Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

It's been a while since I wanted to try a restaurant from the famous chef Robuchon, and finally able to do so this week. Located in Landmark, the restaurant is a Michelin 3-star for five consecutive years, featuring a contemporary chic open kitchen with guests seated around, allowing customers to have a full view of the food preparation and cooking. With high chairs and a bar setting, it is surprisingly comfortable and cozy.

To start the bread basket is already a treat. With different types of bread all freshly made, we are reminded not to have too many despite how good they are, or otherwise we might not be able to finish our meal. I tried a couple of them and really they are phenomenal, and it was a shame I couldn't tried all of them.

We each ordered the discovery menu to sample the signature dishes, starting with the Amuse-Bouche which is a white asparagus, panna cotta and cheese roll. The asparagus is in the right season, very tender and fresh, contrasting well in texture with the panna cotta. The cheese roll brings in an extra dimension of crispy and savory to get us off to a wonderful start and high expectation. I also ordered a Ruinart Blanc de Blancs to pair.

The next dish is L'oeuf de Poule 'Mimosa', surprise imperial caviar with egg 'mimosa'. The egg yolk has been carved out and inside stuffed with caviar, with Bearnaise sauce on top decorated with some caviar. Another fantastic dish showing good combination of visual and flavor, the caviar brought the right saltiness to the egg which matched perfectly with the sauce. Again we finished the dish in no time to show how good it was.

The third dish is Le King Crabe, which is king crab and avocado cannelloni, with citrus and vanilla condiments. Just by looking at it you could imagine the skills and expertise required to prepare the roll, and the avocado matched well on the texture with the crab meat, plus the citrus condiment on top bringing the necessary acidity to enhance the flavors and freshness of the crab meat. For this dish I have ordered a Tekoko Sauvignon Blanc to pair.

Next comes L'asperge Blanche, which is white asparagus with miso emulsion, Espelette pepper and sea urchin. As mentioned earlier, the white asparagus is in the right season, tender and fresh, and has the trick of reducing the flavors of the sea urchin a bit in case some people might not like its special taste, while on the other hand the miso emulsion helped to bring forward the umami taste.

The fifth dish is Le Homard, grilled Maine lobster with green peas and baby pak choy. The lobster was cooked perfectly to the right level, and the sauce being a lobster bisque certainly further enriching the flavors. The peas and pak choy are wonderful dipping in the bisque and the dish paired so nicely with the Bruno Clair Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru.

Frankly by the time I was quite full, and began to wonder whether I have too many bread at the beginning. The next dish is Le Saint-Pierre, which is John Dory fried with shiso tempura and cuttlefish ink risotto. It is certainly a nice dish as the tempura was not oily at all, and the risotto was soft and creamy.

The seventh dish is what a lot of people comes to sample, Le Pigeon, a slow cooked French pigeon with foie gras and smoked bacon, accompanied with chicken bouillon and petit raviolis. The pigeon is so tasty, with a crunchy texture so amazingly great, and eating together with the foie gras the balanced flavors of gamey and savory really blew me away. The chicken bouillon was a bit salty and spicy for me however, but the mashed potatoes were velvety and so good, if only I could have room to eat more. I had a Louis Jadot Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru to pair this wonderful dish.

Coming to dessert first comes La Foret Noire, 'mushroom' in black forest style with griottines and chocolate cream flavored with kirsch. The mushroom is made from the cherry and white chocolate cream, having the right sweetness and not overly so, and the look is so interesting it is another piece of art on the night. It should pair well with a sweet wine but unfortunately I got a bit too much by then to have more wine.

The final dish is La Noisette, Plemont praline mousse with lemon cream and fromage blanc sorbet. The lemon cream got a good tartness, in perfect syn with the sweet and salty cheese sorbet, allowing us to finish the night with another great satisfaction which is so wonderful that we really decide to come back for more.

Apart from the food and atmosphere, the services are also exceptionally good, with the friendly server explaining to us the details of each dish, suggesting the right wine to pair, and also checking in with us throughout the night. The server also offered us to pack the bread home which is also a nice touch. The bill totaled $6,280 which is a bit pricey, but considering that I had 5 glasses of wine and a bottled water, I still regarded this restaurant a must-try.

My overall rating is 80/100.