all it’s lunch in IFC!!

It's been a year or so since my last visit to The French Window ... it was a very different dining experience this round. Taking a day off and accompanying my good friend from Singapore, I picked this place with gorgeous harbourview for a decent lunch together. There are black and white framed pix which has made thr place more stylish yet with touch of Paris. Maybe they are focusing on vivid cocktails too ; the long bar with high ceiling turns the restaurant into a chic setting with tasteful reflection. As I heard that the restaurant has been under renovation earlier ... we headed there with certain expectation for an original yet relaxing French meal.

It turned out to be very satisfying ... too bad my phone camera hasn't been working lately but I must give a thumb up to their lamb rack!! The aroma was really enticing once the server opened that le crueset pot ... Just in love with that sophisticated taste! The lamb texture was very tender and juicy and it has just reached that point between raw and done. Its aroma was with some grassy refreshing smell which made the lamb extraordinary. It even attracted my friend to give it a try even though lamb is not her cup of tea. The dish itself was colourful with the colourful radish and greens. My friend has ordered duck confit!! I would say the potatoes have impressed us the most since they were having characters in the taste. The Essenes of the duck confit went well with the potatoes and made them extra yummy. Certainly, the duck confit was at their quality but in fact it was in a quite large portion as lunch. Since there were just 2 of us for lunch, we decided to come back another time for their mussels and seafood platter!! This new French Window is def a fab place for party with the shared portion!! The server also mentioned about their bottomless champagne Sundy Brunch ... makes me kinda look forward to schedule for it given the high quality of food and service. I guess it might be a good pick for Dec's gathering peak month!

A good meal ended with nice desserts and it didn't disappoint us. Our pick was the Apple Tart! It was very crispy and the apple flavour was not overhelmed... Very refreshing and nice to be accompanied with ice cream. The almond was a perfect match to it too. It made the whole dessert more surprising as it balanced the sweetsour taste from the apple. U know what - just felt like cloud nine indeed.

I've been here twice for dinner and twice for lunch. 1st time dinner was when it first opened. had their tasting menu. the food was good but not on the level of the likes of amber/pierre. portions were decent. 2nd dinner ordered a la carte and the main I ordered (the pigeon) was exquisite but portion a bit small for a la carte. I was very happy however given there were a couple of months between the 2 dinners, I had expected some new dishes but seemed their signature dishes were the same. I decided not to go back for dinner after a long time as the menu didn't change much.

Lunch originally seemed like a good deal. Choose any 2 or 3 course from the lunch a la carte menu for around $360. 1st lunch I had wine and bread so it was decent. 2nd time back, I didn't have wine and maybe because what I ordered I was left feeling hungry still. My lunch mates on both occasions complained lack of food.

To elaborate on the small portion, the main course was smaller than most appetizers at most restaurants. It was quite appalling. Service was OK but not up to standard for a high end restaurant.

Haven't been back since. But it's Ok to try once or twice.

As part of our recruitment efforts, I took the summer associate there for lunch. The summer was clearly very impressed.

Set lunch is HK$360 per person, pretty reasonable compared to similar french restaurants. The decor was very nice and the view was very open. Overall, the impact value of this place was high and the food was great.

The splendid interior design is a must-go reason to take your girl to, it melts every girl's heart. My friend and I went for the 3-course lunch. The food is average and the portion is really petite. I know the French is not known as serving portion as large as the Americans, but clearly I'm only half-fed after the lunch. Coffee or tea is served for no cost, though not mentioned on the menu. I had lemon meringue as dessert and it's the only surprise that I could recall.
N.B. The receiptionist hasan urgent need to learn about courtesy. She should never address a client by their full name. It's a shame that she doesn't know that as she works for one of the hippest restaurants in Hong Kong.

It seemed befitting that a pre-Sex & the City 2 dinner should be the kind the Carrie and Mr. Big are used to. So reservations at The French Window were made.
It was my first time, and the transformation from Lumiere, a noisier place blending Sichuan and Brazilian drinks and food, to The French Window, a much quieter ambience but still with great views of the harbor, was pretty impressive. And traversing the long, dark corridor to get in lent some sense of arrival, since the restaurant is in a mall, albeit a fancy upmarket one.
Service was trained, friendly but not impeccable. The switch from Cantonese to English and back was a little odd. Perhaps it was us, since our table spoke both interchangeably. And sometimes, the interruption of table conversation wasn't all too smooth.

