Caprice (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★★

Mom's birthday is coming up again (after we celebrated her lunar birthday about a month ago), this time it's the western calendar one. Unlike last time when I was caught totally unprepared, I did make sure that I reserved a table at Caprice to celebrate with her a couple of weeks in advance. Of course, I had to bring along her favorite grandson to celebrate this precious moment. 

It's been nearly 6 months since I last visited Caprice but it felt like much much longer than that. I guess dining home do make life a little dull for me these days and it feels like it takes forever to get through 2020.

Caprice is doing a great job complying to the social distancing regulations. This has to be much more than 1.5 metres from my neighbours. In fact, in our section where there were altogether 5 tables, only 2 of them including ours were occupied. I was joking with mom that it felt like we were enjoying private dining in the main dining room.

First up, a small amuse which I forgot to jot down the details of. There was obviously the homemade smoked salmon in the middle but the emulsion I have to guess, it was either potato or artichoke (and onion I think).

Mom went with the beautifully plated foie gras terrine topped with a thin layer of rhurbarb jelly. The homemade raspberry chutney on the side did well to balance the richness of the terrine based on what I was told by the birthday gal.

I had the blue prawn tartare with green asparagus myself. My server Miss K described it as a safe bet but I thought the conservative pick would have been the foie gras terrine.

Like mom's foie gras terrine, the presentation of my tartare was nothing short of exquisite. The tart-like tower came with a base of avocado purée, followed by the blue prawn and finished off superbly with a layer of thin sliced asparagus. Comté cheese cubes, toasted walnuts and spring onion combined to deliver a wonderful finishing touch to my refreshing first dish.

Both mom and I went with the lobster bisque. The cute little "flower" on top was a homemade ravioli stuffed with diced firefly squid.

The rich and velvety soup was complemented nicely by some chopped leeks and a hint of cognac.

Next up was perfectly roasted Blue lobster from France served on a bed of Paris mushroom duxelles. What I love most about this dish was the marriage between the lobster and the surprising strawberry sauce infused with beetroot.

The sauce, both sweet and savory, gave the lobster an incredible mix of flavors and there was also the hint of rosemary there for a sublime finish.

I got myself an extra dish, pork pluma made with Spanish Iberico pork. This was beautifully cooked resulting in a very lovely crust. It was matched with roasted white asparagus, polenta espuma and natural jus. Another excellent dish.

For dessert, mom went with the coconut pandan parfait, finished off with palm sugar caramel, milk and sea salt ice-cream. I surprised her by asking the kitchen to write a couple of words on the dessert for the sake of photo-taking. As usual, it was capped off by a birthday song sang by none other than my little nugget who's really getting good at it (after singing one at daddy's birthday meal not long ago!).

Needless to say, mom's really enjoying every moment of this.

I ordered the restaurant's signature strawberry dessert since my little one is crazy about strawberries. This is pretty much a strawberry lover's haven with different textures of strawberry (fresh strawberries, strawberry jelly and strawberry sorbet) matching up against creamy vanilla Bavarois. Judging by the pace that little nugget finished this, I am guessing it's a seriously tasty dessert to wrap up the meal.

Some petite fours and of course, little guy couldn't resist from hiding a couple of these in the drawer.

 A nice drawing by the young picasso while we waited for the bill.

This was probably the first time since former Executive Chef Vincent Thierry left that I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed a meal at Caprice. For once, the service was impeccable and the effort sustained from start to finish (my hats off to Miss K and her colleagues for thoroughly entertaining mom and little one). I thought today's menu was one of the best I've seen from Chef Guillaume Galliot too (who's missing from action this afternoon by the way). Every dish from starter, soup to seafood, meat and dessert was genuinely impressive, which prompted the question...why didn't we come back here more often?

Food Rating: 8.1/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 6/F, 8 Finance Street, Four Seasons Hotel, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Hong Kong Station
Tel: +852 3196-8860
Website: www.fourseasons.com/hongkong/dining/restaurants/caprice
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:30pm, 6:30pm - 10:30pm daily