Having been to Akrame next door, I knew this place was going to be good.I was looking forward to dinner because they specialize in meat and potatoes.During lunch and dinner priced at HK$448, diners can indulge in L’Entrée, La Viande, L’Accompagnement, and Le Dessert.Started with thinly sliced smoked beef that has matured in 50 days, it was flavourful and appetizing before dinner.We also had the Pata Negra Bellota Pure Origins Iberian which is waxy.The cheese was my favourite because it had a lig
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Having been to Akrame next door, I knew this place was going to be good.
I was looking forward to dinner because they specialize in meat and potatoes. During lunch and dinner priced at HK$448, diners can indulge in L’Entrée, La Viande, L’Accompagnement, and Le Dessert.
Started with thinly sliced smoked beef that has matured in 50 days, it was flavourful and appetizing before dinner. We also had the Pata Negra Bellota Pure Origins Iberian which is waxy.
I liked the risotto because it was rice shaped pasta which gives it a better flavour. For the mains, we had the beef flank and the Iberian Pork Rib. The pork was thick and juicy.
Then came the potatoes, my favourite aspect because I love potatoes!!! There were five different types!! Gratin Dauphinois, Pommes Darphin, Sauteed Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes and Pommes Dauphines which are unlimited.
The pomme Darphin is amazing, crispy and fluffy in the middle! For dessert, we finished with Custard with Vanilla Ice Cream and Caramel Profitoclaire with Chocolate Tonka. The Caramel Profitoclaire with Chocolate Tonka was really nice, it was covered in a strong caramel that was not too sweet covered in crunchy hazelnuts.
More casual French restaurants at a not so casual price, more rustic meat and potato menu, more steak-frites like dish with unlimited fries…okay. BUT unlimited pommes darphin, dauphines, gratin dauphinois, sautéed potatoes and mashed potatoes. You can try them all and encore at any point, my inner Minion screamed with joy at Atelier Vivanda. POH-TAAA-TOH-OH-OH~~Here for lunch on a Sunday (a $298+10% set with an entrée, infinite poh-taaa-toh and greens). The staff encouraged us to try the reinte
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More casual French restaurants at a not so casual price, more rustic meat and potato menu, more steak-frites like dish with unlimited fries…okay. BUT unlimited pommes darphin, dauphines, gratin dauphinois, sautéed potatoes and mashed potatoes. You can try them all and encore at any point, my inner Minion [not goddess, okaaay] screamed with joy at Atelier Vivanda. POH-TAAA-TOH-OH-OH~~
Here for lunch on a Sunday (a $298+10% set with an entrée, infinite poh-taaa-toh and greens). The staff encouraged us to try the reinterpreted burger but our eyes were on the basic – steak! Lunch began with bread and Caractère olive oil. It was peppery and uplifting to the palate with a tiny bit of heat. Not the usual raw grassy olive flavor. I would say the bread was there just so we could "eat" the whole bottle of Caractère. Soaked up those bread! The bottle stayed through the meal and the staff also suggested to pour the oil on e.v.e.r.y. dish to come.
We tried the highly recommended thinly sliced 50-day matured smoked beef and it was addictive. I wasn't a fan of raw red meat because of the coppery (bloody) taste and felt a bit caveman like; also not a prosciutto person because the high fat % made it gamey, if unlucky. The smokiness of Atelier Vivanda's lean veal solved all my problems. The meat was shaved upon ordering with the sexy black Swedlinghaus meat slicer; the machine was spun manually with a wheel and you could hear the knife going back and forth *swoon with goosebumps. With the Caractère, the meat tasted like peppercorn roast beef and melted instantly in the mouth. Mmmm.
Then the salad and potatoes arrived (the steaks followed shortly and I had a great time bouncing back and forth between all the dishes). We chose the pommes darphin, pommes dauphines and gratin dauphinois *starch freaks now roar. The darphin with chive and red pepper flakes were crispy hash browns. Next, I was curious on why the inside of the dauphines looked a little grey in color and tasted spiced. It was nutmeg, interesting and yum! The gratin dauphinois seemed to have a bit of mushroom in it and it was so creamy and aromatic. I could envisage digging through a pan like this all day in front of the TV.
