影片
更多
2016-11-24
4424 瀏覽
Dull and lacking execution.At the end of the day if the butter and mint tea are the hilights of the evening, someone in the kitchen probably has no clothes on.8 of us had dinner here last night, in this delightful Dioxin laden dystopian wasteland. BYOB worked well for us and luckily the HKD 600 per head bill did not leave the impression of having been excessively kicked in the groin.First impression: the website with it's clumsy attempts at offhand flippancy, only confirms the English language
At the end of the day if the butter and mint tea are the hilights of the evening, someone in the kitchen probably has no clothes on.
8 of us had dinner here last night, in this delightful Dioxin laden dystopian wasteland. BYOB worked well for us and luckily the HKD 600 per head bill did not leave the impression of having been excessively kicked in the groin.
First impression: the website with it's clumsy attempts at offhand flippancy, only confirms the English language is best left in the hands of those qualified to use it.
The restaurant was brightly lit, so one could actually see the food- marvelous innovation for Hong Kong, where lighting 'consultants' appear to be dominant these days. Top marks for bright lights.
Music- none. Utterly fabulous- again top marks for allowing customers to converse.
1. Amuse bouche. I must have missed the explanation of what this was. I couldn't tell but apparently it was a confection of puff pastry duck and red pepper.5/10.
2. An enormous slab of butter arrived for each individual diner. No one bothered to explain why this butter was special. Perhaps it wasn't special, but I reached for a spare Crestor and spread a bit on the bread.
3. Bread. Obviously not made in house, lacking salt and a poor impersonation of sourdough if that what it was supposed to be. My usual dining partner Would have here stated "this much bread implies there's not much food coming" 4/10
4. Menu description-"roasted pumpkin soup, first hard squash of the season, roasted pumpkin 2 more ways, repetition is key, browned butter toasted seeds, of course". What tosh.
Well-pumpkin, squash or whatever you want to call it is frankly culinary elevator music. Indeed, portentously announcing "these are the first Japanese squash of the year" is never going to be up there with "these are the first Alba truffles" or "these are the first percebes from Galicia this year". And so it proved- roasted pumpkin 2 ways was like having a double hernia operation. Oddly the roasted seeds weren't even on the plate- "of course". The "soup" tasted only of a heavy chicken stock. Note to chef- a properly executed squash veloute finished with cream and egg yolks might lift this dish. Takes effort though.4/10.
5. Menu description "Cold- water seafood terrine. Cooling but not chilly, celery root remoulade,(it usually is celery root chef- nothing new there) classic preparation, other celery things not so classic". This was ok- too much gelatine and a turgid brown colour, a bit like the tap water on a 40 year old Kowloon housing estate. There was some remoulade- I couldn't taste any mustard. There were also random rounds of vegetables strewn on the plate.4/10.
6. Menu Description: "Roasted Pluma of pork, Iberian Spanish cut, roasted apples, from the French countryside, braised Italian fennel, viva Europe" oh dear.
So the mad dash to find Ever more esoteric and unfathomable cuts of meat careers ever onwards. This is apparently the porcine equivalent of hanger steak or onglet. What next "saddle of hamster"? It tasted ok. A chop would have been much better.
There was a purée of apples resembling baby food pooled below the pork. The fennel lacked coloration and was insufficiently braised. Other vegetables were lurking on the plate. They'd been cut so artfully I couldn't work out what they were. There was a very poor attempt at a "cider vinegar gastrique" which was too thin, utterly devoid of acidity and lacking flavour. Chef was proud of this though... And offered seconds, which were poking declined. Oddest of all on this dish was a small cylinder of something akin to paper pulp. I thought it might be heart of Palm. When chef was quizzed the chefly response "it's a sort of fennel flan with a bit of Parmesan. We don't know what to call it" was culinary comedy of the highest order. We didn't know what to call it either other than 'devoid of flavour'. 4/10
7. Menu description" dark chocolate "cake' not like your momma's, bits of orange things, oh the mysterious wonder of the unknown" I was at this point fumbling for the ejector seat button and the humane killer..
So the chocolate deluxe was very nice. There was a poorly executed quenelle of a nice mandarin sorbet which was nice. There were orange segments which given the chemical taste may have come from a tin- I didn't have the heart to ask. Alternatively they MIGHT have been sous vided for a couple of hours.. Hmm.. Also on the plate were 2 more examples of chefs utter lack of skill with gelatine. One jelly was clear and the other opaque. Both were utterly devoid of flavour.
8. Coffee or mint tea. I chose the mint tea- mint leaves steeped in boiling water. Delightful, full of clean purity of flavour. An utter joy after what had preceded.
-8/10
On a final note the website states "those who know come up
the back". The mind boggles and one might add "those who know won't come back".
張貼