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.
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.
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.
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.
Last but not least, the oyster pancake which was soft and pillowy, came with some extra heat from ginger.
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.
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.
Next, we were getting some abalone!
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.
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.
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.
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).
Our fish course was beautifully prepared black cod "Otah", an inspiration from the South Asian dish, Otah Otah (grilled fish cake).
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.
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.
We were both expecting a very tender and juicy centre underneath the caramelized crust but disappointingly, it was more on the hard side.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kaya macaron and......
......of course some milo in the form of milo chocolate.
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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