Skye Rooftop Bar and Restaurant (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

2016 has been a pretty boring year for new restaurant openings so far but the tide is about to turn at the end of the year. Kicking off a busy month for foodies is Skye, a rooftop bar and restaurant situated on the 27th floor of Park Lane Pullman Hotel with sweeping view of the Victoria Harbour.

Skye's kitchen is helmed by head chef Lee Adams, a long-time protégé of British celebrity chef Gary Rhodes. Having worked up the ranks through Rhodes' different establishments in UK and Dubai, chef Adams will be bringing some of his best contemporary French dishes to Hong Kong to tantalize our spoiled taste buds.



Before we even began to settle down in the dining room, everybody already made plans to head outdoor and check out the rooftop bar.




I thought the view at Seafood Room was good (for a restaurant in Causeway Bay) but no comparison to this one at all! This is so much better!



The outdoor deck featuring an illuminated bar is simply amazing with the panoramic view of the harbour as its backdrop.



The 8,000 square feet of space also includes three private dining rooms.



They offer a reasonably priced dinner tasting menu ($750 for 5 courses if I remember correctly) but unfortunately, with my little nugget around, time was the luxury we didn't have so we ended up taking the a la carte menu.  

Starting things off for us were baskets of bread including traditional baguettes and squid-ink crackers. They were served with two types of butter - black olive flavored and smoked. I thought the smoked butter (on the right) was really nice.



Then, we were offered a small amuse bouche in the form of a potato cappuccino.



Dinner finally got started with chef Adams' signature heirloom tomato tartare ($130). The tower of diced tomatoes was served along with a tomato sorbet, tomato 'cloud' and chive oil. Fairly refreshing start.



I actually like the next starter better. Pork shoulder terrine ($160) was nicely matched with some kimchi purée, cucumber and lobster tuile. There's a good balance of flavors in play and I love the bite of the pork shoulder, slightly chewy (in a good way) and crunchy.



Another dish drawing raving reviews among us was duck ham with crispy egg yolk, peas, plum jam and cress ($110). 



What I like most about this dish was the sauce made with green peas, which was working wonderfully well with the savory flavors of the ham and egg yolk.



We ordered four main dishes to share among the four of us and the first to be served was 
crispy pork belly with braised Iberico cheek and apple ragout, bok choy, broccolini and pommery purée ($290). This looks very Chinese like a Chinese-style roasted pork (脆皮燒腩仔) especially with the bok choy sitting right next to it. 

I thought this was pretty delicious with a good mix of fat in the middle but I'd like the apple ragout and pommery mustard to play a more prominent role. 



Lavender honey breast of Barbarie duck ($340) was probably the best dish out of the four main courses. The glazed baby turnips, savory cabbage and duck egg were all working well together with the duck meat and I particularly like the crispy croquettes of duck meat confit, giving us something a little different in texture.



Now that we have talked about the best main dish, let's talk about the least successful one - monkfish with tomatoes, pencil leeks, dashi broth and gomasio salt ($330). It was a little on the dry side with the dashi broth doing very little to enhance the flavors of the fish.



A nice vegetarian dish of watercress pearl barley risotto with asparagus, roasted almond and pecorino cheese ($180) for those of us who don't really enjoy too much meat.

Some of us were looking forward to the dessert menu but with my little nugget starting to whine, we knew all too well that it's time to settle the bill and let him rest.



We have all been waiting for a rooftop bar with this kind of vibe in the middle of the city and looks like Skye has finally arrived to fill that void. In terms of food, I thought dinner was better than expected. Given the wonderful view, I was initially worried that they won't be paying the same attention to their food menu but they managed to prove me wrong. Everything was well prepared and the combination of ingredients was a lot of fun. I definitely won't mind coming back here again very shortly (possibly for the tasting menu).

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 27/F, Park Lane Hotel, 310 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Causeway Bay
Tel: +852 2839-3327
Website: www.parklane.com.hk/skye.html