Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Whey (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Whey has been on my radar screen for quite some time now and if it's not for my dental issue last month, I would've checked it off my list by now.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant European Asian fusion flavours Wellington Central HK

Located on the UG floor of The Wellington, Whey has been one of the toughest tables to get in town for some time (same goes for another fine-dining restaurant in the same building by the name of VEA) and it looked like it's going to be another full house tonight.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant European Asian fusion flavours Wellington Central HK

I know a little more about Singaporean Executive Chef Barry Quek than my partner-in-crime, Agent-I from my experience at Beet but the cuisine served here is going to be a lot closer to his Singaporean roots comparing to Beet.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant European Asian fusion flavours Wellington Central HK

Our tasting menu got off to a quick start with three small nibbles. First, it was the pie tee, a play on the Peranakan snack kuih pie tee, featuring a thin, crispy shell filled with ginger yoghurt, grated Parmesan and diced sea bream.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Amuse bouche (pie tee)

Chicken liver parfait wafer was next. The silky parfait was served on a wafer made with crispy chicken skin along with dabs of grape jam.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Amuse bouche (chicken parfait wafer)

Last but not least, the oyster pancake which was soft and pillowy, came with some extra heat from ginger. 

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Amuse bouche (oyster pancake)

At this point, some homemade bread was served while we patiently waited for our first starter. That didn't take long.....


The first starter of the tasting menu was fresh Hokkaido scallops, topped with a layer of local radish and pomelo.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Hokkaido scallop

The sweetness of the thin-sliced scallop was matched nicely by the creamy yoghurt sauce. Interestingly, there was a spicy aftertaste from an unidentified ingredient (our server probably mentioned it but it was a little noisy in the dining room for us to catch every word she said given her soft voice) that added an unexpectedly powerful finish to the dish.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Hokkaido scallop

Next, we were getting some abalone!

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Abalone, clams and potato dashi

The most unpretentious dish of the night turned out to be the most delicious one. The abalone, which was sliced into thin pieces was really tender. It worked perfectly with the umami-rich dashi made with clams and potato while the Thai basil and onion provided some lovely fragrance to the broth.


Chef Quek's take on the famous Singaporean chili crab.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Chili king crab

Delicious king crab meat was served on a bed of silky blue ginger custard (texture like tofu) along with an intensely flavored sauce made with chili, crab  roes and tomato. I like spicy but this was beyond spicy; and Agent-I commented that the presentation of this dish looked like crap. I thought she said crab but yeah she mentioned crap.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Chili king crab

Before our fish and meat course, there was a short pause in action when our server presented Whey's signature sourdough bread. This looked so good so we both wondered why they didn't serve this up right off the bat.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Sourdough brioche, buah keluak butter

The brioche looked as if it's just come out of the oven. Served on the side was a plate full of
buah keluak nuts, a very popular ingredient in Peranakan cuisine, and a spread made with the pulverized nut and caramelized onion. I thought the bread tasted good enough without the buah keluak "butter" (or even better without it).

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Sourdough brioche, buah keluak butter

Our fish course was beautifully prepared black cod "Otah", an inspiration from the South Asian dish, Otah Otah (grilled fish cake).

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Black cod "Otah"

The Black Cod “Otah”, smoked with applewood chips, was then rolled up with otah squid and shrimp paste, and finished off with a mildly spicy Asam sauce and petai beans. Not bad.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Black cod "Otah"

Our meat course was slow-cooked US prime short ribs, a dish inspired by the Indonesian Beef Rendang. The busy dish was capped off with an array of different ingredients including stuffed morel mushrooms, ginger flower, peanut sprouts and whey purée.

Instead of the dry curry from a typical Beef Rendang, the chef offered his own twist with a thick and powerful sauce made with coconut and curry making an already heavy dish even heavier.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - slow-cooked short ribs "Rendang"

We were both expecting a very tender and juicy centre underneath the caramelized crust but disappointingly, it was more on the hard side.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - slow-cooked short ribs "Rendang"

The short ribs came with a small salad (one bowl for two of us!) but our server failed to explain how the chef envisioned us having the greens with the meat.


I thought it's dessert time but as it turned out, we still had a rice dish in between.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Spiny lobster curry laksa konjac rice

The spiny lobster, served on a bed of curry laksa konjac rice with "see hum", was just superbly cooked. The rice, a little more al dente than I expected had very nice texture but both Agent-I and I agreed that they went to the well once too often with a similar curry-based sauce.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Spiny lobster curry laksa konjac rice

We desperately needed a palate cleanser after 4 or 5 powerful dishes and we finally got it from our pre-dessert, which was jack fruit sorbet with diced jack fruit, Kaffir lime and lemon.


Whey's signature dessert is homemade Mao Shan Wang ice-cream with Kristal caviar but since none of us is a fan of durian, we both opted for the Teh Tarik (Malaysian pulled tea) ice-cream with honeycombs and grand Marnier. Unfortunately, the flavors from the pulled tea and grand Marnier never really registered and all we could taste was the strong hint of ginger.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Teh Tarik ice-cream with honeycombs and grand Marnier

It was getting late so we were all too happy to finally see our petite fours arrive. The cream puff (forgot the flavor) came with some nice floral notes.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Petite Four

Kaya macaron and......

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Petite Four

......of course some milo in the form of milo chocolate.

Whey - modern fine-dining restaurant HK European Asian fusion - Petite Four

I mentioned that there was no wow factor in our wedding anniversary dinner at Estro and much to our disappointment, it was much pretty the same here at Whey tonight. And these are two of the hardest table to book in Hong Kong these days! There were some nice surprises (namely the abalone and black cod Otah) but none that was close to blowing us away; and sadly, those little surprises were completely negated thanks to a few other less successful efforts, with the chili crab, short rib and pulled tea ice-cream immediately coming to mind. I think I needed a break in action before engaging myself in another new restaurant.





Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$$
Address: UG/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Sheung Wan
Tel: +852 2693-3198
Website: www.whey.hk
Opening Hours: 6:00pm - 11:00pm (Mon - Sat)



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