Cucina — Restaurant in Kowloon

It was a celebration dinner with Cucina and the Michelin-starred Chef Igor Macchia back in Dec 2023.

The restaurant was spacious and relaxing, with an excellent and impressive view of the Victoria harbour.

2 complementary antipasto were served. The tart and bread are not bad, and we are more surprised by the sauce that comes together with the bread, which adds a lot to the taste.

The Belgian Chicory Tarte Tatin was presented so well like an art piece. The ingredients match well and taste is very balanced.

For the main course, tried both the oyster risotto and the Turet. The Turet tasted good but I was more impressed by the oyster risotto. The taste of oyster was very rich and fresh. What’s more, the risotto was in beautiful creamy colour and I believe the chef and cooking team made an effort to just extract the essence of an oyster into the sauce and avoiding the dark black substance that you usually find in oysters.

The dessert Gianduj’8 was not bad, a little too sweet to me.

The servers and serving time could be done better. We were interesting to learn more about what we were served and how they were prepared and cooked, instead of just the name of that dish. We were also being interrupted twice when we were enjoying the bread - once when the waitress to set the table for the appetiser and a second time when the appetiser came. Was a bit annoying, after all, it’s a four starred Forbes award fine...

Great customer waiter services, and nice ambience.

However the food was truly disappointing and poor for such a highly rated restaurant - to my huge surprise. I don’t think I was being too picky, but I can’t believe the quality of food being so safely bland. Brought my spouse for a birthday treat ordering two sets of 4-course temptation set dinner. The entree focaccia bread was so poor, untasty and in cold bread form. It was like 4/10 bread quality. Shouldn’t a well known Italian restaurant serve some fragrant warm bread?!

Then came the appetiser with ham and cheese. The ham is not bad , but the cheese was just bland with not much kick. I give it 7/10.

Then came the pasta which was surprisingly bland with a safe taste. Nothing special or tasty to it. Instant noodles tasted even better. I would give it at most 6/10.

Then the pork chop which was honestly not as bad. But I made a mistake ordering this four course meal thinking I was having a beef steak. 7/10 for pork chop but 5/10 for the side potato and cauliflower which again are so bland.

Lastly was the dessert, which was also a 6/10.

Overall, I give Cucina a poorly 6/10 and it does not befit its status.

Did Cucina change the chef recently to provide such lousy food? This is Sep 2024.

Once again, the customer service was...

Cucinaaaa! I have been to this restaurant a few times now. Initially went for the panoramic views of the Hongkong island skyline. But guess what? The food is actually pretty good. They recently revamped their menu and they have a game specific menu until 3 November with venison kind of stuff. Appetizers. You got to go for the grilled octopus. Neat, tasty, well done. Tonight I had the beef tartare mystica. A revelation. Literally the best beef tartare I had in decades. Simple, authentic, well presented, perfectly seasoned, nicely hand cut. My wife got the burrata which was delightful, creamy but not fat, nicely seasoned to bring forward the taste. Just right. After that we had specials from the game menu. The baked venison was perfectly cooked (I had asked rare to medium rare and that's what I got). Desserts, we went for the chef special. The service was good but could be slightly improved. Cucina is a great place that is very much underrated. Great efforts and improving each time I go. Bravo to the chef and the team! No pictures unfortunately. I am much better at eating than at...