The 8-course surprise menu, currently priced at $680 per head, promises a fair amount of excitement and it's the perfect way to explore Chef Que's highly innovative cuisine.
Right before this Christmas Eve dinner, we had the pleasure of checking out Quest up close and personal including their private dining room. Looks like black and white are Chef Que's favorite colors.
The main dining room is set up like a theatre with Chef Que under the spotlight in center stage.
Here's a closer look at Chef Que when he was concentrating on the preparation of our starters.
Dinner started off with a bang courtesy of this beautifully plated hamachi sashimi. The perfectly sweet hamachi sashimi was served with a ultra tangy cherry tomato jelly, some sea grapes, salmon roes, basil seeds and finished with a yuzukosho sauce.
That was a symphony of very interesting flavors, textures, aroma and colors all in the same dish (9.5/10).
While we were still enjoying the aftermath of our first dish, our second dish was raring to go. Meet our Alaskan king crab rice paper roll with avocado cream, pickled daikon and cucumber served with a very seductive smoked paprika foam.
This was an excellent re-interpretation of the traditional Vietnamese rice paper roll with the Alaskan king crab and smoked paprika foam providing a great depth of flavor (8.5/10).
What's a Vietnamese inspired dinner without beef pho noodle, right? Here's yet another fabulous dish using a Vietnamese recipe with a modern twist.
A beef tartare, topped with Vietnamese herb salad and herb jelly, was sprinkled with foie gras shaving and served with a Vietnamese style vermicelli noodles.
Whether you like Vietnamese beef noodle soup or not, you will sure find this amazing dish a wonderful experience (7.5/10).
I wasn't in the mood for beef tonight so instead I had a salmon tartare with very much the same setting. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as the beef tartare (5/10).
We were blown away by the first three dishes. Can this streak continue? Let's find out.....
Pan seared Hokkaido scallop was next and for the first time since the opening dish, Chef Que is "human".
The Hokkaido scallop was pan seared to perfection but the corn purée, tapioca and shellfish tamarind sauce formed a slightly weak supporting cast (5/10).
Our fish course was a pan seared black cod with sautéed sugar snaps, crab meat, squid ink mochi and fish sauce caramel. Another well prepared dish and the fish sauce caramel was a particularly interesting match to the sweetness of the black cod (7/10).
We were down to our last savory dish - pan fried pork belly and it was a beauty. The pork belly was fried to golden brown color with a very crispy and exciting texture. I particularly liked the seasoning with lemongrass giving it a rather rich and complex flavor.
A lovely taro pureé along with some brussel sprouts, pork crackling and crushed peanuts rounded out the rest of this dish (8/10).
I was really looking forward to dessert to see whether it would be as good as the previous dishes. But first, right before dessert, a very powerful calamansi sorbet with yakult and chili as a palate cleanser (7/10).
Chef Que was a pastry chef when he was doing his apprenticeship so expectation was high on our dessert and it sure didn't disappoint. It was an almond cake with layers of char grilled pineapple and salty caramel ice-cream sprinkled with toasted sesame and coconut (7/10).
I love how Chef Que embraces his Vietnamese heritage and injects new life into the traditional Vietnamese cuisine. There's never a dull moment in this 2.5-hour culinary journey and it's highly recommended for someone seeking an exciting food adventure.
Food Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$
Address: 28/F, 235-239 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Wanchai
Tel: +852 2554-0888
Website: www.questbyque.com
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