Azure Restaurant Slash Bar (已結業)

Classy was, as always, the first adjective in my mind after the 29-floor lift ride. Thanks to Visa Signature's promotion of $400-for-2 weekend semi-buffet brunch here, I paid several visits here for daytime enjoyment, but rarely for night time. Staff members here are mostly foreigners and are always friendly with smiles to help out.

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With dimly lit interior, the cocktail bar looked more stunning at night than how it was in daytime. Bottles of wine and cocktail overwhelmed the scene with splashes of colour. Though not being a long bar with array of seats, one can freely find himself a seat of comfort at the homey lounge area in proximity. There aren't many decent bars in town that are equipped with billiard tables, and this is surely the only one that I could think of, for chit-chats and quick games.

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This winding staircase was like connecting earth with heaven, but unfortunately (or fortunately?) the whole floor got booked and a farewell party was being held. Thinking that the 30th floor is the only place for dining as I had brunches there, I was, instead, brought into an exclusive room that I had never been to.

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I shouldn't have shown on my face a sign of anxiety, at least I hope you didn't ever notice any. It was like a hidden corner in my mind-map of Azure - no lofty windows and no scenic backdrop like 30th floor, but a decorative fireplace (with no real fire), suede couches and cushions. We were told that this private VIP room was only opened for individuals when the 30th floor was fully occupied.

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Planning to skim through the a la carte menu, we were shown this newly launched menu with a theme of Australia. I personally don't fancy for themes based on location/countries, but as long as the dishes look fit, I can still give them a go. This kind of theme usually appear at hotel buffets, like Bistro on the Mile of the Holiday Inn.

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It might be a little bit confusing to claim itself as a "set dinner" as how it is titled. In fact just being another a la carte menu, 6 dishes consisting of appetizers, main courses and dessert are listed for any combination, that is how "mix & match" truly means, again, as how it is titled. We were advised that each dish is sized like a main course, and given that I had just had sweet cocktails at happy hour, we ordered all except lamb shank and dessert.

[Remarks: for a la carte menu, please refer to the detailed one in the Rhombus app]

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Bread basket with tri-coloured butter

Bread basket with tri-coloured butter (complimentary)

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Bread basket is always a good companion to kick off the dinner, and is particularly important when your hands are freed after handing the menu over to the waiter. When you are not totally at ease, hands usually go to gadgets instead of looking into each other's eyes. Four pieces of warm bread (believed to be multi-grained ones?) were served in a wrap of cloth in a basket, accompanied by a dish of tri-coloured butter.

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Even without ordering any soup (again, I was not desperate for liquid after happy-hour drinks), it wasn't dry at all to enjoy warm chewiness of bread given the creamy highlight of the butter. Bread was prepared just right, with a crunchy crust and splendidly soft interior.

Three slices of butter were of different size, and we were told that the yellow one is the most popular one, so that it was made the largest portion!

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In ascending size, the green one was Herb Butter, with a taste of garlic and refreshing herbs; the orange one was dried tomato butter, with highlights in dense tomato taste and a sweep of appetizing sourness; and the yellow one was truffle butter, having the strongest taste among all and with real truffle pieces blended inside. Not only in ascending size, we were advised to taste one by one from their ascending size as they have ascending levels of richness in flavour!

Salt & Pepper Fried Calamari

Black truffle taste was incredibly intense, as if how it tastes like spaghetti in a black truffle sauce. Two pieces of bread each were just fine, so we rejected extra bread offer from the waiter.

Salt & Pepper Fried Calamari - w/ cucumber, garlic & chili caramel & lime mayonnaise $148

This should be somewhere between an appetizer and a main course - fried seafood but with elements of salad like cucumber and lime mayonnaise. Instead of Australian cuisine, I bet it is more inclined towards Mediterranean, which serves this with salt and lemon.

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"Garlic & chili caramel and lime mayonnaise" was undoubtedly the sauce, but they didn't blend into each other. The first remained as the main sauce to moisturize the crispy surface of squid, while the lime mayonnaise was just an add-on to dip into, like a salad dressing.

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In Chinese restaurants, squid rings are sliced into fine pieces but pieces of squids were significantly larger here. "Time is of the essence" (a twist of what I learnt in my law study), squid got rubbery and tough like rubber bands if overdone. Crispy layer wasn't that thick and thus not that oil-absorbing and greasy. Squid was sweet and fresh in taste and didn't disappoint me, seemingly not so fried with neutralisation of cucumber cubes.

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Garlic Butter Prawns -w/ fresh baguette $158

Probably brought by the maritime climate of Australia in the design of this themed menu, the second seafood dish came in two large grilled prawns with baguette slices (grilled as well!). Basically not soaked in sauce, prawns were therefore served on a dark stone plank.

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Seasoning should play an important role, on a par with freshness of prawns. No extra sauce slipped off to the dish, butter with rich garlic content was well absorbed and clinged to the prawn's surface. Sauté of garlic pieces, having a golden brown appeal, remained on the prawn's head. Finely cut into two halves, absorption of the sauté was ensured, maximizing the surface area that sauté was spread on.

