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2016-06-26
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Several details made the opening of the Seafood Room bound to hell-hot media spotlight - first being its sweeping vistas of the harbour, second being its large floor space with a restaurant on one floor and a bar on the other, third being the fame of James Cornwall, who is the former executive chef at J Sheekey in London. While everything seems so prime and attractive, my foodie friend and I longed for a sunny day to pay a lunch visit. With much expectation, the scenery and 'hardwares' didn't le
Several details made the opening of the Seafood Room bound to hell-hot media spotlight - first being its sweeping vistas of the harbour, second being its large floor space with a restaurant on one floor and a bar on the other, third being the fame of James Cornwall, who is the former executive chef at J Sheekey in London. While everything seems so prime and attractive, my foodie friend and I longed for a sunny day to pay a lunch visit. With much expectation, the scenery and 'hardwares' didn't let us down, however food wasn't that worth its quality and portion given its rather marked-up price - perhaps a common feature for well-known eateries featuring oppulence over its food.
While some new buildings at the Tsim Sha Tsui harbourfront are still in construction, one must not miss the impact of Tower 535 in Causeway Bay which is tall enough to offer sweeping panoramic vistas. The superbly furnished tower isn't all rented yet, with most floors being offices and several being restaurants and gyms. Perched on the 26th and 27th floor of Tower 535, the scenic advantage is simply unrivalled, and is nowhere to compare with similar rooftop eateries like Wooloomooloo Prime at Soundwill Plaza or ToTT.
Firstly with colourful bell jars like welcoming you to an aquarium, then with enormous chandeliers clinging and the view with skycrapers on both sides of the harbour through floor-to-ceiling windows, it oozes oppulence and glamour, letting diners indulge in the seaview galore. One can request for these seats at the window side, however we booked it too late thus not having the luck to enjoy seafood while facing the sea.
Even if you can't manage to get those prime seats, others in the restaurant are not bad either. With sunlight lighting up the interior, having inland skyscrapers as the backdrop isn't turning us off. Cosy seats here are better to accommodate bigger group of diners as well. Nothing to lose.
Chandeliers that are lit even in daytime are undoubtedly the focus, but in fact there are other artpieces by famous artists (including the actor Adrien Brody) hanging around the interior if you walk around. Other than the welcoming corridor featuring sea creatures, the interior is mainly with modern and vibrant design that isn't forcefully adding in elements of sea.
It is not difficult to spot the open plan kitchen where chefs and helpers were industriously preparing for our food. Not as close as how you can observe chefs at Omakase meals, watching how people work for your food adds vibrancy and youth to the grandiose scene.
As we visited the restaurant for lunch, time was rather limited and we didn't spare time going up to the rooftop bar. There is a bar area on this restaurant floor as well, with a small area having alfresco cosy sofa seats. I am sure that seating is even better up there though.
Touring around the restaurant is like visiting either an aquarium or an art museum, but we can't wait satiating our palate. Not having anything ordered, we found an octopus on our plate! (well...)
One way to try posh restaurants is to go for its lunch, and this is no exception. With the factor of prime location and luxurious decor added in, price of a 2-course lunch is way above average when compared with restaurants in Central that serve decent lunch but not focusing on seafood. A 2-course one being $240, and a 3-course one being $280, appetisers, main courses as well as desserts have 4 to 5 options for you to choose from.
$40 more for a course (I bet either appetiser or dessert) is acceptable, but selection of desserts isn't luring us to pick any of them. With limited budget and time, I suggest going for appetiser plus a main course.
If you come for dinner, be prepared for your budget as part of it depends on weight of seafood, just like how you eat in seafood restaurants in Sai Kung. Owned by a Russian hospitality company, the Bulldozer Group, the Seafood Room undoubtedly puts its focus, or perhaps 80% of the menu on seafood items, which should disappoint carnivores or vegos. Although the group is Russian, cooking methods vary greatly, including Asian (eg. hot dish and Cantonese style), Mediterranean (eg. carpaccio and tartare) and South American (eg. ceviche). Rawness or dishes not requiring much cooking but preparation dominate the menu, with each dish around $200-400 on average, showing the restaurant's focus on freshness of seafood, the true taste of which comes natural and without camouflage when served raw.
There is a big fish tank and a corner with cracked ice, showcasing its stock of seafood. Not being a connoisseur in seafood, if I were to come for dinner, I wouldn't be the one to pick one from the tank.
We ordered two 2-course lunch sets, then servers proceeded pouring olive oil and vinegar onto our plates before the bread basket was served. Service is generally fine, but details are missing - the server wasn't even aware of these drops of vinegar being off the plate to the table until we asked for tissue to clean this up. No, not traces of ants, don't be scared off.
