This relatively new culinary gem in Soho is helmed by designer-turned-chef Vicky Lau who has spent time studying at Le Cordon Bleu. After a short stint at Cépage, she opened her own restaurant and immediately garnered some major attention in the culinary world. And in less than half a year, her effort and dedication was finally rewarded with her very first Michelin star.
Tate is a small bistro-style contemporary dining restaurant tucked away in the corner of the Elgin Street in Soho. It has around 6-7 tables capable of accommodating about 20 diners at the same time.
The primary color here is snowy white with patches of gold and brown. I would describe the overall design as simple elegance.
The restaurant is open only for dinners and there are two set menus available for selection. There is a lighter 6-course Spring Sexualist menu ($780) for anyone with a smaller appetite but if you are feeling a bit more adventurous, a more complicated 9-course Spring Gastronomy menu ($1080) is available for your taking.
The kitchen started us off with a small amuse bouche first - a pair of foie gras cream tart sitting on a pool of black sesame. The feeling of eating out of a flower pot was a little weird but there's no denying that the tart was crisp and delicate. More important of all, it provided a lovely start to our meal.
"The Beginning"
"The Beginning" was next. While the name itself did not give the ingredients away, at least the presentation showed a lot of promise. How could anyone not like something that dressed up like a cute little pot plant!?
We later found out from our server that it was a small cup of sweet corn purée with lime cream and black pepper crumble. There were some bacon bits sitting at the bottom giving us a very nice contrasting texture and flavor. I love this dish.
Passion Marinated Scallop
Now that they have set the bar high, can they repeat the same success with the rest of the dishs? We were very excited to find out.
This next course arrived in a beautiful porcelain bowl. The presentation certainly did not disappoint. We felt a surge of our adrenaline while we slowly waited for the content to unveil itself through the heavy smoke created by the dry ice.
It turned out to be a bowl of chopped Hokkaido scallop with sea urchin and caviar which was marinated with passion fruit flavors and soy vinaigrette.
We found this dish to be absolutely refreshing but there's not a great deal of cooking techniques involved. I'd classify it more as mixing and matching of ingredients.
Eel foie gras terrine
This reminded me of a dish we had at Liberty Private Works, just that the ingredients were slightly different. Pairing foie gras cubes with smoked eel was clever and combining them with sake kasu cream, ginger gelee and cucumber apple maki was innovative although the results were nothing out of our expectation.
"Lily's dew"
Vicky always likes to have a soup included in her menu and tonight, there's no exception.
Our "Soup of the Day" was a lily bulb velouté with Alaskan king crab meat, braised daikon and red pepper threads. Vicky again showed off her creativity by blending French cooking techniques with Japanese influences. The result was a silky smooth velouté that was rich and flavorful.
Pan sautéed amadai
Once again we found the shadows of Liberty Private Works in our fish dish, a pan sautéed amadai simmered in a warm onion consommé. The amadai was topped with a dash of daikan pureé and deep fried mushroom.
The attractive point for me here was really the onion consommé, giving the amadai fish the much needed flavors and aroma.
Sakura ebi tagliolini
A small pasta dish here in between our fish and meat course and it was another Japanese inspired creation - Sakura ebi tagliolini. The tagliolini which was al dente, worked perfectly with the lobster broth, a light parmesan foam, kombu powder and dill.
Kagoshima beef tenderloin
The kitchen has been very impressive thus far maintaining a high standard for each and every dish. But they have saved the best for last with our meat course - a beef tenderloin from Kagoshima.
The miso potato pureé, little spring salad and morel mushroom were all good but better was the truffle jus dressing which was instrumental in putting the finishing touches on a perfectly executed dish.
"Yukidoke" - Mid spring snowmelt
Our dessert, mid-spring snowmelt, provided a slight letdown for us. Ingredients included almond biancmange, chrysanthemum ice cream, speculoo and almond powder ice but perhaps a bit too "de-constructive" for me.
This was by far one of the best French food I had in 2013 (so far but the year is still young!). The technique and creativity was amazing and I was finding it hard to believe that Chef Vicky is still relatively new to the culinary scene. This Michelin one-star was definitely justified.
Food Rating: 7.3/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 59 Elgin Street, Central, Hong Kong
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