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2011-11-13
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I offered to take my bf out for his birthday dinner and he chose French cuisine. After searching around for places in Sheung Wan, the finalists were all in the same building!! However our first choice was fully booked (must make an earlier reservation next time), so I decided to take him here instead as there's free corkage. Other restaurants should take heed - free corkage is often what tips the balance. And the second thing is free tap water, and extra points for putting a slice of lemon in it
The restaurant decor was what I would describe as "chic-antique with a touch of neon", as you really can't miss the pink hue glowing from the bar, nor could you ignore the chandeliers dangling from a not-so-high ceiling. However, the place was comfortable despite being a little too dimly-lit, and the table lamp behind my bf's head meant that it was glaring into my eyes the whole night because i was seated opposite him.
The menu was simple but varied enough to satisfy most customers' requests. We went for the 3-course dinner which was reasonably priced. Mine was a king prawn with vegetables under a "cloud" of something or rather, and I also went for the bisque as I wasn't much of a dessert fan. My bf had the zucchini tart with Iberico jamon. When the waiter presented my "cloud", the dish tilted forward and part of the foam leapt out of the dish and landed on the table (and thankfully not on my lap!). He apologised profusely and promptly went to replace my dish, and judging by the speed of which he popped into the kitchen and back with another dish, I might take a guess that the chef just topped the foam and wiped down the dish, which is fine really, the food was still stacked intact and none of it was contaminated. The prawn was quite large but I couldn't see which was the head and which was the tail since it was all under cover, and the julienne vegetables were nowhere to be seen until you got to the bottom of the matter. The soup was nice but forgettable (hence the lack of a photo). The tart was moist and dense with a nice crust and base, and the ham was of average standard.
For mains, I went for the sea bass and scallops which was again covered in a blob of white sauce. The steak looked much more visible but I felt the slightly heavy-handed drizzling of sauce around it kind of took away its importance in the whole composition. But what really mattered was the taste, which was juicy tender and done to medium rare as requested.
Normally I'm not fussy about presentation (I mean, you don't criticise the food at a cha chaan teng or dai pai dong), but however this is meant to be fine dining, and everything counts. My overall comment would be that the dishes were tasty and the combination of ingredients worked well, but they need to par down their presentation a bit so that the visuals won't get in the way of the experience of enjoying the food.
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