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2012-06-13
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Disclaimer: I like pub food, stew, soups and pasta, I'm not a big fan of French cuisine (I don't know enough to appreciate it) and I stay away from "fusion" cuisine (say "No" to creativity!) I haven't tried any which made me want to return. I tried Chez Patrick many times when I was in London. Those were quite expensive but the quality was OK. I never went there voluntarily and my friends had to coerce me into there - "with friends like these, who needs enemies" ~ old English proverb. I thought
I tried Chez Patrick many times when I was in London. Those were quite expensive but the quality was OK. I never went there voluntarily and my friends had to coerce me into there - "with friends like these, who needs enemies" ~ old English proverb.
I thought my gastronomic nightmare was over when I came back to Hong Kong and I could stay away from overpriced and badly made "fusion" cuisines. I was wrong.
I was dragged to this place by my relatives.
Well,
with relatives like these......
Besser alein als in schlecter Gesellschaft. ~ old German proverb
Translation: It's better to be alone than in bad company.
So all in all, not a very positive mind-set to start the meal. My mindset was "show me" :
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"Irreversible:"
PTSD Case reconstruction
Decent environmentThe restaurant was easy to locate. Pretty near the Hopewell Centre, next to the QRE plaza. The place was extremely spacious and had a very high ceiling. Dim lighting, white pillars and deep blue as the main theme. Tables were widely spaced apart. Nice decor as one would expect from a restaurant which would charge you over HK$500 for a meal.
The price wasn't excessive, if I remember correctly, it was HK$480 for a three course meal and HK$580 for a four course meal. I had a three course meal to save my host some money.
~ Set menu & service ~
I asked one of the waiters how it worked for the four course meal. He told me that one could choose four items from the set menu, i.e. appetizers, main course and desserts. I asked him whether I could skip the dessert (I'm not a fan of desserts too, unless they are good for my health like almond soup or sesame soup...etc/) and have an extra starter instead. His reply was it's very "unusual". I asked whether it's possible and got the reply "it's very unusual".
Needless to say, I didn't care whether it was usual or not, I only cared whether it was possible to do so. After grilling him a bit, he finally answered directly "yes" - thanks for testing my patience. So basically, the point is that you could have four starters, or main courses or, like I might recommend - four desserts, if you wish. The price was decent.
To my utter surprise, there wasn't soup on the menu. Call me ignorant but I always thought soup is an extremely important part of western cuisine? I can't imagine it not being included in the menu, whether it's the set menu or the a la carte menu.
The menu was in French and English, which was fine for most people but it'd be nice to have Chinese as well. Essentially to save the waiter from explaining what dishes they had again and again. This is Hong Kong after all and not everyone understands English and/or French. Even if I'm typing in English, it's just because I can type faster. I can't understand half the ingredients in European cuisines most of the time.
Anyway, after the umpteenth explanation of the set menu, everyone placed their orders.
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~ Bread & Butter ~
First came the bread basket. I've read from somewhere (possibly from another reviewer) that the bread inside an authentic European bread basket should be about room temperature. This was authentic then. One small piece of bread, you could choose between a black-colored one and another one which looked a bit like a sweet potato. I chose neither of those. My wife gave me a little bit of hers. It was nothing special.
At least the butter wasn't frozen and tasted pretty niceThen came the highlight of the dinner,
~ Cheese ~
two types of cheese:
Those were goat cheese. As we know, it's a supremely acquired taste. If I have to have cheese, e.g. to go with the red wine, I'll usually go for the boring but safe options, like English cheese (e.g. cheddar), mozzarella and parmesan. I can't handle goat cheese.
The thinner one on the left was goat cheese. As far as goat cheese goes, it's pretty mild. It's like I'm standing quite near to a goat and having a cheese sandwitch. Still manageable.
The piece of cookie with chestnut paste on top was also goat cheese. I have a tiny, tiny piece of it, i..e like the size of 1/2 a pea, and.......... my whole mouth was filled with very intense smell of a goat.
It felt very much like I'm standing very, very close to a particularly big goat,
with healthy bowel movements, from behind, and......
took a bite at the goat
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( Notice to readers:
the author of the review could not continue
due to intense and traumatic flashbacks.