Bread basket
The basket was filled with several kinds of bread, ranging from the slightly oily crisp to an eye-catching bamboo charcoal bread.
Bamboo charcoal bread in black was the best among all, with crispy crust and sweet aftertaste that went well even without vinegar. However, the big pieces were relatively dry and not even warm when served. We asked for refill for the bamboo charcoal bread but not the others.Appetisers: Summer Vegetable Tart and Seafood Room Ceviche
Summer Vegetable Tart
Summer Vegetable Tart
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Really fit for its name, the tart offered a refreshing start with a taste of summer greens. Salad greens were all fresh and herbaceous, including arugula, pea shoots, mizuna on top and cooked spinach melted with goatcheese at the bottom. Some of the greens offered strong pungent flavour, and levels of greens well oozed the gradient of flavour being light to strong from the top to the bottom - the gradient ended with tangy, ageing flavour of goatcheese. The tart base provided a not-so-buttery support to these refreshing greens, which made the tart fantastc on all fronts.
Seafood Room Ceviche
Seafood Room Ceviche
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Dry plantains were crispy, though not delivering its fruity flavour much due to sweetened effect after drying.
Focus should be on the raw salmon and sea bass cubes amid onion, tomato, green apple and cilantro in orange, mango and lime sauce. Salmon offered a rich, fatty taste which was just balanced off by the tangy and zesty sauce. Sea bass was an impressive one as well with natural sweetness. The only thing to murmur about is just the portion of the dish.
Mains: Barramundi and Sea Bass
We ordered two "similar but different" dish of fish for mains - similarity is that Barramundi (盲槽) is a.k.a. "Asian sea bass", and the difference is that ordering sea bass costs us an additional $50. Is it worth paying for?Barramundi w/ artichoke panzanella
Having the barramundi pan-fried is luring with its crispy golden surface. Artichoke panzanella, a kind of veggies that is quite a stranger to me, was placed under the fish like installing wheels to a wooden board to make a cart! Drizzles of pesto sauce at the bottom made it further aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
When compared to the sea bass that will be introduced below, barramundi here wasn't really thick which in turn couldn't satisfy much of our palate. Crispy surface is worth our applause, but texture and the taste of flesh was rather plain. This type of fish tastes rather mild, and with no special sauce to bring out its sweetness but just drizzles of salt as seasoning, it didn't taste bad, but not outstanding either. Artichoke panzanella was served as a tomato-based veggie as sides, which were pleasing to our appetite.
Sea Bass w/ potato, olives, tomato salsa (+$50)
Adding $50 is well matched with its better taste and texture, however making this 2-course meal to be around $300 (not even having service charge included) which makes it not a very good deal.
Plating is similar to the previous one, but topped with cubes of tomato and placed with potato at the bottom. Golden edge of the fried sea bass is not to be missed!
Apparently this is much thicker and larger in size than the previous one. It was fried just right, with tomato salsa not adulterating the delicate flavour and sweetness of sea bass. However, the skin wasn't thoroughly fried as the barramundi, as you may notice that other than the edge, the remaining part wasn't shining in golden yellow and not crispy either.
This dish was a lot more flavourful, with the highlight of tomato salsa and slices of cherry tomatoes remaining intact and just slightly grilled.
Potatoes are with traces of grill as well, showing a bit of attention to details on sides. In general, this was perceived much of a better main among the two, however costing us $50 more too, making it costing even more than a plain 3-course lunch set.
Black Currant Fruit Tea
We ordered a hot Americano and this black currant fruit tea for the drinks, the highlight of which goes to the latter. It came in a large porcelain pot and tea cup in Chinese style, simple but elegant. It is quite a big pot, even without addition of hot water, the volume sufficed filling up 5-6 tea cups! A fruity and sweet tea marked the end of the lunch in a role like sweetness in desserts.
$280/head is deemed as quite a luxurious lunch for me, seriously not within my usual lunch budget. An "OK" was given to this meal simply because of the portion as well as rather plain and not-so-special taste of fish in our mains. Our high hopes for the Seafood Room come from its famous chef, unfortunately aren’t well attained, though not completely dashed either. Its dining atmosphere and stunning vistas is of course unrivalled, but food and service needs a bit of polish to match with its marked-up price to make diners return.
Let alone being either an aquarium, an art gallery or a lookout venue, the Seafood Room is never expected to be just a "room" to satiate both palate and palette. With all its fancy elements, food is certainty an area to create an appropriate C/P value. We do hope to be back!
题外话/补充资料：
Menu is available at http://www.seafoodroom.hk/menu/all-projects/ .
(以上食记乃用户个人意见 , 并不代表OpenRice之观点。)
张贴