The bread basket or glass in this case was an impressive start. We tried virtually every single variety and liked to loved all of them. The cheese/onion twist and wheat baguettes were both particularly impressive.

Of our amuse bouche trio, we liked the mushroom cappuccino best. Not overly creamy, with a aromatic fragrance of the mushrooms coming through clearly but not pungently so. We sipped every last bit from the tiny glass. The other 2 - salmon terrine and liver mouse crostini were passable but ordinary.

The pan-seared foie gras with rhubarb and carrot confit, xeres sauce was delicious. Well seared to a crisp on the outside to seal the creaminess within. While the sauce was good, I didn't think the rhubarb and carrot combo worked. One was way too tart, and the other was a little too blah to lend itself to anything. The innovation didn't work for me and they would have done well to stick to something safer like apricots to do the piece of liver justice.

The seasonal fish, Bouillabaise style was a nice variety of snapper, sea bream, seared scallop and shrimp with potatoes and carrots. The fish stew (not poured in picture yet) was full of sea-goodness although not amazing - I've had better. Snapper was very well done although the same could not be said for the sea bream, which was a little overcooked and fishy. Overall, not bad if eaten with the stew but the seafood on its own could have been fresher. Especially with my recent experience at Gattopardo (http://edeats.blogspot.com/2010/05/singapore-gattopardo.html), the Bouillabaise here definitely paled in comparison.

The other main course which I tried was the M9 Wagyu tenderloin, stuffed tomatoes, ratatouille, vinegar sauce was again, good but not great. The cut of beef was not well marbled and the separation of beef and fat was too obvious, making some parts tough and others too greasy. A little disappointing especially for the price. A similarly priced dish at Steik World Meats (http://edeats.blogspot.com/2010/04/hong-kong-steik-world-meats.html) got me a much better cut and taste. The accompanying stuffed tomatoes with ratatouille in vinegar sauce was also too blah.
Overall, a decent enough ambience to take business partners or dates, but it won't be a place I'd be rushing back to soon. For the price, there are better food options. Even the same Miramar Group's Whisk (http://edeats.blogspot.com/2010/03/hong-kong-whisk.html) at the Mira Hotel, I thought, was way better value and taste. We weren't inspired enough to have dessert but if the petit fours were anything to go by, we may not have missed much.
For the original post, visit edeats.blogspot.com

not worth it.

I was pretty disappointed having paid a lot of money for what was over-all a very boring meal. The deserts were great but the rest of the meals failed to impress. The service was ok, but nothing exceptional and not much better than restaurants 1/4 of the price. Fantastic location and great fit out, but as for food... yawn

Mommy asked me to pick a restaurant to celebrate and since I got a birthday coupon from AMEX, French Window has become an obvious choice to have a relaxed while refreshing meal.

Didn't note down the special easter menu but there were 1 to 3 choices for each of the 4 courses. We ordered:

Bell pepper sorbet served with baby carrot and zucchini

The sorbet is refreshing and doesn't have any grassy flavour. It is lightly sweetened and goes well with the diced zucchini and baby carrot. Totally prepared your taste buds for coming dishes

Poached organic eggs with asparagus

The egg is the showcase of the chef's skill. It is cooked to perfection and you would still see the yolky heart. The asparagus is a nice balance to the egg and lighten the fulling feeling brought by the egg

Cream of mushroom soup

The cream is smooth and with a strong mily flavour. I do find it a little bit too strong though different types of mushroom, especially the porcini gives the soup a special twist.

Waygu beef cheek

The beef is glazed with a special type of teriyaki sauce. Unlike the regular teriyaki sauce, it has a caramelized taste and is very delicious. Beef is of a high quality type and very tender, even it's fully cooked.

Sea bass risotto

Tender fish and the risotto is well cooked. Not too mushy or raw. The mozzarella cheese has a great smell and your nose has been eating before you dig in.

