Jelloman and I had a huge argument last night. After waking up early in the morning, I was still feeling a little angry so instead of going to our lunch engagement together, I decided to go on my own (while saving me a few bucks in the process).
I have been looking forward to Andō since hearing about Chef Agustin Balbi's departure from Haku to team up with JIA Group with this newest venture. At the Argentinian chef’s first solo restaurant, he is set to present a unique cuisine with Spanish and Japanese influences drawing inspirations from his Spanish roots.
Obviously, the team here has put a lot of thoughts into their first-ever menus and the interior decor deserves some credit as well. I thought they did a great job making this little place warm and elegant at the same time.
It's also nice to see the entire team from Haku here (Luis and company) and of course, right in the middle of things was Chef Balbi himself.
Lunch got off to a flying start with All Different, a refreshing starter featuring different variations of yellow tomatoes. At the centre of all this was the pineapple tomato from Provence, a very special breed that wasn't all that common in Asia.
These were matched up nicely with Japanese mango, gooseberry, tofu purée and burrata emulsion, finished off brilliantly with a touch of tomato water. There's also a bit of savory kick from the eel to tie everything together. What a start!
My starter was followed by a slice of homemade grain bread. The thing I love most was the accompanying butter from Hokkaido, which has been blended with barley and red miso.
Soup course was next and it was the chef's modern take on the classic Spanish Ajo Blanco (chilled white garlic soup with grapes). This was obviously a premium version of the soup (made with kombu dashi) featuring Spanish red prawns, roasted almonds, garlic, grapes and sea grapes from Okinawa. The broth came with very clean flavors, matched up beautifully with the sweetness of red prawns and further enhanced by drops of shrimp oil (orange), smoked olive oil (yellow) and chives oil (green). I thought my starter was real good but this was even better.
As a meat lover, there was no surprise that I have chosen red meat over fish for my main course. Here Spanish quail was cooked two ways with the breast seared and leg deboned, breaded with crumbs and finally deep-fried to perfection. It was served with seasonal vegetables and a fruity sauce made with black cherry and own jus. I really enjoyed the addition of black cherry to the sauce giving the dish another dimension but the natural flavors of the quail didn't live up to my expectation (say, compare to French quail).
Finally, the dish I have been looking forward to - Sin Lola, the signature caldoso rice dish prepared with Japanese rice and cooked using a technique the chef learned from his grandmother.
The portion was really generous (still more in the pot)!
The soupy rice came with diced scallop and clams, and finished off with a savory kick by the cured Spanish beef.
Very very delicious. Certainly the highlight of the meal.
Dessert was a gorgeous creme caramel with Hibiki whiskey and milk ice-cream which came with a lovely hint of sea salt. Some lemon zest provided the dessert with a nice rounded finish. That was the perfect exclamation point I was looking for to end this wonderful feast.
Some small migrandises to end my lunch on a sweet note.
It's been so long since I last had time to walk around Central. There were so many new openings (at least new to me!) including the popular Blue Bottle Coffee.
I still got more work to do after lunch. My mission, should I chose to accept it was to get my team some Oonuts from Teakha (茶。家). But I was told their pop-up has already ended and they had to be ordered online.
After my brief stop at Teakha (茶。家), I took some time to walk around Soho and Sheung Wan. To my surprise, some of the restaurants and cafes which I haven't heard from for a while, have already closed for good. The most heartbreaking one for me Upper Modern Bistro, one of my favorite restaurants brought to us by one of my favorite chefs in town, Philippe Orrico. I decided to check out the whereabout of Chef Orrico on IG and not surprisingly, he's no longer in town. It's really sad to see him leave but at the same time, I was excited for him to have a fresh start in a different continent.
Address: 1/F Somptueux Central, 52 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm (Tue - Sat), 6:00pm - 10:00pm (Mon - Sat)
