小杯子's Profile

Akrame has been one of my favourite restaurants in Hong Kong this year. To say that, I have paid 3 visits to the restaurant since its opening last year. With Hong Kong being a rapidly growing and mind-blowing food scene, it is actually rare for me to be revisiting the same restaurant so frequently. I would not say Akrame's food is overwhelming or incredibly amazing, yet the dishes are fresh, tasty, simple, elegant and comforting. So it made my perfect place to be when I craved for something decent and refined but nothing too sophisticated. One point to note is that at Akrame, they only serve a tasting menu which changes from time to time. For me, it's great as it is always hard for me to make choices and I just end up with the recommendations most of the time anyways. When I went in May for lunch, they were serving the "Le French GourMay" menu. It all started with the selection of amuse bouches which included an olive cracker, a squid ink biscuit served with smoked eel, a parmesan cracker and some salmon roe placed on a leaf of chicory. The flavours are well-balanced and they did set the meal off well - full of character and definitely gave a clear foretaste of what to expect next. The first course was whelk meat topped with lemon mayonnaise. Fresh, and that hint of lemon really brought out all the flavours. The texture of the meat was good too.Then came the clams and spaghetti with parsley. This was my least favourite of the day because for me, the parsley was a bit overwhelming. However, the spaghetti did add an interesting touch to the dish. Next was the oyster risotto. It was just like an oyster explosion in my mouth. Every bite of it was packed with that freshness from the sea. The rice was al dente as well. Awesome.After that was a piece of roasted lobster. There was a piece of lardon on top of it which did go well with the lobster. But I did prefer the poached lobster I had here before to this.The last seafood dish was pan fried whiting with konbu sauce. Simple, yet delicious. In some way, it did remind me of the dishes cooked at home and was kind of heartwarming. This is what I love about Akrame. Classical French cuisine aims to captivate your taste buds whereas here, they try to excite your senses without overdoing it. So it is somewhat soothing and it does retain your yearnings.The sixth course was a meat course, which was pan fried pigeon with chickpea puree. Succulent, juicy and just YUM!Desserts were poached pear with hazelnut ice-cream, chocolate mousse and roasted pineapple with charcoal ice-cream. They were ok but nothing I would really die for. The charcoal ice-cream was pretty special though.I really enjoyed my meal at Akrame and would definitely head there again soon. The food was well-picked and perfectly executed. One minor drawback was that the waiters spoke too softly and it was diffulty to catch what the food was while they were explaining. I also felt that they could have been better trained.…Read More

I last visited Grand Hyatt Steakhouse back in 2011 when it opened. And I loved it. Now a few years later, everything was still as great as it was.First came the crab cakes. Honestly, they are the best in town. Whenever I ordered crab cakes somewhere else, I would moan about them and reminisce the ones I had here. Tonight, every bite of it was full of meaty, fresh tasting crab with its flavour perfectly played up by the herbs.While munching on the crab cakes, a plate of freshly baked garlic bread was put onto the table. It was a bit weird for the bread to arrive after the appetizer, but I didn't mind the wait because they were the best garlic bread I have ever had. The garlic came out nicely without being too overwhelming. The bread - so crunchy and flaky ahhhhhhh! Words cannot possibly describe how good they were. They were just as I remembered them. The Foie Gras was just average though. I guess it lacked that melt-in-your mouth texture for me.As for my main, I had the USDA tenderloin cooked to medium rare. Flawless, juicy and tender. Enough said. However, the Thrice Cooked Duck Fat Chips were a huge disappointment. I simply did not understand why they would thrice cook the chips if they were trying to make them soggy. I say this because I questioned if they had given me the right thing after having a first bite, and I was told that the chips were thrice cooked in order to make them soft. Hmmm... Anyways I would much prefer Heston's triple cooked chips which are super crunchy and fluffy. We did not end our meal with a dessert this time as we have learnt our lesson last time - the portion is big and it's super rich so we decided not to push our tummies.…Read More