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Size of prawn was big enough to fulfill one's craving. Flesh could be easily peeled off into slices. Believing to be tiger prawns which are famous for firm flesh texture, flesh was held together well and just needed a bit of marinating. A mouthful of bouncy prawn flesh was never that amazing with garlic and pepper scent.

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For the baguette pieces, I admit that it was a bit odd to appear on a dish without sauce. Luckily spread with butter before charred, baguette wasn't that tough to taste. May not be at all the focus, these baguette pieces should be either put to use on dishes with sauce or put with more butter.

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Australian Mussels - steamed with white wine creamy garlic & fresh herb infused sauce, & charred baguette $308

Although I haven't been to Australia, oysters, followed by mussels, are signature seafood items that directly appear on my mind. Australian blue mussels is the genre which is famous for sweet and smooth texture, with a downside of being smaller in size. Baguette appeared again, but this time with a better timing as creamy white wine broth got its best companion.

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Other than the creamy-white broth, chopped pieces of herbs like onion, parsley and garlic played a big role too. Herbal scent blended well with the creamy broth, though not in strong scent of white wine (probably evaporated?).

I appreciated the adequate amount of broth that enabled repeated dipping of mussels and baguette. The broth, though rich in flavour, wasn't too thick to click on mussels. A good dip could just be this delicious briny thing.

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For mussels, though not in a large quantity as I expected from the price, they tasted smooth and fresh as how they are famed for. Not all kinds of food perform better because of its size, right?

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Slow-cooked Wagyu Beef Rump

Charred baguette pieces went so well with the broth like a sponge. I bet we could ask for more just like the bread basket, but we were perfectly fine for the portion. A bit overpriced for this item, though you could argue anyhow with its quality.

Slow-cooked Wagyu Beef Rump - Mixed Spice Rubbed, with beer-battered onion rings & aubergine purée $328

Beef is always my guilty pleasure - not only in calories, it's that my skin allergy would get worse after consuming beef. Nonetheless, beef is in my top priority when having fine-dining opportunities. Beef is something easy to handle, but difficult to master. Slices of wagyu beef rump were placed like dominoes, with aubergine purée on the stone plank like an artpiece! This is what #foodisart means?

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The art of beer-batter is indeed prevalent in onion rings and fish & chips. Coated with beer batter, in fact with some chemical reaction which I couldn't probably name, beer is a special substance which makes a light and crispy crust but keeps the inside tender even after deep frying. Onion "rings", though didn't seem to be in a form of rings, appeared in alluring golden brown.

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Below the onion rings there laid thick slices of wagyu beef rump. Mentioned in another Chinese review on the Princess cafe in Causeway Bay which gave an unforgettable experience of slow-cooked iberico pork, slow-cook method is used to preserve moisture while allowing high temperate to dissolve tissues so as to make meat stay juicy and tender. Firstly slow-cooked to hold the beefy flavour and keep the tender texture, then grilled on its surface to get a crispy and smoky, charred flavour, this beef rump was basically unbeatable, let alone the quality of wagyu being so prime in the world of beef.

Not being asked for the doneness, it should be, judging from appearance, medium to medium well done. There was a thick band of light pink through the middle, but with browned area more than pink one.

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Wagyu is a genre of beef having higher marbling scores for intramuscular fat in muscles, but these slices were less oily and greasy as those I had in Japanese restaurants. Neither rubbery nor dry, these beef slices were strong in flavour and tender in texture, though improvement could be on selection of parts that had higher fat content.

Good beef could stand well alone, and the small amount of smoked eggplant purée on the side served like as a decor instead of functional seasoning. Could be a try to dip on to give a creamy and smooth sweep if you found the beef slices too lonely without any sauce.

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Even without skyscrappers as backdrop, my first meal with a la carte dishes went well with these Australian-themed dishes. No matter how dishes are themed, after all they are gimmicks that draw attention from curious cats, but not us - practical youths that we admit us to be. Famed for drinks in my mind, Azure deserves another form of existence in my mind, to be on the list of fine dining.

Getting the Rhombus app installed for a 20% off discount is truly an allure - around $440 per head after 20% off discount and 10% service charge. Worth the pay for exclusivity (surprisingly), food and caring service.

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Splashes of colours look even more mysterious in the reflection when looking through the glasses. Seemingly not fully satisfied after a scrumptious meal, it is still you who truly look into the eyes and figuring out the regret. Led by a staff, we headed up to the Open Terrace, which is different from the patio on 30th floor, through a special staircase.

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Ironically being a floor un-numbered, it was my first time to be here, with the spectacular 270-degree view of the Hong Kong skyline. It was basically as large as the floor area downstairs, with lounge chair and cosy seats.

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This alfresco Open Terrace is just open occasionally for events and it was just an ad-hoc request that we were catered for. As it wasn't open for the night, it was just an empty terrace. No loud music but serendipity.

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After all these years, we were no longer teenagers that yelled, swang and screamed in the alleys of Lan Kwai Fong. Whatever food pics that you noticed me taking, they wouldn't have included this one I took when we were waiting for the lift to G/F. Men's suit is always a sign of grown-up; but on the other side of authority, there lies responsibility.

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