Cucina (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Today is our last chance to dine out before the year ends. Jelloman already told me weeks ago that she's having her girls-day-out today so it's going to be just me and little nugget this afternoon. After my recent visit to L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Andō and Caprice in the last couple of weeks, I wasn't interested in a long lunch today. A very simple meal to wrap up this awful awful year would suit me just fine. 

It's been at least a couple of years since I last dined at Cucina. I rang them up after work to see if they have a table for us for a late lunch (3pm!) and was quite surprised to find that they did (on New Year's Eve without advance booking).

They used to have one of the best harbour views in town but ever since the opening of OTE (Ocean Terminal Extension), many restaurants manage to beat them out in that category.

Some bread for us before our starter arrived but both little nugget and I weren't particularly hungry at this point.

I spotted Vitello Tonnato on the starter section and wasted no time jumping on it but only to learn that it's been replaced by beef tartare (a very dry one from what I've seen from my neighbour). So, I got myself a bowl of mushroom cream soup with cheese croutons instead. This was just OK. Not really all that creamy...

Our main dish was the restaurant's signature linguine with Mediterranean red prawns. Contrary to the mushroom soup, this was pretty tasty. The perfectly al dente pasta, tossed in a rich tomato sauce was served with a pair of red prawns on top. Not the biggest red prawns I've seen but very juicy. 

I couldn't believe I actually got time to enjoy a cup of tea after the meal (but little guy was busy with his YouTube anyways).

Cucina's traditional tiramisu would have been a nice wrap but unfortunately, it wasn't on the set menu so I decided to take the panna cotta instead. It was little guy's first-ever panna cotta I think.

This was easily the best dish of the afternoon. The creaminess of the panna cotta was nicely complemented by some acidity from the fresh mango and burst of sweetness from the mango pearls.

I was a bit surprised with the poor service (except the hostess who was excellent). Even with their face masks on, I could see a lot of indifferent faces. Someone from the management should send them on a course on hospitality and how to greet / serve customers.

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Level 6, Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel, Harbour City, 3 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2113-0808
Website: www.cucinahk.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 12:00am (Mon - Fri), 11:30am - 12:00am (Sat - Sun)

Caprice (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I thought it was important to finish an unforgettable 2020 with a bang so I rounded up a few of us with spoiled taste buds for one last decent meal together before the end of this horrible year. I picked the venue this afternoon and it's one of my favorites - Caprice at Four Seasons Hotel.

I made sure that they reserved this corner here for us so we could enjoy some private (sort of) moments together.

We were again started off with some fine selection of bread. I thought only Gaddi's serves better French bread here in Hong Kong.

Our meal kicked off in brilliant fashion thanks to a refreshing amuse. Underneath the layer of silky potato purée were quail egg yolk, a bit of raw salmon and crushed nuts.

The majority of us had Caprice's signature foie gras terrine with walnuts and pear chutney as the first dish. 

But I had a different idea and good thing I did, cuz my starter was obviously a little better. It was a really well-designed and executed dish with deliciously sweet Brittany scallop sashimi laying on top of a crispy wafer and a small tower of diced celeriac right underneath.

I really enjoyed the different textures from the dish, highlighted by the crunch from the celeriac and the quince vinaigrette put on the finishing touch with some lovely acidity.

The second course of the menu was lobster bisque with squid ravioli and sautéed leeks, a very similar dish we had last time in May. The lobster soup was pretty nice but I thought the ravioli was a little dry today and the fact that the wrapper was a bit thick certainly didn't help.

While everyone enjoyed a break in action, I was the only one who decided to take on a fish course. The thin slice of monkfish with ham crust and powder, was finished off nicely with a Parmesan cheese emulsion which has been infused with yellow wine from France. I love the fragrance from the spiked sauce, delivering a strong finish to the dish.

My meat course was beautifully cooked Guinea fowl with beetroot and pomegranate.

I have always liked the texture of French chicken but the Poulette mustard sauce wasa little over the top this afternoon.

The variations of beetroot was pretty nice though. Beetroot juice, purée and a beetroot roll stuffed with what I thought was veal.

Winter season is perfect for Mont Blanc desserts. Make no mistake, this is no ordinary Mont Blanc cake.

