Monday, September 16, 2013

Brian McKenna@The Courtyard (Beijing, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Celebrated Irish chef Brian McKenna, former number one at Blu Lobster of Shangrila Beijing, is now the man behind the transformed The Courtyard. As a matter of fact, reading from the signs in front of the one-time Beijing's finest restaurant, we noticed the difference already - "Brian McKenna @ The Courtyard". The message loud and clear.

A devotee to molecular gastronomy, Brian McKenna has always got the flair for the drama. His fusion of Mediterranean and Asian cuisines is a reflection of his contemporary and innovative way of cooking acquired through his long and extensive culinary journey.



It's safe to say that the arrival of Brian McKenna has injected new life into The Courtyard. Even the main dining has taken a facelift to welcome their new head chef. 



And of course, the view to the forbidden city, one of the strong selling points here, is untouchable. Too bad that the East Gate was under scaffolding during the time of our visit.



The first-floor private dining room can host up to 12-15 people and has a much better view of the Forbidden City.



First thing first, we decided to have a little bit of alcohol to get our adrenaline going before our much anticipated dinner. Once again Brian McKenna showed off his Asian fusion in his very exclusive Zodiac cocktails. 

Each drink is named for each animal from the Chinese zodiac. I ordered a "Rat" which was a combination of vodka, yakult, lychee and rose syrup. It's not my zodiac but it's very thirst quenching.

 

To start things off, we were presented with two welcome dishes - fresh olives and crispy pig skins. We found the olives quite refreshing but the pig skins were a lot more spicy than we thought.



The amuse bouche was nothing less than brilliant. A trio of nibbles included a test tube of warm green pea soup, a rich foie gras mousse on a caramel rice biscuit topped with a coconut foam and last by not least, a mini oyster tucked inside a lime skin, topped with a lime-flavored frost (7.5/10).



After 20 minutes, our starters finally showed up and it was a beauty, which they called "Salad of American crab".

The crab meat was of very high quality and beautifully presented along with mackerel tartar, caviar, pickled cucumber, cucumber jelly, avocado pureé, corn juice and green apple. That was both adorable and savory.



My second starter, a sautéed king scallop with different cauliflower textures and flavors of Morocco was another remarkable masterpiece.

The king scallop was almost perfectly sautéed and the cauliflower gazpacho, tempura, pureé and cous cous combined to add contrasting textures to the mix. The only thing I didn't like about the dish was the dominance of the Morocco spices.



After a 20-minute wait, my poached salmon belly with grilled foie gras eventually arrived.

I was told the salmon belly had been slow-cooked for some 60 hours but apart from its super tender texture, it lacked any kind of flavor. The worst part of all was its presentation though. Look carefully and you realized that the salmon belly was broken into a few small pieces.

And I was not even going to question the odd marriage between salmon and foie gras here



After a subpar fish course, it's time for our meat course called Beef and bone to shine. The Beef refers to this slow-cooked beef tenderloin that was poached to medium rare and served on a bed of mushrooms and onions.



More successful was the bone marrow tempura that was served on the side. Underneath the tempura was a wonderful layer of braised beef with red wine. It was much more flavorful than the beef tenderloin.



We were hoping that we could get a glimpse of Brian McKenna's signature dessert, Terracotta Warrior - a chocolate terracotta warrior kneeling on a pool of chocolate soil. Inside the chocolate terracotta warrior was supposed to be rich mandarin soup.

But instead we got the Taste of Tokyo which was more or less of the same concept. A chocolate sculpture of a Japanese girl with a coconut cream interior served with matcha tea mousse and yuzu sorbet.




The starters were wonderful displays of Brian McKenna's mind-blowing cooking techniques but things went downhill from there starting our main courses. Another disappointing effort came from the slow pacing which has put a dent into the overall dining experience.




Food Rating: 6/10
Price: ¥¥¥¥¥
Address: 95 Donghuamen Avenue (East Gate of the Forbidden City), Beijing, China
Closest Metro Station: Tiananmen East station
Tel: +86 (10) 6526-8883
Website: www.bmktc.com




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