He will resume his review
as soon as he recovers.)
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I believe there are plenty of cheese to choose from in French cuisine. Just because someone goes to a French restaurant doesn't mean that they necessarily like goat cheese. Just like somebody who likes Chinese cuisine doesn't mean they like frogs or chicken feet. I strongly recommend that they give customers some heads up to prevent wasting food. Half the table couldn't handle that piece of goat cheese.
Honestly, just thinking about it makes my stomach churn (it works every time - even as I'm typing now).
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(paused)
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~ Starter 1 ~
Then came the starters for those who ordered starters (those who did not order starters could have their main course served at the same time as the starters, if you know what I'm saying):
This was one of the starters I've ordered. Is that "French" toast at 6 o'clock direction? Seemed like it. It seemed to be fried. The most pronounced taste was a stale oily taste. The bread was not crispy at all and a bit hard. I definitely prefer the "Cha Chaan Teng" version of "French toast".
The pate itself was OK but I didn't appreciate the whatever berry jam included in it (seemed like a mixture of blue and raspberry). The pate, I believe duck pate, had a mild salty taste which didn't mix well with the sweet but mostly sour jam. I prefer just the pate. However, the quality of the pate isn't wildly different from those I could get at a local supermarket. I'd say those I could get at Marks and Spencer taste way better.
There was also a small cube of salmon included in this starter. The way it was cubed was quite interesting, but there is a reason why salmons are not usually cut like this. The meat is more smooth if you follow the fiber of the fish. However, the taste was normal. Nothing to complaint about.
The white liquid contained in the spoon was yogurt. Doesn't that remind you of the white antibiotic or the anti gastric-acid medicine? I'm not sure whether I should have placed the salmon cube and take it with the yogurt (?). Anyway, I downed the spoonful of yogurt and it tasted just like bland yogurt, i.e. a little bit sour, mixed with a little bit of the anti-gastric medicine (if you know what I mean, the texture was a bit grainy just like that medicine!)
To be fair, some didn't mind it. It's just I'm particularly fussy about strange tastes.
~ Starter 2 ~
Then came my other starter:
I did not wrongly upload a photograph of a garden scene. These three flat, slimy, slug-like objects, covered in what appeared to be shreds of grasses, with some sort of fruit on top of it, were, according to the menu, scallops.
Not only scallops, but those were scallops from Hokkaido
and marinated in some herbs & wasabi.
I thought sashimis on Mondays were bad*, but these were worse.
I initially though this would be one of the safer choices but I was completely wrong. It was, believe it or not, worse than the scallop sashimi I had at "Ihashi" on a Monday evening. It did not taste fresh at all and was a bit soggy. It had no scallop taste whatsoever. My wife also confirmed that. Surprisingly, there wasn't much herb taste too! Perhaps just a slight hint of mint, that's it. I could only taste the raspberry on top of the scallop.
Contrary to a living slug, a dead scallop shouldn't be able to perform osmosis. Neither the mint, the wasabi nor the raspberry taste entered the scallop.
One of my relatives, gave me a piece of his "Foie Grais with chocolate". By the way, I loved pan seared foie grais but I've stopped eating foie grais after the campaign against it. (I'm still eating sharks fin though.) It's still hard to say no when being offered a piece. The three pieces of foie grais were the same size as the cubed salmon above. I didn't appreciate the chocolate with the cold foie grais. It's wasn't pan fried. Felt like it was steamed. Not much foie grais taste. Nothing special.
The meal was getting quite depressing at this stage, I still managed to keep very, very quiet at this stage, perhaps too quiet to an extent which was a bit unsettling for others.
My attention turned to the red wine instead. The waiters were not pouring the red-wine frequently enough. There wasn't a napkin beneath the decanter or a napkin wrapping the decanter so red-wine stains were everywhere, especially in front of me. (I was pouring it myself.)