There were different layers of goodness hidden underneath the chestnut puree including creme brulee, vanilla ice-cream and Corsican clementine compote all with contrasting texture and flavor. Very very tasty indeed. I thought the base made with crispy buckwheat biscuit was a nice touch too.

Finally, some petite fours and a cup of tea to wrap things up.

Not the best meal I had this week (best one would be a previous lunch at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon) but nevertheless, a very good one. Now, let's turn the page and hope for a much much better 2021 ahead.

Food Rating: 7/10
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

Dim Sum Library Elements (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Even little nugget noticed that it's been a while since we last had Chinese dim sum for lunch.  Since I didn't want to venture too far out this afternoon, we decided that we should simply swing by Elements Shopping Mall for a quick one. After all, they have quite a good number of Chinese dim sum restaurants around.

Obviously, everyone is sick and tired of eating home so every single Chinese restaurant was full except Dim Sum Library.

Crystal shrimp dumpling (水晶蝦餃) ($48) - Thin wrapper, nice bouncy ball of shrimps. Very very nice.

Black garlic siu mai / pork & shrimp dumplings (黑蒜燒賣) ($58) - Little nugget loves his siu mai as usual but he had a hard time dealing with the sweet flavors from the black garlic.

Rice flour rolls with Iberico pork with spring onions (香葱黑毛豬腸粉) ($78) - The barbecued pork didn't taste like its usual delicious self this afternoon.

Chicken and spring onion with soup noodles (蔥香雞肉濃湯拉麵) ($88) - Little nugget wanted his soup noodle and he wanted it right now.

I thought pretty decent.

Hokkaido king crab & sea urchin spring roll (海膽蟹肉春卷) ($82) - Still the best dim sum here by a country mile.

The crispy wrapper and fresh king crab meat were complemented perfectly by the couple of tongues of sea urchin on top. Very very delicious.

Crispy taro puff with snails (田螺芋角) ($68) - It was pretty impressed with this when I was here last time.

But I thought the batter was a little thick today and a bit too chewy for my liking. Not bad but not as mind blowing as I remembered from last time.

Deep-fried pumpkin with rosemary and salted egg yolk (香草金沙南瓜) ($68) - One of the most disappointing dish from this meal.

The batter seasoned with salted egg yolk and rosemary was way too salty for me.

Singaporean fried vermicelli with Iberico pork char siu and shrimps (星洲黑豚叉燒炒米) ($158) - Love the texture of the fried vermicelli but I probably won't mind a bit more spicy kick. 

It's my third visit so I think that makes me (sort of) qualified to give a fair assessment on the food quality here. While I thought most dishes weren't bad (except the pumpkin dish), they were at least a notch or two below what was offering at their Pacific Place branch. It's obvious even to the untrained palate.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Shop 1028B, 1/F, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Kowloon Station

Tel: +852 2810-0898

Website: www.dimsumlibrary.com.hk

Opening Hours: 10:30am - 10:00pm daily

Merry COVID-safe Christmas

It's been a really strange year in many different ways. For the longest time, we would celebrate Christmas with our family, whether it's in Hong Kong or somewhere overseas. Last year, we were in Tokyo and having an amazing time. This year, not as much fun. There was no big feast, nor roasted turkey, just a plate of Yangzhou fried rice for me.

The rice flour roll with youtiao made things a little better for me. 

Even the Christmas trees around here look a little shorter this year.

Little nugget wanted to know why we have Christmas so we decided to arrange a small tour for him to the Hong Kong Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (聖母無原罪主教座堂) near the Mid-Levels. I saw a look of excitement from his face the moment we arrived.

We all have a story to tell about the birth of Jesus. 

Our last stop was the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens where we were all looking forward to meeting some animals but other than the two monkeys captured in the photo, the rest has been quarantined due to precautionary measures of COVID-19. That pretty much summed up what has been a year of misfortune for everyone. 

Santa, we’ve all been good boys and gals this year. Please can we have a COVID-free 2021. Pleasssssse.....

Andō (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Agent-I and I have gone back and forth on the dinner venue for her birthday meal. A few months ago, we have decided on Andō but only had to switch to Seventh Son due to unavailability on our desired date(s). Now with dine-in service banned after 6pm, we’re circling back to Andō.

