Armani Aqua (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

Ever since the crossover between fashion giant Armani and local food and beverage company Aqua was announced early this year, there's been a lot of buzz around the city. It sounded too good to be true.

In late August, Armani Aqua finally opened doors for business.

The restaurant staff warmly greeted us upon our arrival and after stepping through a sliding door, we found ourselves inside a dark corridor with pillars on the side and a black carpet leading us to the other end of the door. And over there, there was another sliding door.

And behind the second sliding door, it was a totally different world. More precisely, it was a spacious restaurant and bar area in a much warmer color palette. 

Very much like their flagship restaurant on top of Peking No. 1, Armani Aqua offers a mix of modern Italian cuisine to go along with their authentic Japanese dishes. 

I went for their 3-course lunch set and things got rolling with the starter - a home made smoked salmon with potato salad.

Unfortunately, the smoked salmon did not have the usual fat content and more disappointing was the pesto sauce that they had prepared to go with the salmon and salad (3/10). 



A little bit more encouraging was the first main course - penne with scallops and cherry tomatoes. The cherry tomato sauce was a fairly decent choice to go with the penne but still something seemed to be missing (4/10).



The second main course was one of the most popular Italian dish of all time - pan fried veal scaloppine. Disappointingly, it lacked the tenderness and flavors to score a high mark (3/10).



Perhaps the dessert could spice things up a bit? Not quite. I had the 62% chocolate mousse tart and it was nicely presented but tasted average at best (3.5/10).

Food Rating: 3/10

Price: $$$

Address: 8 Connaught Road, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central
Website: www.armani-aqua.com