Vasco (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

After a relatively quiet June, things are starting to heat up again with the much anticipated opening of Jamie Oliver's first restaurant in Hong Kong - Jamie's Italian. Also raring to go are Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen and Italian restaurant Carbone from New York but the real McCoy that I have been keeping my eyes on was in fact Vasco. 

This week, the highly anticipated Vasco opens on the top floor of PMQ, the newest culinary hub of Central. Working behind the scene at Vasco include Tony Cheng who is the brain behind AMMO, The Drawing Room and Hainan Shaoye along with two-star Michelin chef Paolo Casagrande from Restaurant Lasarte in Barcelona.

At Vasco, executive chef Paolo Casagrande, mentor Martin Berasategui and their team combine to create a world-class basque fine dining experience to diners that is second to none. 

But the first thing we noticed when we walked into the main dining room is the interior design. Unsurprisingly the space was designed by Joyce Wang, one of the hottest designers in the business who's also behind the recent award-winning projects such as AMMO, Hay Market and Mott 32. 



There are three private dining rooms located at the three corners of the restaurant, each with a unique theme.




Also available is a small terrace area in case one wants to enjoy a drink or two before dinner.



A 5-course ($880) and 8-course ($1180) tasting menus are available upon full table participation. In order to sample all of Chef Paolo Casagrande's signature dishes, we decided to go for the 8-course menu.

Amuse bouche started brillantly with a platter of Iberico ham grissini, foie gras sandwich, curried pistachio and olive with stuffed pear and olive oil caviar.



And if the first amuse bouche didn't get our palates jumping in joy, the second one had - a super refreshing peach gazpacho with bloody clams.



One last nibble before the arrival of our starters was a fish Kokotxa with an olive oil emulsion. A very enjoyable array of nibbles with the exception of the bacalao there (7.5/10).



We still haven't tried our bread yet and this was a real nice loaf of bread. Warm, soft and perfectly complemented with 5 types of butter - beetroot, spinach, tomato, mushroom and French salted (8/10).





More bread arrived and this time it was a house-special brioche with pancetta ham. It was again very richly flavored and soft like a cup cake.

We were already half full by now and haven't even tasted with our first starter (8/10)!


  
Expectation was riding high on with the rest of the dishes now. We kicked things off with a nicely executed trout tartare with orange, cucumber jelly and trout caviar. 

I expected a little bit more out of the cucumber jelly. Thought it would really mesh well with the tartare (6.5/10).




Roasted foie gras, nori and duck consommé was next. The duck consommé was subtle and I liked the idea of infusing it with citronelle, horseradish, lemongrass and hazelnut salt to enrich the flavors (6/10).



The best dish of the night belonged to the Red Palamos prawns on a seabed and sea urchin with crustacean mayonnaise. Perfect basque presentation and perfect in almost every way. 

The flavorful sea urchin complemented the Red Palamos prawns beautifully yet without overpowering it (9/10).



While we were still dreaming in the culinary wonderland, the following 2 dishes finally helped to send us back to reality. 

The farmhouse egg yolk with potato and mozzarella foam, mushrooms, basil and piment d'Espelette was flat and one-dimensional. Easily the weakest link of the night (5/10).



The low-temperature cooked turbot on onion and paprika marmalade, with braised endives, clams and octopus was almost equally uninspiring. Well, uninspiring might sound a little harsh. Let's just say a little dull (5.5/10).



Dinner ended on a high note with this roasted pigeon served with pork and tomato stew, apple cream and liver toast. It might not be as good as what l'altro could offer but still very good (7/10).



Desserts also came in style. The Arbequina olive oil sponge was excellent and its partnership with the rice and cardamom essence soup and frozen cream was so clever (7/10).



I was less impressed with the "Chocolate leaf" with apricot jelly and frozen coffee (5/10).



The servers told us they sent a shipload of these lovely containers from Spain to make it all look good. Love that authentic basque experience. 

Here's our petit fours - hazelnut chocolate pralines, mandarin macarons, black currant jelly and raspberry financier just to name a few (6/10).



I must admit I was slightly disappointed tonight. While I liked its creative fare, it failed to top the recent performance by fellow newbies NUR and Épure.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: 7/F, Block B, Police Married Quarters, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Hong Kong Station / Central
Tel: +852 2156-0888
Website: www.isono-vasco.com.hk