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2015-03-19
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Chef Que Vinh Dang returns to the Hong Kong dining scene lately and settles in Wanchai for his new and exciting restaurant. It's been 4 years since my visit at TBLS. As I have had a great experience there back then, we decided upon spending our Valentine's Day dinner at Quest by Que.I appreciated the fact that the restaurant did not force us into order some Valentine's Day festive dinner set at some premium but instead just offered the normal 9-course tasting menu. We were seated by the window a
I appreciated the fact that the restaurant did not force us into order some Valentine's Day festive dinner set at some premium but instead just offered the normal 9-course tasting menu.
We were seated by the window and started our night with a drink The former private kitchen has expanded to operate as a restaurant, but the open bar/ kitchen style remained.
This tasting menu brings in Chef Que's Vietnamese root and his inspirations from New York and other places during his venture. We embarked our night with the first course - Hamachi Sashimi, tomato jelly and yuzukosho nuoc mam. It was a very complex mixtures of flavors and textures in this dish. The hamachi was buttery and served well with the salmon roes and crunchy sea grapes. The lightly sour tomato jello and fragrant yuzu balanced out the strong salty aroma from nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce). It was interesting that a seemingly simple appetizer turned out to be thoughtful, refreshing and delicately refined!
It was followed by Boston Lobster Nem Coun, pickled Daikon, smoked Paprika Sauce. It was a deconstructured Vietnamese rice paper roll. Fresh and juicy lobsters were enshrouded by a translucent rice paper sheet, which I thought was a little chewy. Loved the avocado puree sitting beneath other ingredients.
Next came Truffle Rice Cake with Sea Urchin, crispy minced pork, wasabi vinaigrette. This was not as memorable as the previous two courses but of course I would not mind more uni! I liked it how the first three dishes were light and sweet.
Then Chef Que's signature dish was presented to us. He made a clever spin to the traditional Beef Pho, which was now called Beef Pho Tartar, Rice Noodles, Shaved Foie Gras, Fresh Herbs. The reinvented dish consisted of grass fed beef tartare sitting on a bed of vermicelli noodles, topped with reduced pho broth jello and shaved foie gras and herbs. Though I loved my hot bowl of pho, this was a successful reinterpration of the classic dish. The shaved foie gras added richness to the beef, while the broth jello was slightly overpowered by the other ingredients.
Another favorite of ours for the night was Black Cod Fish, swimmer Crab, sugar snaps, squid ink mochi. Chef Que had done justice to the cod, keeping its silky smooth and buttery texture and had it served well with the scattered circles of caramel sauce. The small cubes of squid ink mochi were bouncy!
We moved onto the first meat dish of the night - Oxtail Bun Bo Hue, daikon, tripe. The oxtail was tender and the tripes absorbed all of the sauce which was warming and flavorful!
Oxtail bun Bo Hue
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Sorbet :(
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Almond Cake
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And it took me by surprise when I suddenly spotted Chef Que in jeans carrying a bagpack at around 10 in the evening (around the time we just finished the oxtail while waiting for the pork). He walked to the lift and off he went... and he was gone. I understand it is Valentine's Day and maybe he would like to spend a little time with his beloved, but as customers, I did not feel particularly comfortable to see the head chef leaving his restaurant when a lot of us were still working on our mains who were desperately hoping to be served quicker.
I liked the food here, and would love to return to check out and savor Chef Que's creativity. I do hope service could be more up to standard when I come back.
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