Strawberry tart

Custard of the tart is smooth and fluffy. Many cake shops make their custard too sweet and hard. The crush is eggy and crunchy, very well prepared.

Chocolate senation

Basically, it's chocolate mousse wrapped by chocolate crisp. It's one of the best chocolate mousse I've ever tried in Hong Kong, and it's better than many 5-star hotel's restaurants.

Service is good but definitely have rooms to improve. Compared to the french restaurant I visited in Montreal or Paris, it is just a tit below par.

A hiccup of the meal is that the first risotto served to us has a hair. The waiter was very professional, sincerely apologized and replaced it for my mom.

FYI, with the coupon, each of us have a class of free wine and a dessert chosen by you. Both my mom and I picked the chocolate sensation. You may want to adjust the expected spending.

The wife was running a little late so I settled down at the table with a not-quite-chilled-enough vodka martini. A waiter offered me a couple of magazines to read while I waited, which I thought was a nice touch. Having already scoped out the menu online, we decided on the degustation tasting menu (HK$800) – and I opted for the wine pairing too (for an additional HK$600). Another nice touch was that our waiter offered to split the wine pairing in two (i.e. give us both small glasses with each course). Fortunately the wife is breast feeding so I got to keep them all to myself!

First thing to arrive was an amuse bouche consisting of a cherry tomato with a somewhat ordinary aubergine puree, a clichéd shot of pumpkin soup that would have benefited from a lot more seasoning, and a quite tasty (though tiny) amount of foie gras sandwiched between crispy melba toast. Now, my understanding of an amuse bouche is that it’s supposed to excite and awaken the taste buds for the feast to come - these looked stunning but failed to deliver on flavour. Frankly, at this point I didn’t have high hopes for the rest of the meal. However, I’m very pleased to report that things got significantly better from here!

The first real course of meal was the Blue fin tuna tartar. It was exactly as it should be – simple, clean-tasting, and super fresh. It was matched with a fine crisp Sauvignon Blanc that had a fantastic ‘appley’ finish. Next up was a seared scallop on green cabbage with black truffle sauce. Sweet scallop with earthy truffle was a perfect combination. I wish there had been more. This was matched with a decent sweet Riesling – although I’d have preferred dry wine with the sweetness of the scallop. It’s worth noting that the courses were served at a fair clip – despite the fact that the restaurant wasn’t very busy. Perhaps a little slower would have been better. The last of the entrees was polenta with cep mushrooms and parsley butter. This was insanely rich but absolutely yummy and the wine pairing (a pinot noir bursting with berries) was by far the best of the night. On to the main course of Wagyu beef cheek with carrot confit. Meltingly soft meat with sweet, sweet carrots – it was absolutely scrumptious. The Bordeaux that came with it was big and bold – another solid match.

Next up: dessert. Now I’m not a big pudding fan so I was rather chuffed that I was able to swap mine for cheese. My wife enjoyed the selection of elegant little sweets while I tucked into a choice of three great cheeses with buttered toast. The dessert wine didn’t really work for me though – perhaps if I’d stuck to the original menu it would have been a better match. We finished up with coffee and Petites fours – a lovely way to round off the meal.

The verdict: the food, on the whole, was very good – tasty and visually stunning. Portions are small but there was, without doubt, sufficient volume (we both left the restaurant full but not bursting). The service was truly outstanding – the best I’ve had in Hong Kong. Value for money? That’s relative, I guess. The bill weighed in at an eye-watering HK$2676 for two with only one person drinking! Would I go back? For a special occasion, I think I probably would. I need to let my wallet recover a bit first though.

