The atmosphere wasn't anything spectacular. We did get seats overlooking Nathan Road though. The service was great; what you would typically expect from fancier restaurants. My sister has a selection of speciality dishes she was asked to taste. By the way, no one there knew my sisters was there for a review...at least not until we "pay" for the bill. Anyways, onto the dishes.
Duck Tongue Tossed With XO Sauce
For starters, we had Duck Tongue tossed with XO Sauce. Even though the meal was complimentary, we still felt bit ripped from the lack of duck tongues present. We were expecting a dish of duck tongues but instead received a dish the was dominated by celery, which by the way wasn't even mentioned on the menu. I'd rather sit down at a dim sum restaurant and order a plate of duck tongue than eat this. For $80 dollars, this dish was small, deceiving, and expensive.
Shark Fin tossed with Crab Meat and Pincer
Up next was the Shark Fin tossed with Crab Meat and Pincer with Rich Broth. This is their signature dish, but that wasn't our reason for high expectations. It was simply the price; for $700, this had better be good. This isn't your conventional Shark Fin Soup. As you can see, the broth is separate from the shark fin. The shark fin by itself was extremely bland, and if I may quote my sister, "tastes like cardboard". A couple scoops of broth over the shark fin made it much better. Probably the best part of this course was the crab meat, which tasted both fresh and flavorful. So overall, was as it great? Sure, it was free. However, if you're shelling out the dough from your own pockets, I'd look elsewhere to satisfy your shark fin cravings.
Fois Gois and Veal Fillet In Black Pepper Onion Sauce Seafood XO Medley
Proceeding to our main course, Fois Gois and Veal Fillet In Black Pepper Onion Sauce (left) and Seafood XO Medley (right). Okay, these dishes taste fine, but they just don't scream "I'm worth $250 dollars". There was hardly any Fois Gois in the dish; we expected more than just 7 cubes. The sauce was thick similar to the consistency of phlegm and the veal was lacking that natural meat flavor. The Seafood Xo Medley was a really small dish. Okay, size doesn't matter; what we need is quality! The prawn and scallops were fine, but the geoduck was so tough that my jaw actually had little muscles protruding outwards the next day. In my opinion, both dishes were tad over mediocre at most.
Garoupa on Steamed Egg Whites with Bird's Nest
Our final dish, Garoupa on Steamed Egg Whites with Bird's Nest. This is another of their specialty dishes. If I ever eat here again, please remind me to order anything but the speciality dishes. The steamed egg whites lacked a smooth and soft consistency. Through the dish, chunks or clumps of egg whites would appear which is unacceptable. They managed to miss the most important aspect of steamed egg whites in a signature dish. The Garoupa was fine but the Bird's Nest on top was pure gimmick. It added no meaningful flavor nor aesthetic appeal to the dish. All it did was jack the price of the dish up. Poor and expensive dish, period.
All in all, it would've been a good meal for $500. That, not being the case, makes this a terrible $2700 meal. They failed to effectively utilize both expensive and basic ingredients. Although there were some ingenuity to their dishes, some of the names were somewhat deceiving. The service was excellent but what we came for was the food, and that was only subpar. Therefore, I can only give this restaurant a 6/10 at best. Would I recommend it to tourists and locals? Probably not. Take your money elsewhere unless you're staying at the Kowloon Hotel and is to lazy to walk your ass elsewhere.
Okay, I'm sick of listening to myself. I'll be sure to blog again soon. Thanks for reading, and take care!
P.S. For the record, I'm not picky with my food. I eat anything and anything with the utmost gratitude.
