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2014-04-06
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Hong Kong's dining scene is budding with lots of interesting and intriguing arrivals. Having known that there was a new brasserie opened at a corner near Hollywood Road where the chef was originally from Amber, I tried to secure a reservation on Friday night and had my table booked at 6:30pm (I know it is way too early for le diner à Paris!).It was located around the corner on the staircase of Hollywood Road, which resembled how I discovered authentic Parisian cuisine in the narrow streets of Pa
It was located around the corner on the staircase of Hollywood Road, which resembled how I discovered authentic Parisian cuisine in the narrow streets of Paris. Very chic it was, I loved the high ceiling and retro lamps and red velvet chairs. Given we were the first table to arrive, we could pick wherever we wanted to sit, and decided upon a table near the table, where we could feel the vibe of the neighboring art gallery while enjoying the casual ambiance in the restaurant.
Bread basket was served while we were choosing our courses. Loved the herbal aroma from the crackers, that I thought were already good enough without the butter.
The menu consisted of à la carte dishes as well as 2 tasting menus of 5 courses. We went for à la carte and picked Diver Scallops - caramelized sunchoke, morel, pea coulix and truffle for appetizer. My scallops were all so plump, fresh and sweet! Well, I must give compliments to the sides that they had stolen part of my attention too. The honeycomb-shamped morels were very nicely cooked, they absorbed the sauce and offered a slight hint of truffle aroma! There in the second picture, a super small deep-fried potato cube was placed in the middle, originally I was going to skip it (I don't eat fries and almost all kind of deep fried food), but ok, I gave it a try and had a tiny bite, and decided to eat it all without a second thought. I could barely feel any oil left inside and it was cripsy on the surface and refreshing in the starchy part! Thumbs up!
Well, one thing the servers had missed, they forgot to change our bread plate when our scallops arrived, so we just ate them with our slightly buttery bread plate.For main, we chose one pasta and one meat. Our pasta was Parisienne Gnocchi - spanner crab, chili-tomato-shellfish emulsion, english pea. Actually I picked this by method of elimination... I did not like bacon in the other pasta and I was not particularly fond of 'bolognese'. I was a little skeptical with Gnocchi in the beginning, as it was a rather thick kind of pasta which was too filling at times, but it turned out to be a good pick! Unlike the usual al dente version, this one was more soft, mildly and gently melting in your mouth along with the tasty emulsion. The spanner crab was generous and fresh as well. Even though I was not a fan of english peas, the peas here were great! Not over-cooked and not overly soft, which offered a variety to the textures in this dish.
I had difficulty to pick our meat course - veal, sea bream, and wagyu beef. The server recommended their Milk Fed Veal Flat Iron - prepared like 'blanquette', chanterelle, heirloom carrot, parsnip. Nicely presented on the dish, the veal was pink and very tender. Just by itself, it already exuded a fragrant aroma of the meat. The meat color was so pink while the surface was cooked to perfection that our neighboring table mistook it to be the wagyu beef. Again, the sides also shone. The carrots were so sweet that I secretly wished there were more!
Up till this stage, we were already more than half full. But given the impressive food we just had, we made up our mind - to order another 2 desserts!
The first was First Season Berries - 80 year old balsamic, lavender meringue and fromage blanc. My eyes were capitvated by the '80 year old balsamic' when I looked at the menu. I vaguely remember somebody telling me in the past that balsamic and berries were a natural perfect match. And Bingo! The balsamic was reduced to flavor the berries and that intensified both sweetness. Totally stole my heart... The lavender meringue was not as sugary as the usual ones and radiated its scent along with the creamy fromage blanc.
Then we moved onto Grand Cru Chocolate - orange, sicilian pistachio, jelly made from extra virgin olive oil. Such smooth and silky chocolate, while maintaining certain firmness, went very well with the orange (yes, I'm a die hard fan of chocolate with orange). The pistachio crisp was not at all overpowered by the rich chocolate and in fact stole a bit of the spotlight.
The servers were very friendly and helpful, and I almost forgot about the plate issue when I finished the last bit of my dessert. My taste buds were very satisfied. I could sense the conscientiousness and passion in every bits of the ingredients. Not only did the main ingredient were delicious, the sides and complements added magic to make the dish shine.Could not wait for my next adventure in this Parisienne bistro, which was just around the corner! à bientôt!
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