I have been looking all over the place for her birthday dinner. A good restaurant on the Ocean Park line is far and few in between so it’s not like I have a ton of options here. Petrus? Lumi? Nicholini’s!
It’s been at least a decade since I last visited the fine-dining Italian restaurant on the eighth floor of Conrad Hong Kong. In fact, I already lost track of who was at the helm of their kitchen when I last visited.
A really well-priced tasting menu but not a lot of options though.
Our dinner started off with a small snack, deep-fried pumpkin flower with a dab of bell pepper mayo. Pretty nice start.
Some bread was served to keep us occupied while we waited for our starters.
Pan-seared Hokkaido scallops were served with variations of black garlic, sun dried tomatoes and a slice of white radish (tasted a bit like parsnip) on top. There were potato croquettes and potato purée neatly placed on the side for a bit of contrasting texture.
The hint of rosemary was an interesting idea, especially with the strong flavors from the black garlic already there.
Our starter was immediately followed by the pasta dish, angel hair tossed with tomato sauce and basil leaves.
The stringy angel hair was really the perfect choice for the strong-flavored tomato sauce and the abundance of Boston lobster meat was a beautiful sight to behold.
For main course, I went with their Italian seabass fillet which was finished off elegantly with butter lettuce cream, cauliflower gratin, dill and...caviar!
Love the way these clean and earthy flavors from the vegetables worked with the seabass.
Jelloman's lamb rack was really really good. Very juicy and succulent. Just a bit of white polenta, smoked eggplant and apricot already made this the best dish of the night (probably by a country mile).
A little pre-dessert before the our Dolce Ponce...
I was hoping they had their signature tiramisu as one of the dessert options in the tasting menu but obviously, it wasn't my lucky day. This had a bit of everything - Lavazza kafa coffee macaron, chocolate rum mousse, lemon sponge and white coffee ice-cream.
Some chocolate and candy to end this birthday dinner in style (no birthday cake though!).
This was a pretty decent meal but one thing seemed to be missing here - some WOW factor in some of these dishes. Unfortunately, it just wasn't there. Not a single dish that truly showed exemplary cooking (well, maybe the lamb rack). But I guess my palate is French so understandably, it's hard for me to fall in love with these Italian dishes without the buttery and creamy sauce.
P.S. Before we left the restaurant, Jelloman cracked a joke about tonight’s dinner. She thought at times it felt like we were eating at a hole-in-the-wall “soy sauce restaurant” (a run-down local tea restaurant). I know exactly what she was talking about. In the beginning of the meal, our server used to mumble a single word out for each dish (“scallop” for example) but midway through the menu, he already stopped his brief introduction. Instead, he just quietly put each dish in front of us and disappeared. I know we dressed a bit casual tonight having spent the day at Ocean Park but if service varies based on how we dress (or how expensive our watches were), then I’m not quite sure if this is a restaurant that I’d like to come back to.
Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 8/F, Conrad Hong Kong, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Admiralty
Tel: +852 2521-3838
Website: www.conraddining.com/en/nicholinis/
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 6:30pm - 10:30pm daily
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