L'Envol (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Despite it's been almost 3 months since my birthday, I'm still having get-together with some of my friends for our belated celebration. Tonight, I’m meeting up with my food buddy Agent-I for my belated birthday meal. We have already postponed it a couple of times due to the pandemic and social unrest; but it looks like it's finally going to happen this time.

I got to pick tonight’s restaurant and after looking at the short list provided by Agent-I, I wound up picking Chef Olivier Elzer’s L’Envol at St Regis Hotel. It’s been a while since I last saw Chef Olivier (it was at now-shuttered Seasons) so I was hoping he’s working on a Wednesday night tonight (fat chance?).

Agent-I and I both decided against having the longer menu so the 5-course Decouverte ($1388) sounded about right.

Some amuse bouche to start off the meal. Pickled French cherry which came with a fair amount of acidity…..

Chicken with herbs and a hint of lemongrass.

Brioche topped with sardine.

A flaky cracker topped with arugula leaves and tomato. 

And some nice homemade bread. The caviar butter (right) was really nice. Came with some extra heat too!

The first course of the menu was grilled Carabineros red prawns, beautifully decorated with crunchy vegetables and dabs of aioli sauce on top.

A small bowl of marinated Gamberoni prawns and Amontillado jelly served on the side, was a nice change-up to the grilled Carabineros thanks to the contrast in temperature.

I have long heard of the turbot and foie gras dish from Ecriture and of course Chef Ricardo Chaneton’s signature “monkbread”, which fuses monkfish from Brittany with French sweetbread. This was Chef Olivier’s take on the marriage between the Land and Sea, with Brittany monkfish and foie gras steamed in an aromatic broth.

The monkfish and foie gras wrapped tightly together with a slice of bacon and cabbage, was matched with a rich and creamy fish broth. An impressive dish featuring a symphony of exciting flavors. Just one complaint though, I thought the apricot should have no place in this as the acidity didn’t match with the rest of the dish.

While Agent-I decided to have the steak, I went with the chef’s roasted French pork loin, with sorrel, pickled vegetables and spicy veal ravioli. The dish was finished off with a pistachio emulsion and "sauce diable". Pretty decent.

Before our dessert, we enjoyed a small cheese dish, Pélardon goat cheese wrapped in "Colonnata" lard and sprinkled all over with roasted Languedoc spices.

It was a pretty heavy dish to have following the red prawns, monkfish and pork loin so I didn’t finish it all. I really like the fermented milk jelly there to offset the richness of the goat cheese but there wasn’t nearly enough of it to balance things out. 

Just when I was least expecting it, our dessert creeped up on me. Guess who was bringing it to the table – Chef Olivier himself!

Our dessert was coffee crémeux, with caramelized pecan nuts and mascarpone ice-cream. It was almost like having a nice cup of coffee after a heavy meal. The different textures of coffee (jelly and cream) delivered varying degrees of bitterness to the dessert, matching well with the sweetness of the mascarpone ice-cream and crunch of the pecan nuts.

A perfect end to our wonderful modern French meal.

Dessert trolley's next.

This is a very impressive collection of migrandises including some mini eclairs and mango passion fruit tarts.

I handpicked a mix of sweets including chocolate and marshmallow.

Black currant lollipop. Lovely! 

It was a very very good meal. Many thanks to Agent-I who organized this dinner including the special "Happy Birthday" message on my dessert. I'm already looking forward to more nice meals to come hopefully in the next little while.

Food Rating: 7.4/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 3/F, The St. Regis Hong Kong, 1 Harbour Drive, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Wanchai
Tel: +852 2138-6818
Website: www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-information/restaurant/hkgxr-the-st-regis-hong-kong/

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:30pm, 6:30pm - 10:30pm (Mon - Sat)

Cacao Sampaka at K11 Musea (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Unlike fellow European countries Switzerland and Belgium, Spain doesn’t immediately jump out as a country known for its artisanal chocolate. But in recent years, a few Spanish chocolate makers are making their presence felt internationally including Cacao Sampaka.

My first experience with Cacao Sampaka actually came from Tokyo, when I accidentally bumped into their store in Marunouchi and my first impression was a pretty good one. I was more than amazed with the quality of their chocolate and pastries so when news broke about them finding a landing spot at K11 Musea late last year, I immediately took notice. It ended up taking more than 6 months for me to finally take action.

