Neighborhood — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

A very average experience considering the price (HKD 1100 per person). The food was good but not outstanding, some of the dishes were a total miss, service was so-so and trying to push sales way too much, and we were disappointed by one of our preorder. On the upside, the wine was a nice pairing. THE GOOD The sommelier was very knowledgeable and offered us multiple options for pairing, without trying to up-sell us--which seems rare in this restaurant. The one we ended up going with was a perfect pairing. The restaurant is nicely decorated and the atmosphere is really nice. The bread was delicious (a rare thing in HK), although you constantly had to ask to get it refilled... THE NOT SO GOOD The food ranged from very good to plain bad. The saucisson de Bigorre was good, but I can't say it's because of any work on their part; the beef tripe gratin was very good, perhaps the highlight of the meal; the "mr. ducasse" vegetables were so-so: the truffle sauce was overpowering, and the veggies had little taste to stand on their own; the frog legs meunière were decent, but nothing outstanding. We pre-ordered the lamb, which was a massive disappointment: the taste of the lamb was so overpowering a member of our party thought it wasn't actually fresh. It's even more of a disappointment considering I've had that kind of sisteron lamb before done in a much better way. The kintoa pork we pre-ordered was much better, especially the side that came with it. Finally, the French toast had no depth and seemed too simple of a dish, while the chocolate palette was a total miss: the ganache had little going for it, and the biscuit base was plain bad. Service was poor for the price tag: we were not informed the "mr. ducasse" vegetables were the same as the one that came with the lamb, it was rarely discreet, they didn't care much when we mentioned the wine glasses were dusty beside hastily exchanging one of them, and they were poorly coordinated. This restaurant is another one of many in HK that overuses truffles: they did not pair well with the lamb and their ubiquitousness in the menu is rather off-putting. Truffles are a delicate ingredient: it's not by throwing them on top of your dishes that it transforms them in a gastronomic delight... They seem only to be here to justify some kind of fanciness to the dishes! Overall, most of the dishes lacked that little extra that would've really made them good and memorable. THE BAD Now for the unacceptable part: one of the staff member, which seemed to be the manager of the restaurant (an Asian woman) was extremely pushy in her sales tactics to a point that it took away from the meal experience. Firstly, she wrongly advised us that with 2 pre-orders we should have 6 to 8 side dishes--this is ridiculous: we had 4 + dessert and it was more than enough. Then, she made all of a show trying to sell us fresh truffles to sprinkle on the dishes. We were not really interested, but she still ushered the truffles and a scale on the table to try to sell them to us, showing us the price on a calculator; something you would expect in Ladies Market, not in such an upscale restaurant. I've never seen that even though I have been to many Michelin starred places: this is an unacceptable sale practice. Worse, the truffles seemed of poor quality, having little of a smell. Besides the show she put on, I don't understand the point: there are already truffles in the lamb dish and it wouldn't pair well with the pork one… I can't imagine this is a recommendation of the chef: surely he knows better than to unbalance the taste of the dishes he has carefully crated by just randomly sprinkling some truffle on top! The management of this restaurant needs to seriously revise its policies and sales tactics, for they are completely ridiculous. As if this was not enough, she reminded us at the end to tip! Lucky the service was of the sommelier was stellar, otherwise they would have done without a tip for sure. The price charged was too expensive for the quality of the dishes and the...

Definitely not recommending it. Nomally when you go for a Asia 50 best restaurant, I believe that their service and food should certainly up to a standard. If either one of this element is not up to expectation, we still think that we can balance it out as at least we still have a good time. However, both food quality and service are below service. Comments of the dishes are subjective, so I am not going to mention, all I can say is there are better places. But the service is unacceptable 1 - Staffs eating Pringles during service, and all the guests can see 2 - we were here for the birthday and brought an ICE CREAM CAKE and they DO NOT have a fridge to put it 3 - we ordered the signature chicken, which we most looking forward to it, we were 5 so once we split to everyone's plate the portion is just. The taste was okay but my friend found it abit disappointing as she had before and it was really good.

Then It happened to be the last piece that is Raw and we told the staff and in the end the answer we received is "even the chicken is raw, you can still eat it" then we doubted and then she went to talked to her chef and the response she gave us is "If you think the chicken is raw and is not eatable then SORRY LOR (she spoke to us in canto)" she used the word "LOR 囉" and next line is "if you want, we can waive it for you, but you guys already ate 90% of the dish"

So now, clearly, this is an attitude problem. We might have a misunderstanding on whether a French chicken could be eaten or not even the meat is transparent but certainly her response and attitude is worst.

As an establishment that already opened for a few years, able to achieve Asia best 50 (#37) and Tatler dining award is for sure a huge achievement. Still, just because they are awarded and famous, I hope they also live up with its name and provide certain level of service, at least. I am truly disappointed and will not return again even they did offered to buy us a meal and want us to give them a second chance. (my friends left another facebook review and the chef replied in the comment) Because from all the reply, he clearly does not know what truly the problem is and only by waiving a dish or buying a meal never able to make us forget what we have experienced.

It could be just a bad day for us, so I will not stop anyone going there. I wish you good luck if you are going, hopefully they serve you well and their food fit...

First I have to say the address here is just as a reference. When I arrived at the place according to the address it wasn't a restaurant and I was stunned. You have got it 50% right because the restaurant is right behind the shop. You have to locate the slope between the shop and the mural wall, walk down and see the narrow stairs on the left and walk in and you will see the restaurant in front of the playground next to the bar. Not a very big restaurant, an intimate dining space. Don't be fooled by the flimsy 1 page menu, just go with an open mind and ask the staff for recommendations instead. Just let them know your preference and also they will let you know what's special for the day. The only thing you have to do before you want to visit this restaurant is to (1) remember to make a reservation and (2) there are 2 pre order rice dishes in the menu so remember to pick any one as one of the mains. The price may sound expensive but it actually boils down to the serving, like the price for the salt baked chicken is for one whole chicken so for 2 persons you might just take half and the price will be approximately half. We tried picking dishes from the menu randomly just by looking at some of the ingredients we liked and mostly based on the recommendations of the staff. Ended up trying quite a bit of the dishes. The Crudo we had was special of the day not in the menu and we loved how the fish was well executed with the flavours of the spices, sauces and vegetables. Was the 1st dish and it was very appetizing with some tinge of sourness. Then we had some pretty good dishes like the hokkaido cod fish with cauliflower gratin and the black sausage with trumpet mushrooms. Of course the highlight was the pre ordered dish which we ordered the salt baked chicken. It was so good we enjoyed it a lot and initially we thought half chicken might be too much for 2 but we finished everything clean. Save some space for dessert because we liked their french toast too! Do not worry as the size of the french toast is not the original size, probably just a quarter of it. So good we thought it would be nicer if it was bigger! A truly enjoyable meal and price was slightly steep but was definitely worth it. Would recommend visiting but remember to make a...