We picked an interesting time slot to start our meal at 4 but surprisingly, it was far more popular than we originally thought. Almost a full house!

There were 3 menus available for our selection this afternoon. A 5-course ($588) and 6-course ($888) set lunch menu and an 8-course tasting menu ($1,288). It was the tasting menu that Agent-I and I ended up choosing since both of us wanted some wagyu beef. 

An amuse bouche to start things. Agent-I began the meal with a small tower of 21-day aged Angus beef tartare beautifully decorated with Kristal caviar and kombu dashi.

Just when I thought the same nibble would be sitting in front of me (I was really in the mood for some beef which was why we had the tasting menu in the first place!), they surprised me with a black pudding chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg custard). No!!!! I was later told that it was due to my dietary restriction.

This was fairly decent. The black pudding brought some extra kick to an otherwise ordinary steamed egg custard.

Next up was the chef’s “Five raw seafood selection” (五小碟).

I thought the Spanish red prawns with prawn oil and chives was the clear winner here. Very nice firm texture with rich and delicate flavors. The scallop sashimi marinated with citrus and vinegar certainly wasn’t bad too but the Japanese toro with smoked soy didn’t have the smoky flavors I was expecting.

But Agent-I insisted that the raw needlefish (針魚) was her favorite; I guess because of its rich, full-bodied texture.

The third course of the meal was chipirones (or baby squid) drizzled in its own ink, and served on layers of parsnip purée and fried shallots. This was an excellent dish in terms of the symphony of fragrances and flavors, as well as the combination of textures and mouthfeel.

There was also an incredible amount of sweetness thanks to the added clam juice reduction. Agent-I and I both agreed that it was a very delicious dish (thanks to the different textures and flavors) but at the same time, we concurred that we had no clue what we were eating (if we were blind-folded). Even the baby squid didn’t taste exactly like squids to us.

Our fish course tonight was steamed kinmadai. When I first saw kinmadai on the menu, I immediately thought of the crispy scales from a pan-seared kinmadai. It was the more common way to cook kinmadai in a fine-dining restaurant but here Chef Agustin Balbi decided to throw us a curveball.

I thought the kinmadai was pretty nicely cooked. The soft, silky texture was matched superbly with the spicy kick from the Romesco pepper sauce and burnt leeks from Japanese cooked with bonito. A pretty comforting dish with simple and pure flavors.

We have been waiting for this dish since we sat down, some A4 wagyu. This was cooked in the charcoal grill and served with rosemary cooked banana shallots, mushrooms from Yunan, and finished off with a powerful roasted piquillo pepper sauce.

This wasn’t bad. I like the smoky flavors from the piquillo pepper sauce, working well with medium cooked wagyu. Agent-I wasn’t as lucky though. She had a really marbled cut which looked more like a A5 than A4 and because of the amount of fat, she didn’t finish.

Our last savory before dessert was Sin Lola, the signature caldoso rice dish prepared using a technique the chef has learned from his grandmother.

The soupy rice was again very very good.

Our server told us this was a piece of Spanish sea cucumber. Interestingly, it’s in white color as opposed to black.

Our first dessert was an apple themed one made with variations of apple from Aomori Prefecture, including apple sorbet, foam and diced apples on the bottom. I thought the powerful finish from the lemon balm and sherry vinegar was a little too heavy handed.

The second dessert was Andō’s signature wagashi (和菓子).

The dessert, dressed like a traditional Japanese confection, came with a 85% dark chocolate crust and filling of passion fruit caramel.

Some canapés while I settled the bill. By the time everything was done, it was 5:59pm! Very nice time management by the team here. 

That was a fair amount of food in a little less than 2 hours. My hats off to the chefs for delivering our dishes in such an efficient and precise manner.

I thought all around, it was a pretty good meal with its expected ups and downs (thankfully, more ups) but Agent-I convinced me that it could've been better (yeah the A5 wagyu...).

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$$
Address: 1/F Somptueux Central, 52 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central

Tel: +852 2380-9007

Website: www.andohk.com
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm (Tue - Sat), 6:00pm - 10:00pm (Mon - Sat)