Thursday, January 22, 2015

Le Bistro Winebeast (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

It's been a while since I last read so many positive reviews about a small little bistro in Wanchai so I decided to act quickly this time.

One of our offices is located very close to Le Bistro Winebeast so I swear that I have walked by this place a zillion times by now. But all along I have seen it as a wine store and never realize it doubles as a French bistro too.

And there's head chef Johan Ducroquet. I've heard he's working magic. It's also noteworthy that he has a solid resume having trained at a number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris (including le Chateaubriand) and worked extensively in France, Spain and South America before.

 

At lunch, they are offering their a la carte menu as well as a 4-course tasting menu at $448. An optional wine pairing is available for another $100. But we are having a 5-hour meeting in the next hour so the set lunch at $150 suits me just fine.



Everything started in a promising manner beginning with a silky smooth pumpkin soup. I like the modern twist of adding fresh squid and lemongrass cream to the equation to make the taste richer (6.5/10).



But the wheels began to fall off from here. The grilled mackerel with sautéed carrots and seasonal mushrooms was a little fishy and lacking flavors (3.5/10).



Almost equally uninspiring was the pork tenderloin with virtually the same supporting cast. The pork, which was about half-cooked, was desperately lacking some seasoning.

I was peeking over my shoulder to see if my neighbours' pork tenderloin were also as undercooked as mine but only to find that theirs were mostly well-cooked. So why such a big discrepancy there (3/10)?



There's a black coffee or lemon (or berry) green tea that came with the set.



Obviously disappointed as I was expecting something comparable to Serge et le phoque but that never happened.


Food Rating: 4/10
Price: $$$
Address: 15 McGregor Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Wan Chai
Tel: +852 2479-6833
Website: www.wine-beast.com/le-bistro


Post a Comment

Please tell us what you think