Zurriola (Closed)

You know those times when you have no idea what you want to eat? If you're like me, you can spend hours and hours just looking over restaurant menus to see if anything 'grabs' your attention and gets you out of your lethargy to make a booking. There's no rhyme nor reason for me selecting a dining spot sometimes, it could be a particularly appetising photo on a web site, or an interesting and different menu, or even just a cool name. Our visit to Zurriola was based simply on the fact they had a winter 'game' menu with venison on offer.Winter in Hong Kong brings a couple of very appealing options, it's obviously truffle season, and I don't really need to explain what's so great about that! But it's also 'game' season, which means pheasant, wild boar and most importantly venison. If you've not had venison before, it's a very strong flavoured red meat that is quite simply delicious. Venison is usually deer, but throughout history, it's been a general term used for game and at one time or another has referred to hares, wild pigs and goats. It also happens to be one of SC's favourite things to eat (after bacon, truffle and duck fat).Zurriola is a Modern European style restaurant, which means that it takes a bit of a contemporary view of traditional dishes. I'd been quite excited about visiting, after reading some local HK blogs about how amazing the place was and in particular, one blogger thought the tasting menu was amongst the best in Kong Kong. Located at TST, we were again struck speechless by the skyline that was recently rated as the best in the world. We were seated at a table that afforded us the most incredible views of the island and our only regret was that it was raining outside, otherwise the balcony windows would have been open.There was a bit of a mixed feel about the interior of the dining room, it had paintings of Spanish matadors on the walls, which felt a little out of place and would have been at home in the tapas restaurant next door. We were given our leather bound menus to peruse, which consisted of a specific game menu and a simple a la carte selection and it was pretty clear to see the direction our meal would take - it was game time baby!! I found the warning with the menu amusing, informing us that we may find pieces of buckshot in the meals and to take care.Food and cocktail orders taken, we were brought out an amuse bouche, which was not the most appetising of dishes I'd come across. The oxtail and mushroom stew, covered in bits of bacon, was incredibly strong flavoured. I didn't really like it, the texture was quite slimy which I couldn't really get past and it wasn't interesting enough begin a fine dining meal. Unfortunately, the amuse bouche set the scene for the rest of the meal.We kicked off with the asparagus and langoustine, which is quite a lovely combination. The presentation of the dish was quite perplexing though, with two expertly cooked pieces of langoustine being wrapped in thin slices of asparagus. There was also an langoustine tartare that was covered in thin rounds of asparagus, so the overall dish looked a little too green, not a great colour for a dish when not offset by other, more vibrant colours. The clumsy presentation aside, the soft flesh of the langoustine was subtly sweet and there was a little spicy hit in the tartare.Our second starter was a venison tartare with textures of cauliflower and dusted with a mushroom powder. Again, I found the presentation of the dish to be very rustic and more than a little clumsy, there was no precision to the dish at all. The cauliflower was presented as a puree, a crumble and some toasted florets, with the rich red venison placed for contrasting colour. One of the things I love about tartare generally is the strong flavour offset with contrasting condiments to help accentuate the flavour, most notably gherkin and onion. There were no such contrasting flavours with the Zurriola version and I was really surprised by the lack of flavour from the venison tartare. Usually such a strong flavour, there was a distinct lack of that gamey taste that I was expecting, and the cauliflower was not a great pairing for me.I was a little underwhelmed by our starters, but if I thought the mains would be a step up, I was about to be disappointed. SC's choice of main was the venison loin with Hokkaido pumpkin and black walnuts, which on the website looked beautiful, but when presented looked as if it had been thrown together in a rush. Venison runs the risk of being tough when over cooked, so is usually served rare or medium rare, but the Zurriola version was cooked medium and was both a little bland and tough as a consequence. Balance wise, there was too much pumpkin on the plate, so it felt as if it was a two ingredient dish (even thought there were toasted walnuts and potato on the plate).My choice of main was a little safer, choosing the tenderloin with mixed mushrooms and potato jus. I'd asked for my beef to be medium rare and was pleasantly surprised when it proved to be cooked perfectly. While I wasn't overly enamoured by the presentation, a smear of mashed potato with the steak plonked on top, there was nothing wrong with the flavours at all. The sauce was nice and sticky and worked well with the beef, which was a little under seasoned, but not so much as to render the beef as bland as the venison. But, I always ask myself, how wrong can you go with meat and two veg?Deciding that enough was enough, we decided that we'd grab dessert at home, not really wanting to spend any more cash. We'd been completely underwhelmed by the meal and given that we were paying a 'fine dining' premium, didn't feel that the meal had warranted a possible redemption from dessert. Of course, the desserts could have been mind blowing, but we'd not seen any evidence of that being the case.Service had been weird, one of those occasions where we'd been shown to our table and then left to our own devices until we flagged down wait staff to help us out. It wasn't a busy night either, there was us and one other table, so it was puzzling as to why our meals were so haphazardly put together. It made me wonder if head chef Daniel Birkner was not in the kitchen on the night of our visit, surely the dishes we'd been served wouldn't have made it out of the pass otherwise?I felt completely disappointed by our visit to Zurriola, largely on the back of our expectations going into the meal. Sure, it had been rated well by others, but on the night of our visit, it was a complete let down. A game menu should inspire creativity but let the flavours speak for themselves, and that didn't really happen. Worst of all, it was one of the more expensive meals we'd had in a while - most certainly not good value.@FoodMeUpScottyThe Zurriola cocktail menu is actually pretty goodThis was a weird presentation - it tasted OK, but we eat with our eyes too!A palate cleanser of orange sorbetThe venison dish was a near miss, a little extra flavour and more care with presentation would have gone a long waySome of the best views in Hong Kong continue reading