I must say 'French Window' offers excellent service with the perfect dose of attention. The decoration is, however a bit too elegant and proper [with high ceiling] . . . ambience is mellow but far from exciting.
My friend and I tried the 4 courses tasting menu costing HK$800 [without wine pairing].
Bread basket is average, and so was the amuse bouche.
The 1st course, blue fin tuna tarter was generous, fresh and very delicious!
The 2nd course, pan-seared scallop was also delicious, but the black truffle sauce was a bit tasteless and unimpressive.
The 3rd course, polenta cream paste was above average and generous.
The main course, Wagyu cheek was cooked to perfection, though not innovative.
We choose an additional cheese course to share, costing only HK$160 for 3 very high quality French cheese from the trolley.
However, the last and the least, we're utterly disappointed with the dessert degustation, coffee and petit fours!!!!!
Corkage is HK350 per bottle of wine. I suggest you should still bring your own fine wine as the wine list's fine wines are all very young, therefore not ready to be drunk yet.

Food is very average, though the decoration is nice and staff is attentive. My wife and I order a la carte. Nothing knocked us out, though nothing was bad. We had beef tartar and smoked salmon as starter, and lobster two-ways and quail for main. The lobster two-way was the only one memorable with the laksa soup. However, the cheese was very good. Like the early writer, the Comte was very good.

There is nothing wrong with quality, just nothing stood out. In fact, I am pretty sure they use very good ingredients e.g. the quail was actually very “gamey” in contrast to the normal tasteless quail that we often get in HK.

Of the recent newer restaurant we had been to, this is behind Cafe Gary. And if memory serves me tight, it is also behind Robuchon and Caprice.

Good view and probably good enough for a special occasion dinner, but we won’t be back.

Was impressed from the moment we walked in, high ceiling and wonderful décor. I expected the night view from that place would render more city lights but maybe the lack of it gave a more subtle and peaceful ambience.

Browsing through the menu it was very tempting to order everything, eventually settled for the degustation. The set actually had the lamb, which we asked to be replaced with the lobster ravioli (extra $150). When I asked to be advised which “one” wine would be a good average for the meal, the sommelier asked a bunch of questions making me feel as if I was in psychological therapy. In the end we opted for an American red purely because I was curious how a US produced wine would taste and it didn’t disappoint!

Amuse bouche came with three little hors d’oeuvre, which amused not just the mouth partly because it elicited “hmmm”, “okay?”, and “fishy” – reminiscent of “The Three Amigos”.

Beef tartare was excellent; the crunchy pizzeta base and beans garnish provided a perfect blend of textures, while the seasoning was simple allowing the beef to be the main focus of the dish.

Foie gras consome was a bit of a question mark for me, the consome itself was on the salty side but together with the liver made a good match. The question comes with the seemingly raw diced vegetables; was it there just to add crunchiness? The black truffle garnish also didn’t seem to make a large impact on the dish, though understandably this is, supposedly, the moment for the foie gras to shine.

Pan seared (Australian) lamb with potatoes was aesthetically beautiful. Unfortunately, it didn’t tickle the palate as much as it did visually. The ingredients were of good quality for sure, it’s just once they are all in the mouth you can say it could have been just lamb and potatoes from a café.

Lobster ravioli with laksa infusion fared better than the lamb, it also came with three lobster “tempura” balls. The curry of the laksa was not as intense as you would find from an authentic Malay laksa; but this worked better for the sweetness of the lobster to come through.

The agar dish didn’t really have the “wow” factor but it was refreshing and brought balance to the meal. My dining partner, who is quite sensitive to ocean smell, thought it was fishy – might be due to the processing or the actual sourcing of the ingredient.

There was another dish in the set that I can’t remember; I do know that it was very salty though I also vaguely remember the desert trio, sorry

The tempo was decent by Asian standards, though having a good six-course meal within two and half hours is rather hasty for my liking – just a personal preference. The attendants were friendly even though I had to ask them “in English please” several times One disappointment was as we left they didn’t bother to say thank you, a major faux pas for such an upmarket establishment.

Overall, a perfect ambience to relax, have a quiet conversation or two, and enjoy the meal.

Went during its soft-opening period in Dec 09. IMMENSELY impressed

Steak tartar- just the right texture, flavour & condiments. Enough said

Pan seared lamb- signature dish. Visually amazing already (the wrapped potato). Perfectly seared lamb: tender & juicy. Very very good !

Fruit ravioli- not really my cup of tea but new experience

Service - Excellent, atttentive & polite. Cannot ask for more

Conclusion: My new favourite in town. A must try !