Entrees were Black Angus flank, persillé Black Angus and Iberian pork rib. Thumbs up to the chefs who liked to stay minimal - by finding great meat cuts, without even salting the meat much and presenting only the very original taste of the ingredients. I especially liked my flank for the texture. It was beefy, toothsome and still tender enough to slice through easily. Due to the flank’s lean parallel strips of muscular tissue, it was not as heavy as eating meaty sirloin or ribeye. Some would say steaks here were under seasoned, like my friend, so the staff was also very generous in bringing over some crystal clear Maldon sea salt flakes.
The pork rib was extremely soft and juicy, and taking the staff’s suggestion on having it medium rare was a good move. Yes, you heard it right. Medium rare for pork and this was how confident this restaurant was.
The environment was unpretentious and comfortably lit; white, beige, grey and black color tones; 2 cow pictures on the wall; a clock on the ceiling; 2-person tables were slightly on the small side but tables for 4 above were fine; and some deadly steak knives slid into slots at every 4.5 inches thick table. The knife design was slick but my hand kept subconsciously turning it to the wrong side when eating (the slanted side, which I thought was understandable). *Couples and business people would have a great time here because everyone would play nice when knives are at easy reach. You wouldn’t want to upset the other parties, do you?
Male server each wore a smooth piece of blacksmith leather apron. Who doesn’t like men in leather! Atelier Vivanda is by Michelin 2-star Akrame Benallal, whose restaurant is just next door. I should try that out, too.
题外话/补充资料：
The Caractère, designer knives and leather aprons are up for sale on the spot if you like them. I wish the servers are, too.
(以上食记乃用户个人意见 , 并不代表OpenRice之观点。)
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张贴
评分
味道
环境
服务
卫生
抵食
用餐日期
2015-07-26
用餐途径
堂食
人均消费
$400 (午餐)
推介美食
Black Angus flank
pommes darphin
pommes dauphines
gratin dauphinois
thinly sliced 50-day matured smoked beef
$198
pommes darphin, pommes dauphines and gratin dauphinois
Chef Akrame Bennallal of the 1* Akrame has imported yet another one of his restaurants from Paris into Hong Kong - Atelier Vivanda which is a contemporary French bistro specializing in meat and potatoes. The new restaurant is located just down the street from Akrame with the same sleek and stark decor while the design of the semi al fresco dining area in front similar to 22 Ships as it seems you can sit on the outside of the restaurant as well. The menu is simple and small with a 4 course set me
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Chef Akrame Bennallal of the 1* Akrame has imported yet another one of his restaurants from Paris into Hong Kong - Atelier Vivanda which is a contemporary French bistro specializing in meat and potatoes. The new restaurant is located just down the street from Akrame with the same sleek and stark decor while the design of the semi al fresco dining area in front similar to 22 Ships as it seems you can sit on the outside of the restaurant as well.
The menu is simple and small with a 4 course set menu to choose from for $448 with your choice of starter, main, side and dessert. I was here with a girlfriend on a Saturday night and perhaps because it is still quite new, the restaurant was half full and not too noisy which was great for a night of chit chat!
After we ordered, we were given some baguette in a cute paper bag along with olive oil. The baguette wasn't warm or soft enough while the olive oil was interesting as it was spicy!
The Le Croquavor is one of the signature dishes here which I was really excited to try! Dubbed "a way of reinterpreting the burger", the beef patty came between two thick pieces of toasted baguette and a layer of comte cheese. Unfortunately I was more impressed with the flavorful bread than the beef itself which tasted a bit oily to be honest. The "burger" was also hard to cut with the knife provided so the beef patty fell apart while I was trying to cut it into bite size portions. I think it would have been better if it had arrived pre-cut in half already.
Verdict - while the concept is good and the price is fair, I was hoping for a bit of a wow factor like my previous experience at Akrame but nothing really stood out in my mind based on my experience on this night. I'm still on the fence here and don't want to rule it out yet so maybe I will go back to try the duck breast and other cuts of beef next time.