Best part of the meal:
Escargot: Some chose escargot. Those were 5-6 tiny pieces of escargot (1cm x 1.5 cm) contained in a small shell made of pastry. You're supposed to pour some sauce in it. Everyone like this dish and they ordered extra. So that's one good starter worth noting. I didn't try it. I don' like snails.~ Main Course ~
Then came the main course:
I ordered mine to be 60% again, whatever that means (I was corrected by the waiter - "medium"? Sure.)
The lamb chops were overcooked but at least edible:
I've been trying very very very hard to control my criticism about the overcooked lamb so please see for yourself:
Didn't really had the lamb taste. In fact, the taste was more like overcooked roast pork. The lamb chops at "Hugo's" were much much better. Those at "Harlan's" were also good. The green object was a small zucchini with it's center dug out and replaced with what I believed to be mashed zucchini/pumpkins and three chic peas. It was room temperature and nothing special. The zucchini tasted like room temperature zucchini. I can't see the point of the stuff stuffed inside. The chic peas tasted like chic peas. I was quite thirsty after having that.
~ Rum sponge cake ~
The astute reader, if you are still reading, will have noticed that I've already had three courses. My other relative gave away his quota so I took it. I ordered a rum sponge cake (I can't remember the French name).
It looked nice:
I was asked how much rum I wanted to have. If I recall properly, I believe the maximum was 100ml rum? Anyway, I thought I'd do no harm to add all into it. I said all. The waiter poured all and the lit it. That looked quite nice.
However, the rum taste was too strong. The sponge cake was fine. Quite a lot of egg taste. But because there was too much rum, I couldn't finish it (other than the vanilla ice cream, which was nice):
"Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende." ~ Better an end in horror than a horror without end.
Others had apple pie. That looked really good and everyone liked that. I had a piece and I like that too. Super aromatic with nice crispy crust. Quite a lot of apple too. The taste was well balanced. Not too sweet nor too sour. Just right.
~ The French connection ~
Other than the two waiters who didn't know much about their own products and weren't too effective in changing glasses and pouring red wine, the French manager was very friendly. He constantly attended our table. Essentially the PR man which saved the service rating a lot.
At the end of the meal, a French chef (but possibly not the one who cooked our dishes) came out to greet us as well. Certainly we all managed to squeeze a smile, including yours truly. Another very nice and friendly PR gesture.
In conclusion:
GOOD points -
(1) Nice location
(2) Nice decor
(3) Spacious tables
(4) Reasonable price
(5) Good escargot
(6) Good apple pie
(7) Friendly manager and chef
(8) Red wine (ours)
OK points -
(1) Lamb (some thought it was OK)
(2) Cheese (some liked it, acquired taste)
(3) Waiters
BAD points:
(1) No soup available
(2) Not fresh and tasteless scallop
(3) Bad French Toast and Yogurt, small cubed salmon
(4) Overcooked lamb (mine)
(5) Bland Zucchini at room temperature
(6) Cold steamed goose liver
(7) Too much rum in sponge cake (probably my fault).
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Well......
"Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende."
~ Better an end in horror than a horror without end.
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Other Info. :
I had a demaicho (instant noodle) at home afterwards. Never had such an excellent bowl of instant noodle before.
* urban legend has it that sashimi on Mondays were not fresh. I've mentioned that in my review of "Ihashi" (Jordan).
[b]My psychologist friend told me that it's good to "ventilate" traumatic experiences; hence this review. Thank you for reading.[/b]
*P.S. After reading other reviews of this restaurant and paying more attention to how other reviewers comment on French food, I went off and bought a book called "The Complete Robuchon", written by the man himself.
I wanted to know whether I was living on a different planet when it comes to commenting western cuisines (French food in particular). I'm glad to know that the focus is still on using fresh ingredients and timing. The focus is also on bringing out the best combination of flavours of the ingredients. The sauce, sublime or not, is important but could not take precedence over the quality of the ingredients.
Furthermore, it appears that Chez Patrick in Hong Kong may have nothing to do with Chez Patrick in London. The chef, Patrick, used to work for "Chez Moi". Chez Patrick in London focused on providing "Classic" French cuisines. The fish in London (as well as the greasy Fish & chips) were good. Haven't tried the fish here. ~ 21.6.2012.
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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