Mini This Love ($54) - This is a very nice match, delicate lychee mousse paired with raspberry ganache and compote, a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity. 

For a moment, I thought I was having a lychee flavored cheesecake.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop B201-21, B2/F, K11 Musea, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 5238-2318

Website: www.cacaosampakahk.com

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:00pm daily

Gaddi's 吉地士 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I have been quietly keeping tabs on the re-opening of Gaddi's since the middle of February. During the pandemic, their official website has posted different timeline (latest one was early May) on separate occasions but only to be revised to a later date every time. In early May, they finally decided to put up the wording "until further notice". That wasn't a lot of fun. I was looking for a place to celebrate mom's birthday in late May and had to eventually settle with another favorite of mine, Caprice (I have to admit, it’s not a bad replacement at all).

During the last week of May, I decided to check on Gaddi’s again. It’s been a dismal year for anyone who loves to eat and travel (someone like me!) so I was simply looking for some sparks if you will as we were all desperate for a good meal and guess what, the wording “until further notice” had been taken off. Instead, it’s been revised to 3rd June! It’s been a long time coming but Gaddi’s is finally back! Needless to say, I immediately went onto their online booking system and got myself a table for the upcoming weekend.

It’s good to see some familiar faces again and not surprisingly, the place was packed on the fourth day since the grand re-opening (photo was taken before it got packed!).

Gaddi’s four-course weekend tasting menu is back in its usual format – a choice each from cold appetizer, warm appetizer, main and dessert ($708). But first, it was my beloved bacon and onion brioche to kick off this wonderful meal. But is it just me or did my favorite brioche just shrink to miniature size after the restaurant’s temporary closure?

Our amuse was prawn tartare and avocado, complemented nicely with a light corn emulsion. 

That’s a pretty nice way to get our palate ready for action.

My first course was half-cooked Japanese mackerel, artfully plated with crispy enoki mushroom, avocado and tapioca chips.

The flavor profile of the dish certainly wasn’t bad but I didn’t totally like the texture profile there. The chewy tapioca chips, crispy enoki mushroom and buttery mackerel didn't exactly mesh the way I have expected.

More successful was Jelloman’s burrata panna cotta with roasted squid, broccoli and crispy croutons delivering a nice mix of complex flavors to the dish. I like the extra smoky flavors from the burrata cheese which was subtle and on point.

For our warm appetizer, both of us opted for the langoustine ravioli and what a wonderful choice that was! This featured two large pieces of Brittany langoustine and wasabi cooked spinach stuffed inside the paper-thin wrapper of the ravioli, finished off beautifully with a soothing coconut and lemongrass emulsion. Absolutely love the bouncy texture and sweetness of the langoustine, matched superbly by the comforting flavors of the emulsion. Without a doubt, the best dish of the afternoon.

The langoustine was immediately followed by my main dish, Kurobuta pork with yellow peach, fennel and lavender honey. The pork was a little chewy at times but the flavors were fairly balanced thanks to the mix of sweetness and acidity from the peach, fennel and honey.

Jelloman had the pan-seared Hokkaido scallops instead and I had to admit, it was a far better choice.

The dish also came with green asparagus, spelt risotto and grelot onions. A nice refreshing match with the scallops.

My dessert was The Honeycomb, which I thought would bring a very sweet end to my meal but obviously, I didn't pay enough attention to the details of the menu at all. This was a dish that centered around a lime and ginger flavored mousse, which was paired with a banana sponge and honey ice-cream. It's a peculiar match in terms of flavors where there's a fair amount of acidity coming from the lime while the ginger brought some heat to the dessert. Both proved to be a little too much for the honey ice-cream to neutralize.

Better was Jelloman's deconstructed tiramisu with coffee ladyfinger biscuit, mascarpone cream and chocolate crisp. It was looking good too (not just tasted good).

Even little guy thought the tiramisu was the better choice.

Some complimentary chocolate from Peninsula Boutique. I like the honey flavored one as a palate cleanser.

Gaddi’s will always have a special place in my heart cuz well, it’s the first authentic French fine-dining institution the city ever knows. The restaurant had gone into a tailspin for nearly a decade but with Chef de cuisine Albin Gobil and Executive Pastry Chef François Delaire on board, they are certainly trending at the right direction now, which is why I'm coming back a lot more these days.

Food Rating: 7.5/10
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)