Gaddi's 吉地士 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

With 2025 just around the corner, I found myself once again going through my annual tradition of shortlisting a handful of restaurants I’d like to visit before the turn of calendar. It turned out that I didn’t have a very long list but one of those that stood out from my misses this year was Gaddi’s, one of my favorite French restaurants in town. Yes, I think I needed to do something about that.

I have read about a new head chef taking over the reins at Gaddi’s recently, the first-ever female chef to do so in the long history of the most storied fine-dining restaurants in Hong Kong. Chef Anne-Sophie Nicholas who worked at some of the finest restaurants in Paris including Le Meurice and Guy Savory, as well as most recently at Joel Robuchon Hong Kong, has been tasked to breathe fresh air into Gaddi’s menu. Let’s see if those subtle changes could be spotted at my lunch this afternoon.

Lunch started off brightly with a small amuse bouche of smoked salmon mousse topped nicely by a layer of herb emulsion. There was a crispy toast holding two quenelles of salmon tartare on top to go with the mousse.

Duck foie gras and yellow chicken terrine, onions, meat juice dressing – I elected to go with a dual of starters today and the first to arrive was my cold starter, a nicely executed foie gras terrine with a ring of poached yellow chicken meat on the outside. Served on the side were different textures of onions and hazelnuts to add contrasting flavors and textures to the mix. 

The dish was finished off with a vinaigrette made of meat jus and French yellow wine, and a nice sprinkle of what I thought was paprika. Not bad.

Boston lobster bisque, tomatoes, sweet peas, cognac – The second starter immediately followed and it was a rich and creamy lobster bisque with confit tomatoes, sweet peas and of course, lobster meat from Boston. 

Sitting on the bottom were patches of jelly made with Hennessey XO cognac so some bitterness on top of savory flavors and creaminess. Pretty interesting twist.

Burgaud duck breast, daikon, figs, thyme – My main dish was Burgaud duck breast served medium matched with Japanese daikon and variations of French figs. After having my fair share of figs during our stay in South of France two months ago, it was nice to get myself reacquainted with French figs again. Apart from the few tendons, this was a reasonably good dish that was both well cooked and presented.

Chocolate and caramelized banana tube, Guanaja 70% ganache, banana ice-cream – Dessert was a chocolate “cigar” with a chocolate exterior and fillings of caramelized banana and Guanaja 70% ganache. 

It was paired with a scoop of banana ice-cream for a nice balancing act.

Mignardises consisted of none other than Peninsula Hotel’s famous chocolate, this one with cardamom, along with a small éclair and financier.

Always have time for a cup of tea.

I gave the kitchen a small test of delivering this meal in roughly two hours, a feat they accomplished in flying colors. But despite the kitchen staff coming through nicely, the performance by the waiting staff has put a dent on the overall dining experience. As a solo diner, I was left cold at the corner of the dining room without much attention all afternoon. Yes, I have been through this before and while I am not someone who talk a lot, I appreciate the occasional chit chat with the service team. During my recent visit to Tosca also as a solo diner, the Assistant Manager there kept me warm throughout the meal and left a lasting impression on me. Here the restaurant also came with a Michelin star, but none of the staff was well-trained enough to come and offer me anything extra (normally to start, they would say something like, would you like a book or magazine?). At least not this afternoon. A lot of servers have come and gone by me but other than “mechanically” offloading stuff on the table (or removing stuff) with a memorized speech most of the time on the ingredients, no one has wholeheartedly come and served me (or at least half-heartedly). This was seen from a few of my recent meals in Hong Kong and one may add that these were not cheap meals. 

On the other hand, there was this VIP sitting next to me who has been getting all the attention from the hostess to the Restaurant Manager. Enough said.

Food Rating: 7.2/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 1/F, The Peninsula Hong Kong, 22 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2696-6763
Website: www.peninsula.com/en/hong-kong/hotel-fine-dining/gaddis-french-restaurant
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:30pm, 7:00pm - 10:30pm (Tue - Sat)