不經不覺，KsMeow從灣仔轉到觀塘上班將近一個月了，搵食地圖亦由港島沿線轉往九龍各區。尖沙咀是我最喜歡尋吃地方之一，特別是食肆林立的The ONE，那里有不少Fine Dining餐廳，想跟朋友慶祝、特別日子紀念... 也有不少選擇呢！西班牙餐廳《ZURRIOLA》位於The ONE L18，裝潢帶著典雅的貴族風，設室外用餐區，美麗的維港景致就在眼前，用餐環境舒適寫意，讓浪漫與滿足度直達100%「Scallop | Black Pudding | Apple | Water Chestnut」$168廚師把帶子煎得恰到好處，質感又軟又嫩，配濃郁而帶點辛辣味道的血腸及血腸汁同吃，層次感更強烈！亦可配青蘋果及蘸上特製濃縮蘋果醬汁，味道酸酸甜甜的，一道菜式，兩種截然不同的感覺。「Lambloin | Sweetcorn | Jus」$328廚師拿捏火候準確，把羊扒煎成半生熟狀態，肉質充滿彈性；跟粟米蓉及輕炙過的粟米粒同吃，口腔里，自然的香甜跟羊膻味和諧共舞，感覺良好！感謝欣賞 KsMeow 小分享！ continue reading

Came here over a year ago and didn't have much to rave about.  Came back again as the restaurant week menu seemed quite attractive.Unfortunately, the food was really much below standards - to a point where it was frustrating. It was unacceptable from an international fine-dining restaurant.The restaurant would be so wrong to bring down the quality (to such a sad level) just to match the "economical" restaurant week set menu... isn't the objective to promote and attract more new customers?  this deal just did the opposite.  - Bread was cold and each guest was only served with one piece. Starters: Scallops - overcooked, maybe bcoz it as too thinly sliced.Beef Tea Tartar -- actually I misread and anticipated for a "beef tartar" coming...instead came a bitter beef consomme paired with dried and cold/hard mini bite-size beef puffs (liked Chinese bakery overnight type)The Main was the worst dish I've had in years. The Monk Fish Cheek with Beetroot (in small print:  with pork skin - later we ).  Maybe we were thinking something more light and elegant;  so this presentation totally threw us off.   A strong fried oil aroma set as soon as the dish was presented, the hard crisp & oily taste reminded of self-baked TV dinners and seriously tasted like fast food.  The fish tasted exactly like chicken and the waiter re-assured me that's how monk fish cheek tastes like. In overall, the nice venue was spoiled by the food; much overpriced given the fast food quality.Something good: An extensive variety of Red & White Sangrias. The most tasty item of the evening !  continue reading

鍾情Sangria 的我，朋友介紹Zurriola ，早２星期訂了Table for 2同老公拍拖試試～　餐廳安排了舒適的Sofa 位比我，位置非常寬敞，係談心的好地方。到８點幻彩泳香江準時開場，居高臨下的香港夜景真的很美喔。點了Signature Dinner Set ~ 再睇睇Drink List, 只係Sangria 已成百款，Base 已有White Wine, Red Wine, Rosa & Cava可選擇 ~ 真係選擇障礙又出現，結果Watier 介紹了兩款比我試試 ~ <Fresh Apple> 如其名真係Fresh, white wine base 有green apple + Peppermint  & <Fruit Salad> sweet & fruity，Cava base + stawberry + apple因為appterizer & main course 各有兩款可選擇，Waiter 非常細心，把Appetizer & main course 分開half portion 上菜，令我倆可品嚐２款Appetizer & main course， Services 真係滿分。 continue reading

和友人相約見面，來到了Zurriola品嚐下午茶。優雅的環境，頗適合聊聊天。鹹點有5款，以迷你包點為主，甚有水準。西班牙48月黑毛豬火腿配迷你牛角包，煙三文魚沙律釀黑松露薯仔及魚子醬，吞拿魚三文治，阿拉斯加長腳蟹肉配芒果手指三文治，和八爪魚配甜粟米茸。當中八爪魚配甜粟米茸，是以空心餅乾包裹著粟米茸，外脆內軟，甚特別。甜點亦分量十足，藍莓小蛋糕，迷你軟心朱古力餅，士多啤梨芝士餅，咖啡果凍配白朱古力忌廉，朱古力球及芝麻馬卡龍。藍莓小蛋糕非常鬆軟，而忌廉亦不太甜，非常易入口。迷你軟心朱古力餅及士多啤梨芝士餅味道濃郁，相對較膩。望著海景食下午茶確是不錯的體驗，但味道方面真的希望可以做得更好。 continue reading