Last week, Jelloman was still talking about last Christmas in Tokyo and how much everyone enjoyed the trip. Little nugget has also secretly complained about us not traveling at all this year. Needless to say, it has been a crappy year that all of us needed some way to go on a rant about it!
While a stroll in Tokyo is likely impossible for the foreseeable future, a taste of top-notch French-Japanese cuisine is not entirely out of the question, thanks to the fact that we live in the Asian city with the second most Michelin stars behind Tokyo.
Zest by Konishi is a modern French-Japanese restaurant that I have been very high on the last couple of years. Behind Chef Mitsuru Konishi and his team, Zest aims to deliver innovative French cuisine with premium Japanese ingredients; and they did just that while capturing a star along the way.
Little nugget wasn't with us this afternoon so for the first time in a long while, we could finally enjoy a meal without him hounding us relentlessly.
Lunch started off in a refreshing manner thanks to this tomato gazpacho, served with olive oil caviar, burrata cheese and diced cucumber. There was also a mix of red bell pepper and tomato purée on the bottom bringing a fair amount of acidity to the dish. A perfect palate cleanser.
Our amuse bouche was followed by a warm brioche and sour dough bread.
As usual, our bread was accompanied by some lightly salted butter from Hokkaido, matched with matcha powder and soy milk sauce oil.
It was Jelloman's first visit to Zest so she had no idea on how to kick off her meal here. Since she was pretty impressed with the dishes I had last time (from my last post), she decided to order exactly what I had last time.
This was one of my favorite dishes when I visited in late October. The Japanese eggplant was slow-cooked and roasted to absolute perfection. It was brilliantly matched with Hokkaido scallop tartare, cubes of lightly seared scallop, avocado purée, fresh salmon roes and perilla flowers, finished off beautifully with a warm and flavorful wasabi dashi.
I had the eggplant and scallop dish last time so I decided to order something different for today's meal. Check out my "mille feuille" with wild amberjack sashimi, mango and tomato salsa, pickled daikon and avocado purée.
The Tosazu dashi (Japanese fermented vinegar) cut through the richness of the wild amberjack nicely with its lovely acidity; and I love the crunch from the pickled daikon adding to the contrasting textures of the dish. Both cold appetizers were very very good this afternoon.
Next up was creamy Jerusalem artichoke velouté with smoky langoustines and crunchy daikon.
Look at the size of these langoustines! Totally worth the supplement...
For main dish, Jelloman had the Kagoshima pork crusted with a crumble made of chopped parsley, dry garlic and more. The garnish was a simple one with broccolini, mushroom, potato and Japanese pumpkin purée. I had this last time I was here too and while it tasted reasonably good (and tender), it was probably the weakest link of an otherwise impressive lunch.
I wasn't going for the Kagoshima pork twice so I had the Japanese pomfret served with clams, sun-dried tomato, potato and zucchini instead. The French connection, of course, came from the Bouillabaisse bisque but Chef Konishi added his own twist to the traditional Provençal fish stew (fish, fish bones, cockles etc.) with ingredients like lobster corals and olive.
The soup was so sweet and full of lobster flavors, adding richness and complexity to the pomfret fillets without dominating its delectable and delicate taste.
Dessert was chestnut Mont Blanc, topped with meringue sticks, hazelnut and chestnut. I thought the scoop of gingerbread ice-cream and dabs of caramel sauce did very little to complement the Mont Blanc.
Last but not least, some butter cookies to send us home with happy bellies.
Love that extra crunchiness~
Food Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 28/F & 29/F, 18 On Lan Street, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Central
Tel: +852 2715-0878
Website: www.zestbykonishihk.com
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 12:00am (Mon - Thu), 12:00pm - 1:00am (Fri - Sat)
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