After working almost non-stop for the past 2 weeks, I decided to treat myself to something decent this afternoon but again the fact that I couldn't spray too far from work limited my choice for lunch. So after checking out various places, I finally decided to stick with Chef Pino Lavarra's Tosca whom I have been fairly impressed with ever since the talented chef has arrived.
I thought it was going to be a gorgeous day out there but as it turned out, it was a little cloudy with a less-than-clear sky. Of course, I wasn't going to let that get to me coz I still got Chef Lavarra's impressive menu to look forward to.
As usual, there's no amuse bouche so right before our starter showed up, we spent some time enjoying the bread basket.
It didn't take long for our two starters to arrive and what a great start it was. First up was the lightly seared langoustine served with young leaves salad and crab mayonnaise. I thought the crab meat salad biscuit (left) was fairly nice and it was pretty slick to complement it with a pea purée and bone marrow. The interesting mix of flavors was quite a refreshing treat for us (6.5/10).
Of course, Chef Lavarra's newest creation, sea tiramisu, had to be on my agenda this afternoon. It looked really good on paper too, with red prawns carpaccio and seared scallop as the main ingredient of this dish.
At first, I was a little confused with the presentation. OK, I spotted the scallop and red prawn carpaccio but what's the rest of the "stuff"?
But take away the slightly "odd" presentation, they really got something special here. On the bottom of the pile, you have a delicious red prawn carpaccio with just the perfect taste and texture. Then on top was a seared scallop, seafood foam, deep fried red prawn and a small "cous cous" made with something crunchy and some red prawn paste.
Like I said, lots of stuff in there but the fact that everything harmonizes with each other made this a very enjoyable dish (7.5/10).
Our first main course was a simple white tomato risotto with caramelized pancetta and Liguria pesto as we wanted something light. It was another excellent dish. The white tomato juice was mild and not overwhelmingly overpowering, yet it provided the risotto just the right balance of flavors. And look at that presentation, absolutely beautiful (7/10).
This was an odd choice for me coz I never like lamb. But Chef Lavarra's kitchen has always been very good with lamb so why not?
I really like this bread roasted lamb loin with perline aubergine fondant. The lamb loin was ooohhhh so good. Very tender and juicy. And there was no strong gamey flavor from the lamb. Only if the pastry with parmesan cheese was made slight better, it would've been perfect (7/10).
Onto dessert we go, we again picked the traditional tiramisu with limoncello which we've had on a number of occasions already. The texture was again perfect but I thought the bitterness was a little dominant this time around (6/10).
I personally picked the strawberry semifreddo with cantaloupe melon soup. The strawberry parfait was very refreshing and it was perfectly matched with a delicate cantaloupe melon soup. This was very nice and I am definitely a happy camper (7/10).
I thought Chef Lavarra's Tosca has really emerged as one of the top restaurants in Hong Kong in recent years. I can always count on his kitchen to deliver some of the most high quality dishes with great consistency. Looks like we will be back very soon.
Food Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 102/F The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, International Commerce Centre, 1 Austin Road West, West Kowloon, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon
Tel: +852 2263-2263
Website: Link
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