Feuille (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Feuille (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Since the reopening of international borders in 2023, my buddy V has been traveling the world like there's no tomorrow so it took some work to finally nail down a date for our dinner gathering this month. Finding a nice venue also wasn't easy as we were both picky about food we liked. Fortunately, we narrowed down to two final destinations a fortnight ago and eventually settled for Feuille before it was too late.

Feuille by David Toutain [Hong Kong, CHINA] - Amazing Michelin star fine-dining unique vegetable-driven French restaurant Wellington Sheung Wan

Feuille is the brainchild of renowned French chef David Toutain who made a name for himself with his eponymous two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris. At Feuille, he brings his cutting edge French fine-dining cuisine to the table along with its unique vegetal twist. Needless to say, V and I were really looking forward to the vegetable-driven menu featuring some of the best local ingredients.

It was a Tuesday evening and I was eager to find out how busy it was for a fine-dining restaurant these days. As it turned out, Feuille was about 70% full which wasn't bad on a Tuesday night.

Chia seed, lemon tree kombucha – We were started off with a small welcome drink of chia seed and lemon tree kombucha.

Pimenta, chestnut, chervil – Followed by a parade of small nibbles which began with a chestnut cream tart topped with pimenta and chervil.

Mustard seed, shiso, sea grape – Next up was deep-fried shiso cracker with mustard seeds and local sea grapes.

Madras curry, frog legs, rosemary – Deep-fried frog leg with rosemary was served with a Madras curry dip.

Cumin, egg, sweet corn – The final amuse bouche was sweet corn espuma served in an egg shell with cumin seed caramel on top.

Feuille bread, dill pil pil – After the amuse bouche, the lovely "Feuille bread" with sunflower seed and pumpkin seed was served up with a homemade "dill pil pil" made with fish collagen from our fish course. Talk about sustainability and putting different parts of the ingredients into good use.

French bean, geoduck, lovage – The lovage-marinated geoduck, pistachios and lightly cooked French beans were mashed together, topped nicely with geoduck cream, strawberry gel, fresh herbs and tuille. A sprinkle of fresh seaweed powder provided the dish with an "oceanic" finish.

Carrot, sea bass, nasturtium – At this point, we were starting to realize the theme of green colors in most of these dishes. It was the third dish in a roll (including the spread for the bread). Not that I was really counting.

I liked the minimalist presentation here. Underneath the deep-fried spinach, we had the local seabass fillet with baby carrot, carrot purée, and a buttery Béarnaise sauce. The nasturtium leaf provided a slightly sweet and peppery taste to the dish, while the tamarind jelly added some lovely acidity but my discovery of some soft bones in the fish slightly ruined the experience.

Pumpkin, spiny lobster, saffron – Moving onto the next dish, we were having a locally sourced spiny lobster cooked over charcoal, with dried citrus and rosemary. So, the first thing we noticed were the nice smoky flavors.

Interestingly, the rest of the ingredients including the creamy pumpkin purée, orange marmalade, and a small lobster roll wrapped in a saffron-infused milk skin came on a separate plate.

We slowly dipped the spiny lobster into the flavorful lobster sabayon made with lobster head, pumpkin and saffron. This was a very nice match and to our pleasant surprise, the sabayon came with some delicious homemade pumpkin gnocchi.

Beetroot, pigeon, bok choy – Cured local pigeon was roasted on the bone, bringing a delightful smoky essence from the charcoal grill. There was a mix of sweetness and earthy notes coming from the velvety beetroot (red) and bok choy (green) purée, which was enhanced with a savory meat jus blended with beetroot juice.

Tomato, marigold, lemon balm – The pre-dessert of tomato water sorbet served on a small pool of tomato and marigold gazpacho was the perfect palate cleanser to get us ready for the dessert.

Hazelnut, chocolate, herbs – The first of our two desserts came with variations of chocolate, including the crispy crumbs on the bottom, runny chocolate ganache in the middle and of course the flaky chocolate pastries on the edges.

It was nicely complemented by the herby notes from the rosemary and cumin, and I thought the basil ice-cream (more green!) did a marvelous job offsetting the richness of the decadent chocolate.

Vanilla ice-cream, cauliflower – Our final dessert featured a scoop of vanilla ice-cream which has been somewhat hidden inside the pond of cauliflower cream. I really liked the savory-sweet combination there, with the vanilla ganache integrating everything together faultlessly.