Agent-I and I have been trying to match our schedule to find an available time slot for our dinner gathering this month. As it has been happening all year, most "noteworthy" restaurants in town were already fully booked for the next couple of months; which left us scrambling for a place now that we have settled on a day. Just when we thought we ran out of ideas, she suddenly brought up Lobster Bar and Grill at the Island Shangrila. It's been at least a decade since my last visit to Lobster Bar but now that it has one of my favorite chefs, Chef Cary Docherty (formerly of Gough on Gough) at the helm, I thought why not.
It's nice to see a bunch of friendly faces from the service team around here. Looks like they were having a lot of fun.
I was a little surprised to find the restaurant at full capacity on a Tuesday night. I know everyone (myself included) is itching to travel for food but that's not happening for at least another year. So, obviously we all decide to splurge on the local F&B market instead.
Gee....I wonder what to get myself tonight. Perhaps something from the sea, that comes in a red shell with claws and legs.
I thought the bread was very good tonight.
Artichoke salad – I'm a huge fan of Jerusalem artichokes so my eyes immediately lit up when I saw this on the menu. This is a very busy dish with both roasted and raw baby artichokes, matched up against flavorful ingredients like black truffle, frisée (endive?), Iberico ham, soy and oyster mayonnaise.
There were all kinds of flavors in the dish from acidic, savory to bitter (presumably from the endive) but to my surprise, it was the soy and oyster mayonnaise which was the most dominating of the bunch.
Grilled Whole Lobster – Both Agent-I and I went with their signature lobster thermidor but only one showed up. The other one turned into a grilled whole lobster. I must admit, I should share the blame with our server cuz I didn't say thermidor (I think) but I said exactly the same words as Agent-I and I thought our server would realize we're ordering the same thing. Obviously, he didn't.
But this was a blessing in disguise. I haven't had a perfected grilled whole lobster for a while and it was so delicious. The lobster meat was really springy and tender. Compared to Agent-I who was having the lobster thermidor, well she was complaining how heavy the dish was.
Equally yummy was the freshly made French fries. We couldn't stop eating them with the ketchup and garlic butter, which was actually meant for my grilled lobster.
Tarte tatin to share – Our server was still thinking about the little "mistake" he made with my grilled lobster and he was kind enough to send us a free apple tart on the house. I was never a fan of apple pie or tart myself but Agent-I re-assured me that it's one of the nicest dessert I could ever find in town.
And true to her words it was! The puff pastry was so flaky and delicious combining well with the caramelized apples on top.
And the vanilla ice-cream was the perfect icing on the cake. It was working so well with the melt-in-the-mouth apples and crispy pastry!
We were both quite happy with our meal tonight and service was just excellent as well. My special thanks to our server who deserved a big pat on his back for his wonderful work.
Food Rating: 6.5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 6/F, Island Shangri-La Hong Kong, Two Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Admiralty
Tel: +852 2820-8560
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:30pm, 6:30pm - 11:00pm daily
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