I've eaten at Serge before for lunch and was pleasantly surprised by the excellence of the food and the wonderful hospitality of the host Charles. It's been a while since I've been back as we have moved over to the Kowloon side, but we made a deliberate effort to come back for Serge's special collaboration with Sook.
Sook is a pop-up Korean fusion concept catering that has made appearances in Chai Wan Mei, PMQ, and now on a regular basis at Serge. We first encountered Sook at PMQ where we sampled delicious short rib and chicken kimchi tacos. The kimchi is all homemade and the tortillas are imported from the United States.
For Serge, Sook has designed a special 11 course concept menu for $650hkd. This is an absolute steal. We are not people that like to spend money on overpriced Western food in HK as we travel a lot and prefer to eat the cuisine of the country that we are visiting, but the unique and special kind of fusion that represents Sook is so wonderful that it would be welcome anywhere in the world.
The meal began with 3 appetizers-- Fugo Shishito (small korean plates of green beans and some kind of meat dish), seaweed foccacia with olive oil, and oyster Squid ink ceviche with persimmon. The oyster was the standout here, briny and fresh, tasting beautifully of the cold sea.
The next course was Fried Eel-Ssamjang with pickles, nothing like Japanese marinated eel, but more of a white fish Tempura. If I hadn't read the menu, we would not have guessed that it was eel. This was finished so fast that we burnt our tongue.
This was followed by Pork Belly served with squid and enoki mushrooms, beautifully roasted with a sophisticated smoky flavor and perfect cracking skin.
Followed by Mackerel Taco, a smokey grey tortilla with sour radish and fresh mackeral fish which we rolled up and messily devoured.
Followed by my husband's favorite, braised short rib with a kind of pumpkin mousse, rich gravy and mixed grain rice. This was served sharing style with the ribs perfectly cooked, pink and melting inside.
The savoury mains were refreshed by the cleansing palate of the fruit mangosteen before preparing our appetite for dessert.
Dessert was served in 3 separate courses-- Yuzu ice cream with powdered gelatinous strips (indescribable, but if you've ever walked around a Japanese supermarket, then you have seen these matcha jello strips before and they are delicious).
Mochi Caramel ice cream which is self explanatory in it's description of deliciousness, and as a final oomph, Serge's famous dacquoise, chestnut flavored in a nod to Korean cusine.
This was a perfect meal, and although we were encouraged to constructively add criticism, we were unable to think of anything that we would improve.
I'd like to also add that we came with our 8 month old baby for dinner and the restaurant was super accomodating, giving us a booth table and providing utensils and hot water in order to warm up her meal.
We will definitely be back at Serge next year, for their regular French cuisine as well as for Sook, next time the special event is on again.
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