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2013-12-26
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Robuchon, just by the name of it, it has always brought me sweet memories - surprise lunches, lunch time getaways, lovely afternoon tea in Central Hong Kong... I have also had dinner before at the old Robuchon at the old Casa Lisboa... All these experiences help me draw a conclusion that Robuchon always aims for excellence. Thus, we made a reservation at Robuchon au Dome this year, as an early birthday celebration for my dad. It has restaurants all over the world, and as a 3 Michelin star restau
Back to the lunch, we were required to provide credit card guarantee for the reservation so if it was to be cancelled within 48 hours to the original booking, we would penalized. I was totally fine with that if it was worth it.
On that date, we took the lift to 43/F, where this Robuchon was situated at the top of the Dome of Grand Lisboa. It was nice that the curtains were already ready when we were seated, since the weather was too gorgeous! I was all smiley and cheerful until the server asked if we'd like sparkling or still water. I recalled exactly what I said in reply, 'We'd like some sparkly water'... After a while, she came back with a bottle of Perrier, the size of a one-person portion. I was a little confused and asked again if there was a larger size of sparkling water for us, a party of 3. Then, she FROWNED at me and answered bluntly, 'We only have this size of Perrier'. OK. Was my English incomprehensible or my English was too bad? I had NOT MENTIONED the word Perrier not made a sound with a similar pronunciation as Perrier. I had NOT SPECIFICALLY asked for a brand. She KEPT FROWNING and spoke to the manager, who came over and suggested they had a larger size of San Pellegrino. Thank God, a tiny problem was finally solved. I was a sales myself in another industry, and I would never frown to my client. I'd rather spend my energy on problem solving instead of further upsetting the client. If that was the service attitude of Robuchon, the 3 stars could be easily reaped.
A little upset already, we decided on a 4-course lunch. Bread basket was served, it was as good as the HK Robuchon, and I liked how butter was shredded from a huge block. Just when we started working on the bread, our Amuse Bouche arrived. There were 2 parts, both were Foie Gras that was prepared differently. After she finished reciting the description of the 2, even though I had not caught everything she said, I decided rather not to ask again. There was one which was made into a foamy Foie Gras mousse while the other was served on a tiny cracker.
For appetizer, we ordered Le Crabe and Le Foie Gras. Both were great, and I personally prefer le crabe. It was crab meat served with couscous salad (my fav!), avocado cream and mango emulsion perfumed with citrus. It was more like a fusion with African/ South East Asian twist! I mixed everything altogether and gobbled them down but could still savor distinct tastes from each ingredient! Le Foie Gras was well prepped too. It was meli-melo of shaved foie gras and fresh figs on red wine infusion with spices. Robuchon had successfully taken away the filling impression of foie gras and potatoes, perhaps it was the magic of figs?
My mood was sort of lifted by the appetizers, I was looking around the restaurant and I noticed 2 servers were standing by the corner giggling about something... I am not saying they need to put a stern face at all times, but as 'frontline staff', they are not representing themselves but the restaurant and the brand, their behavior directly affects the brand's reputation.Enough of that. We had Les Crustacés for soup. It was shellfish bisque spiced with Espelette pepper with shredded cod fish and crispy soft fish. I adored this soup. Fish soup is my all-time favorite, be it Chinese or Western, and this was very rich and you could have tiny bites of fish with every sip. The intensity almost resembled a lobster bisque. The crispy soft fish was devilish (I seldom go for deep fried food)... But haha who cared this time! It was indeed well cooked.
We picked one meat and one fish for the main. La plume Ibérique was a very well-chosen option. Honestly, the presentation was a little... I was not sure if the sauce was intended to be spread sporadically (suggested in the pic below), but anyhow, it tasted AWESOME! It was perfectly cooked that the texture was juicy and tender while the meat still remained a nice aroma of Iberico pork itself.The creamy polenta was great as well, cripsy surface covering the creamy mashed corn. If anyone is a fan of Iberico pork, you need to check this out!
Le Saint-Jacques, la crevette et le calamar was our fish dish with pan-fried scallop, prawn and squid in saffron mussel emulsion and riso pasta. This was a very light and decent dish too, but when compared to the previous course, I had no doubt but to eat the pork again.
Up to this point, I was more than half full but still could not resist to go for both Cheese and Dessert, one after another. The cheese trolley was rolled slowly to our table, and I could not wait and ask about Comté. Quite disappointed that they only had 18-month Comté, even a decent French Restaurant in Hong Kong could offer 24 month and top restaurants in Hong Kong offer 36 month... Anyhow, I'd still get some from the selection, with Reblouchon and 2 others.
I reckoned the efficiency of presenting desserts from Dessert Trolley was quite low, we only had it arrived in front of us more than 10 minutes after we had our Cheese... My personal preference was having a few options of desserts to pick. Robuchon has always excelled in adding creativity as a Wow factor to impress the diners. In an aesthetic point of view, normal pastries were rather anti-climatic. I could just buy a tarte au citron at Le Salon de Thé. Among the desserts, Mille-Feuille was nice, with vanilla cream in between thin crisps.
Food in general is quite good at Robuchon, as always. Just that my smiley was degraded to an OK because of the service. The brand represents a high standard of gastronomy, and I could not lower the bar for any of the categories (food, service, ambience) especially when some requests could not even be met... Perhaps I am a very difficult customer and I am hard to please. It's good to hold onto some principles if they are justifiable and reasonable, isn't it?
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