In the past, restaurants could choose from one of three categories (A - Budget, B - Moderate and C - Splurge) and their lunch/dinner sets will be priced according to the chosen category. Unfortunately most restaurants would end up picking Category B and C with their slightly overpriced menus. At that point in time, I decided not to engage in any more Restaurant Week promotions ever again.
At the end of 2014, changes were finally underway. They changed the format to two categories and this year, they go one step further by slashing the prices. Take lunch for example - prices for Category A/B are now down from $158/$248 to $118/$198 respectively. On top of that, more than 100 restaurants are rumored to be participating this time around, including Michelin starred The Principal, which is one of my favorite dining places. Enough reasons for me to re-consider? You bet.
There are a number of participating restaurants who have been on my radar screen and I ended up going with La Table de Patrick of all places on my first try.
Chef Patrick Goubier is really no stranger to us. From his fine dining French restaurant on Peel Street, to his deli on Star Street and most recent Chez Patrick Restaurant on Queen's Road, we were "not-so-frequent" customers. Now, he's taking his gag back to Central, this time in a private kitchen (私房菜) setting at an old commercial building on Cochrane Street.
La Table de Patrick is perched on the sixth floor of the premise. They do have elevators here (thank goodness they do).
The interior is exactly what you would expect from a private kitchen. Small but nicely decorated. Chef Patrick was on hand and as always he came around to say hi a few times over the course of our meal.
There was no amuse bouche so we went straight to the first course of the four-course dinner. First up for us was a ravioli of ratte potatoes that was stuffed with foie gras and truffles. Underneath the ravioli was a bed of wild mushroom.
That was a really special dish. I love the different flavors harmonizing each other perfectly. The Jerusalem artichoke sauce was particularly intriguing in balancing out the richness of the foie gras and truffles (7.5/10).
But things began to fall apart from here. The second course, a creamy sea urchin custard with home dashi jelly was neither creamy nor tasting like jelly. In fact, it was more like a lukewarm lobster bisque with sea urchin (3.5/10).
For main course, there were two choices. The first one was grilled red tuna served with sweet and sour apple marmalade.
I actually thought that the red tuna wasn't all that bad but the squid-ink pasta underneath it was very disappointing. The sweet and sour apple marmalade (which was more sour than sweet) was also a peculiar choice to go with the tuna (4/10).
Even less successful was the New Zealand venison fillet with a morello kirsch gravy (3.5/10).
Dessert was a very simple hazelnut and ricotta cake with poached pear and chocolate sauce. I gave them some marks for the nice presentation but the taste was uninspiring (4/10).
My experiences with Chez Patrick (deli and restaurant) weren't exactly the best ones over the years. I do give them full marks for bouncing back time after time but this one at La Table de Patrick was just another disappointment. For me, inconsistency has always been an issue here. With such a good starter (ravioli) kicking things off, it's difficult to imagine how the rest of the meal could fall flat like it did.
Food Rating: 4/10
Price: $$$
Address: 6/F, Cheung Hing Commercial Building, 37-43 Cochrane Street, Central , Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Central / Hong Kong StationTel: +852 2541-1401
Website: www.chezpatrick.hk
Hong Kong, Central, French, restaurant, private kitchen, fine dining
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