Fish and Meat (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

From the same team who brought us Blue Butcher and Brickhouse in the past, they recently strike again with a new concept restaurant called Fish and Meat which officially opened its door in Central in mid November. The restaurant is almost impossible to miss. Just walk up hill from Glenealy Street and you should see a BIG fish sign on the right pointing you to the entrance.



At the helm is Chef Russell Doctrove, formerly of Amber and St. Betty. Before moving to Hong Kong, Chef Doctrove has worked in some of the top kitchens around the UK including the Michelin starred Gordon Ramsay in London and the Waterside Inn in Bray.

Despite having a head chef with great experience cooking in some of UK's best fine dining restaurants, Fish and Meat decides to take a more casual dining approach. 



The menu is short and simple highlighted by Mediterranean and Sicilian style dishes such as pan fried baby octopus and sea bream served with cherry tomatoes, squid and black olives atop. The restaurant prides itself as a farm to table eatery that puts a great deal of focus on the sourcing of the best ingredients around the world; for instance, monkfish, turbot and free-range chicken are directly sourced from France and the langoustines came from New Zealand. 



There are two private dining rooms in this 3,500 square-foot space. Each one can accommodate up to 8-10 diners.

Bread is freshly made and served with a homemade pesto butter.

After a nice loaf of bread, our three starters slowly showed up one after another. First up was the O'Connor farm grass-fed beef carpaccio with pickled jalapeño, duck yolk and parmesan cheese.

I thought the beef carpaccio has decent depth but the touch of jalapeño spice was a little too strong for my liking (3.5/10).



For dinner at a restaurant that specializes in seafood, seafood should be our focal point but we ended up not ordering any fish at all!

This was as close as we got - a homemade cannelloni with minced Maine lobster, spot prawns and salmon (3/10).



Out of the three starters, I liked their tagliatelle the most. Freshly made daily, the tagliatelle tasted a lot like a kind of Chinese thick noodle I used to have when I was young. The chicken and truffle emulsion was surprisingly light yet flavorful (6.5/10).



My main course was a veal chop cooked in "Milanese" style. 

The thin slice of veal from the Netherlands, breaded in parsley panko and breadcrumbs, was fried to golden brown color and served with the usual chopped tomatoes and arugula. I also liked the addition of pine nuts and shredded Iberico ham which provided great texture to the mix.

The only blemish here was the veal itself. Although it's very tender, the natural veal flavor seemed to be missing and it ended up tasting more like a fried pork chop (4/10).

We ordered the grilled asparagus to share on the side and they were nicely matched with a white bean puree and pistachio pesto. But when we looked a little closer, only the top three pieces were asparagus while those sitting at the bottom were all long green beans! Tricky!

What happened there...ran out of asparagus at the grill?

Although we were partially at fault for not ordering any fish at a restaurant named for its fish courses (and meat, which we did try), the dishes that we did try failed to impress us. But on the bright side, the staff is very upbeat and quite attentive so it should make a fairly decent choice for group dining.

But if you are looking for a romantic dinner, you may want to look elsewhere.


Food Rating: 4/10
Price: $$$
Address: 1/F & 2/F, 32 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Central
Tel: +852 2565-6788
Website: www.fishandmeat.hk



View Larger Map