This Cantonese restaurant is located in St. Regis Hong Kong in Wanchai, and originally I had booked to come for my birthday dinner on the day. Unfortunately, with the banning of evening dine-in now, we decided to come for lunch instead, and really appreciate the restaurant accommodating my request so we could still order Chef Hung's Specialities Menu ($1,538 each).
We were seated at a corner, with good distance between tables offering us a good sense of comfort and privacy, showing how the restaurant had taken careful social distancing consideration to protect customers on the layout. A contemporary ambiance, supplemented with good natural light coming from the big windows on the side, provided a good sense of elegant luxury and relaxing setting.
The restaurant is renowned on the wide assortment of tea offered, and I decided to have Tieguanyin ($108) while my wife had the Taiwan Alishan Oolong ($88). Both the tea were fragrant and nice, and while enjoying, the first course arrived: Barbecued Iberico Pork with Honey 蜜餞西班牙黑豚肉叉燒, Deep-Fried Diced Wagyu Beef Puff with Black Pepper Sauce 錦繡球黑椒和牛酥, and Chinese Marinated Foie Gras 鹵水鵝肝.
Starting from the foie gras, it has a really great fragrance, with the master stock used to marinate the goose liver of impeccable flavors, not overly salty or intense on any specific elements, but providing a harmonious blend of taste. The liver essentially melted in the mouth, not having any bad oily mouthfeel and the deep-fried toast underneath also giving a nice crispy texture to contrast. Really good!
The Wagyu beef puff is one of the signature dim sum, with the chef meticulously getting the puff on the outside to reminiscent a piece of art, with interwoven brown and deep brown pieces. The fillings are a rich and intense Wagyu beef, finely diced and with nice black pepper sauce to highlight the flavors of the beef to the extreme.
Comparatively the BBQ pork is the least interesting of the three. The pork is tender and juicy, with the honey glazed outside giving a good char and honestly is certainly not bad. But just when you finished the other two starters this would taste a bit ordinary.
The second course is Deep-Fried Garoupa Fillet with Fresh Sichuan Peppercorn and Bean Crisp 鮮花椒豆酥星斑球. The bean crisp is something new for me, with the texture similar to crumbles, with a tiny bit of sweetness which did not mask any flavors from the superior silky smooth garoupa fillet. The fresh Sichuan peppercorn is a pleasant surprise, without any spiciness but a bit of numbness when one bites them, created a refreshing mixture of appetizing appeal for the dish. Very nice indeed.
The third course is Double-Boiled Pearl Scallop Soup with Fish Maw and Goji 花膠杞子燉珍珠肉. The soup is really tasty, with amazing umami flavors from the superior broth used, without a single drop of oil on the soup. The fish maw is thick and got a nice texture, full of collagen and even the small pieces of diced pork contributed to add to the complexity of taste. The pearl scallop is something I had not tasted before, which is a bit fishy to eat and while it helped to enhance the taste of the soup, I would suggest taking it out before serving the soup as some customers might not like to eat that.
The fourth course is Steamed Lobster with Caviar, Egg White, Cream and Prawn Broth 黑魚子蒸龍蝦球配雙式蛋. A creative dish from Chef Hung, the two layer of steamed egg had a creamy and smooth texture like the pudding, with white layer made with cream while the bottom orange layer with lobster bisque. The steamed lobster meat is amazingly tasty, with the rich original flavors further enriched with the two pieces of caviar shaving, which I originally thought to be a truffle piece. A great fusion of Cantonese and Western style cuisine.
The fifth course is Braised Whole South African Abalone with Matsutake Mushroom and Superior Oyster Sauce 蠔皇原隻南非鮑伴花菇. The abalone has been braised perfectly, tender and one can cut open without any difficulty. Rich in the abalone flavors, while it might not have the same 'sweet core' like the famous Japanese dried abalone it is extremely tasty. The Matsutake mushroom is fleshy too. The superior oyster sauce is so great that I had the urge to just lick up all the sauce on the plate. Really good.
The sixth course is Fried Rice with Dried Sakura Shrimp and Mullet Roe 櫻花蝦烏魚子炒飯. Another of my favorite in the menu, this fried rice not only had the textbook quality with each single rice distinct, with the crispness of the sakura shrimps adding a nice bite as well as the savory taste. The mullet roe has been slightly toasted too, to bring out the fragrance and I would highly recommend ordering this and try it out.
The seventh course is Chilled Pink Guava Cream with Sago and Coconut Jelly, and Rainbow Taro Paste Puff 椰果石榴甘露伴紫薯彩虹酥. Another creative twist by the chef, instead of the common mango sago cream this dish has used pink guava, with a nice elegant aroma and taste, while also having the good bite from the sago and some coconut jelly. Appropriate in sweetness too. The rainbow puff is also very good, with the beautiful rendering of a piece of edible art and the fillings are of taro paste which again is intense in the flavors but not overly sweet. A fantastic dessert.
Finally it is the Chinese Petits Fours 美點薈萃. One of them is a green tea puff while the other is butterfly pea and coconut cream cake. The butterfly pea got a great blue colour which is appealing on sight, and good in taste. The green tea puff is even better with a crunchy dough with rich green tea flavors, with a lotus root paste as fillings. A great conclusion to our wonderful meal.
The service is impeccable, with the staff attentive, polite and courteous, coming to explain each dish though I would like to hear more their explanation of the specialties of the dishes, which I am sure the chef had a lot of stories behind. But I think that is still in general one key difference on fine dining between Western and Chinese restaurants.
The bill on the day was $3,600 which is not cheap but I would say the quality of the food, the ambiance of the restaurant, and the service all contribute to the great dining experience we had, and it was something worth paying for. And no surprise the restaurant is a Michelin one-star now. A really good place to have a nice meal whether in business and private occasion.
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