It’s been a while since I wrote a restaurant review, but felt that this experience was worth putting into words, firstly because the restaurant is so highly regarded, with its connection to one of the best chefs in the world, and secondly because molecular gastronomy and tasting menus are becoming more mainstream in HK and could use more feedback and encouragement.
We were seated in the VIP area, perhaps due to our reservation of the tasting menu, and were immediately attended to by our waiter, who asked for our order of drinks. Side note - While I understand that fine-dining restaurants do not tend to serve tap water, I couldn’t help but be slightly taken aback with the waiter’s express refusal of the same. I just don’t think a restaurant that cares about food should care that much about charging for water. It’s not like it’s even a ‘drink’ per se, but rather a necessity that should be a right to every customer?
Albeit slightly bummed, I was excited about starting on the first category in the tasting menu - the Snacks. First up: Sangria in suspension and olive oil butter. The sangria part was good, with quite an obvious alcohol content too. Unfortunately, the suspension aspect, which I presume was the crux of the creation, was not as successful. In fact, I was less impressed than I was when I first tried Fruit Tree’s apple & aloe vera juice. Most of the stuff that was meant to be suspended was not, and lay at the bottom of our glasses, resulting in us having to throw our heads back multiple times. I suggest they start serving it with spoons.
As for the olive oil butter, I had high hopes for the thick creamy butter that we squeezed out from a cute, miniature toothpaste tube, but was disappointed that the intensity of taste was just as miniature.
Rest of the snacks: Black sesame miso sponge cake and Philopizza ; liquid ham croquette ; truffle dentelle ; foie gras with spiced bread – all were aromatic and composed of diverse flavours and textures as well as delicately presented. However, while they definitely delighted my palate, they did not surprise it in the way that molecular gastronomy usually does. I found myself wondering what other sensations they were intended to conjure or evoke. When the composition of the food plainly just mirrors the food’s name, without further transformation or concept, it’s all but a fine-dining experience, short of a gastronomical journey.
Thus, by the end of the Snacks, I found my mind still in my brain and my socks still firmly on my feet.
Until the tapas: the XXI Century Omelet ; slow-cooked salmon ; and Carbonara Egg Nest. There is a reason why these dishes are the signature ones at this restaurant. I finally felt the extra bit of innovation that reconstructed my food into something more unexpected and out of the ordinary. I particularly enjoyed the Carbonara Egg Nest, which made me feel like I was literally eating a plate of Carbonara which had been reshaped into an egg in a nest. I had no idea how they did it, and loved that. For the record, the slow-cooked salmon was actually just slow-cooked salmon, but it was some seriously good slow-cooked salmon.
I can’t really say the same for the main courses: French sea bass and wagyu confit. I’m afraid they weren’t only boring, but weren’t even quite up to fine-dining quality. For instance, the texture of the beef was dry and tough and far from tender.
Lastly, the dessert and petit fours. There was (sadly) just one dessert - chocolate coulant nitro. It was good, and I appreciate that liquid-nitrogen-cooked stuff are innovative and rare in themselves, but when it’s the main (and only) dessert item, I felt like it needed something more than just crumbs on the side. As it was, it was nothing special, especially if you’ve already sampled other creations made with liquid-nitrogen. It was like a big, icy Ferrero Rocher, and not as good even, without the hazelnut in the center. As for the petit fours, let’s just say I admired the minimalist way in which they were presented…but not much else. Moreover, to add to the previous outright dismissal of tap water, there was also a minor lack of professionalism in the server’s lack of knowledge about the flavour of the macaroons, and a major lack of professionalism in his failure to revert. I was actually waiting to find out, because even after eating it, I still had no idea (in my defence, it was green, but tasted neither of pandan, green tea nor lime).
It’s interesting that, without having taken many photos of the food, I find my clearest memory to be one of visiting the toilet twice and having great difficulty returning to my table both times since its entrance did not revolve along with the rest of the restaurant.
The above sums up my experience of the $1400 tasting menu. I guess on the whole, it still needed some work, whether it be treated as a fine-dining or a molecular gastronomy experience.
