Mora — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

Soybean at its best. At Mora, let your imagination run wild as you can expect unexpected presentations of this versatile ingredient—soy!

This humble ingredient takes forms ranging from solid to liquid, silky to thick, hot to cold. Marvel at its versatility throughout their highly curated menu.

Served in six courses with two optional add-ons, your sight marvels at the delicate plating; your scent is seduced by the permeating fragrance, while your taste buds are taken on a journey across the globe by the distinctive cooking styles.

Menus are seasonal, and new dishes will be introduced from time to time.

We started our night with a hot ginger red date tea, believed to keep us warm on the winter night.

This was followed by a serving of extremely creamy unflavored soy milk to cleanse our palates and as an introduction to their core ingredient: soy.

For starters, we were served a bean curd tartlet topped with pumpkin soy foam, soy ricotta, chestnut, and pumpkin seed pesto. A perfect balance of creaminess and richness from the foam and cheese. A smart move to use pumpkin seeds for the pesto instead of pine nuts, as it's more refreshing and less fatty.

Next, we had deep-fried tofu served with squid, sesame sauce, pine nuts, and radish, finished with a drizzle of parsley oil. The super fragrant and creamy sauce, without over-seasoning, complemented the silky tofu. The squid added texture to the dish, while the radish purée balanced the overall richness.

We also opted for both extra dishes: the grouper tofu skin roulade and abalone noodles. Personally, I'm not a fan of the grouper dish; we both found the broth too lightly seasoned and the fish too meaty, especially after the previous dish.

Then, in the transition, there was a soup dish featuring a delicately carved tofu chrysanthemum; however, the star was the winter melon broth.

Next up was the abalone noodle served in soy milk bouillon and black garlic oil. We were awakened by the aroma of the black garlic oil; the abalone was cooked to perfection—super tender. The sauce was marvelous, with the right thickness to cling to every strand of noodles, and the crunchy wood ear mushrooms rounded out the texture of this dish.

Finally, the star of the night: a roasted pigeon dish that broadened my culinary horizons. Never have I tasted such a well-prepared roasted pigeon; not only was it well-seasoned, but every bite was heavenly and full of surprises. The pigeon breast was so tender and soft. Then there was the boneless pigeon drumstick, chargrilled to perfection, with crispy outer skin and tender meat. The dollop of plum sauce was an extra touch, finishing the dish on a high note. I'm sorry, I completely forgot about the tofu!

If you're still not full at this point, you get to fill yourself up with the final savory dish of the night, a winter must-have: Chinese sausage rice. You might not like this if you're not a fan of ginger or bean paste. An unconventional pairing, but I'm sure it has its fans.

Lastly, dessert is a must! Tofu pudding served with black rice soy ice cream and persimmon compote. A surprising touch was the hint of saltiness from the ice cream itself. We tried to ask how it was prepared but were told it's a trade secret.

The service was top-notch, and there's nothing more I can say to compliment a great night out dining. Definitely a place to revisit and try out their dishes from time to time. Make sure you make a reservation in advance, as they only take a limited number of guests...

Did a saturday lunch - Very high quality food, cost-performance is normal, portion is ample, service friendly and relaxed.

Long Version: Location - off the beaten track of Hong Kong in a more outskirt semi residential quite straight than the usual Central Bankers & Lawyers territory. I personally much prefer this, on weekends why do I need to stare at work enviornment. Surrounded by narrow alley and tucked away into antique street what is a true 'hidden secret' low-profile locality. If you want to turn up at shop-front in your Chauffer-driven Alphard this is not possible.

Ambience/Clientale - modern and relaxed with friendly hall staff. Kudos to Lawrence who took extra effort to converse with guests and make them feel at home yet maintaing the professional distance not to intrude into the space of guest. I saw many well-heeled customers mostly local HK/Chinese ethniticy at the day of my visit. Tables sufficiently spaced apart to have your own privacy.