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Two months ago, I started hearing about Michelin starred chef Akrame Benallal trying to double our pleasure by opening a new contemporary bistro next to his eponymous restaurant Akrame on Ship Street. It's finally ready for its soft opening this Monday and I decided to come and check it out immediately.Atelier Vivanda, which is labeled as a "meat and potato" restaurant by the chef himself, will certainly be a welcome addition to the city's diversified food scene. In case you are wondering, this
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Two months ago, I started hearing about Michelin starred chef Akrame Benallal trying to double our pleasure by opening a new contemporary bistro next to his eponymous restaurant Akrame on Ship Street. It's finally ready for its soft opening this Monday and I decided to come and check it out immediately.
Atelier Vivanda, which is labeled as a "meat and potato" restaurant by the chef himself, will certainly be a welcome addition to the city's diversified food scene. In case you are wondering, this is the fourth Atelier Vivanda in the world and first of its kind outside Paris although the chef has publicly hinted that there will be many more to come with London, Brussels and Berlin as the likely destination.
I have grown to enjoy casual dining these days and this one certainly provided a very relaxed ambiance with a butcher’s studio backdrop, bar table and more.
But first, my apologies for the poor quality of these photos. For whatever reason, I had mistakenly turned on the wrong photographic mode and as a result, these pictures did not turn out the way I wanted. Perhaps I got a little too carried away after bumping into a certain member of the Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王) who also happened to be a guest here tonight. Strangely enough, he actually smiled to us which was rarely seen from this mild mannered superstar.
Anyways, back to the food menu here for a moment. They are currently serving a 3-course set dinner ($448) where one gets to choose between four starters, six main dishes and four desserts. There's also a complimentary salad and choice of potato (what would be a meat-and-potato restaurant be without potatoes?) being served with each main course.
The restaurant manager certainly did her job going through each and every dish with us and it really didn't take very long for us to make our decisions too.
Duck leg terrine with vinegar and baby onions, 3.5/5 I had their duck leg terrine to kick off this dinner and it was pretty good. The duck leg meat was firm and savory. Pretty nice.
Veal carpaccio with passion fruit and coffee, 2.5/5 Less successful was the veal carpaccio which tasted a little more like normal ham, although serving it with passion fruit and coffee was kind of slick.
Duck breast, 4/5 No garnish on this one. Just a simple seared duck breast from France with great texture. The portion was more than generous to say the least. I tried to avoid the crispy skin as I often did with any poultry but this was too much to pass up. The meat was tender and flavorful. Definitely the best dish of the night.
French yellow chicken breast, 3/5 I thought the French yellow chicken was slightly disappointing. Love the incredibly tender chicken breast but the expected rich flavor was missing (apart from the hint of salt).
Caramel profitoclaire with chocolate tonka, 4/5 I was trying to decide between their custard and caramel profitoclaire and our server helped to make that decision easy for me when he promptly told me that the profitoclaire is real heavy. That's exactly what I was looking for.
This was simply a huge cream puff with cream custard in the middle and chocolate sauce from top to bottom. Real fulfilling stuff.
It was everything one would expect from a modern French bistro although I was kind of hoping that the talented chef might have something special up his sleeves, which unfortunately didn't really materialize.
影片
餐廳走 Bistro 路線，風格輕鬆自然，落地玻璃大門能引進自然光，讓客人安坐其中，倍覺舒適愜意。
翻了一下午市餐單，點了 Iberian Pork Rib 和 Le Croquavor Burger 兩款主菜，另外再單點了一些頭盤品嚐。不得不提，這裡的午餐是可以無限添加薯仔配菜，碰巧我們都是薯仔迷，心裡同時暗呼 “不 . 得 . 了 .”
先來單點的 Thinly Sliced Smoked Beef Matured 50days，肉味超濃，質感軟嫩，蘸一點香辛味橄欖油同吃，味道更加討好。
不知下次再到灣仔吃飯時，自己能否堅持光顧心水老店，還是像今次一樣，抵受不了新餐廳的誘惑呢，無奈. . . . . .