Service Level: extremely attentive - i counted 4-5 hall staff in addition to many behind the kitchen. Thus the serviced wasn't slow. I am quick eater and they brought dishes with relative fast pace (perhaps 2-3min wait in between dishes) which wasn't an issue but other may find this to be rushed, so ensure you tell the staff you want to go slow if that's your preference. I finished my 6 course in 1hour to give you an idea.

Food (Good): The two favorite was main and dessert - I'm not a game-meat person but their duck main dish was juicy and flavorsome without being too gamy. The Mont Blanc dessert with fusion of tofu/soya was one of the best dessert I had in recent memory, it has elegant presentation and chestnut creamy flavor with cripsy tofu and ice-cream stimulated my taste palette.

Food (Bad): On the disappointment side was deep-fried tofu. The tofu in the center was cold as if it just came out of freezer. As Tofu/Soya is their speciality I wished they got this perfectly right - the tofu should be thoroughly thawed before deepfry to ensure hot texture is maintained.

Cost Performance: Came to about HK$1k / US$125 with glass of wine and additional udon course and service fee. I'm not going to say if this is 'expensive' or 'affordable' which is subjective to each diner. For $1k HKD the alternative is most HK 5* hotel brunch/set meal for 1 may offer much more food quantity (without wine) for similar price. Or I can have decent teppanyaki or sushi course. Definitely wouldn't consider this to be a "high cost performance" place, but on the flip-side benefit the clientale is not there for value but for ambience and quality surrouned by well-heeled similarily minded guests.

X-factor: I'm soya lover thus this meal was on my radar and I had plesant surprise on their use of soya into the dishes. However I wished there was further punch into incorporate soya, most dishes whilst were great lacked the 'wow - surprise me' factor, except the mont blanc dessert. Rice dish for example I found how to differentiate it from other places. Also I wish I could order a cup of soya...

Booked the restaurant for my anniversary. intentionally came 10-15 minute early to see if we were able to dine in early since the restrictions were only till 10pm. But instead waited till almost till 30 minutes after our supposed booking time before we could've sat down. We asked the Caucasian manager if there will be enough time to eat as it was already 9pm. So we had less than 1 hour to spare before it closed due to restrictions.he said it's fine. I guess this was not supposed to be a fine dining experience. Our food were rushed out, unless we told them to slow down.

Another thing the Caucasian manager was very unprofessional at all. There were 2 other couple who went in and was able to be seated. But me and another customer waited outside for 30 minutes outside. We questioned him about it and he said because they booked at 8. So they were late by 30 minutes still able to be seated down without penalty and served immediately. But for customers who were early and on time had to wait outside for 30 minutes. How is that fine dining? At least give us a proper area to wait. As it was raining outside and was drenched.

The food was very medicore, sorry to say. As I booked the menu it was still the original tasting menu and was excited for it and made certain arrangements for it. But then when arrived, the menu was changed and why were we not informed before hand? Anyways, the first dish with the caviar was alright. But the caviar was very bland and tasteless, provided nothing to the dish except looking good.the side dish with it was alright. The other 2 dishes came out very quickly as by then we only had 40 minutes left. It was not bad. The grilled eel with thousand layer tofu was alright but did not mix well with the mayo as suggested. The fish with the soup was good, the soup was like the seafood tofu soup. The ma Po tofu was not good. The lobster in it was fine but the sauce was weird tasting. The rice was soggy and no rice taste at all. The fried chicken was decent. We asked them to slow down as we were quite rushed. The strawberry dessert was good mix of tofu.

At the end we thought it was a rough experience. Did not live up to the reputation of sister restaurant Tate which was amazing in service and food and everything. The girl sommelier was nice enough to say sorry for our wait and gave us wine on the house as compensation she said but we did not like the 2 white wine other than the dessert wine she gave us at the end. Maybe need better wine selection. So we instead got our preordered anniversary cake to go instead eating there. Since it was 9:50pm already so we left, as we did not want to violate the government regulation. We finished the whole meal in 40 minutes. Did not seem like fine dinning at all.

Average or below average than we thought. Not worth the price...