Restaurant Review!
Pierre l Central l Hong Kong
Hong Kong is bursting with restaurants. One of the things that makes Hong Kong a world class city is the number of destination restaurants that call Hong Kong home. There weren’t a lot of places that really peaked my interest though until I heard about the anchor restaurant in the newly renovated Mandarin Hotel.
Pierre Gagnaire is an iconic figure in the world of French cuisine. A 3 star Michelin chef and leader in the forefront of the fusion movement, he has revolutionized French cuisine by pushing the boundaries of taste and texture combinations. Of course, when I found out that he was anchoring the Mandarin Hotel, I could not let this opportunity pass.
The level of service at Pierre was what I had come to expect from the Mandarin Hotel. As we arrived at the top floor, the manager came out to greet us to lead us in. We entered the room and found nothing but an amazing open view of Victoria Harbor. The room was immaculate.
We started off with a series of amuse bouche. All were wonderful and clever, from the wafers in cumin sugar to the deep fried quail egg yolks. I started with tiger prawns with soft boiled eggs. My companion had three starters. The first was a mushroom medley, the second was a sorrel arugala salad over roasted eggplant and the third was a brilliant slow cooked salmon over celery root salad. All were phenomenal. The sorrel arugala salad had the sour, peppery taste of the greens and the fullness of the roast eggplant. The salmon came out raw looking but with a greatly intensified flavor.
My main course was a sole meneure with a parsley olive oil and white polenta with béarnaise sauce and sultana raisons. Eaten together there was the butteryness of the firm sole and the rich creaminess of the polenta and béarnaise sauce. The sultana raisons gave your mouth sudden turns with its plump sweetness which reset my palate and never let the dish from becoming overly rich. My companion had a roast chicken which turned out to be a perfectly cooked breast in a cream sauce. The dark meat was turned into a sausage wrapped in caul fat and served on a roasted yam. The chicken’s flavor was intensified in both dishes while bringing out the differences in the dark and white meat.
Dessert was a true adventure. My companion had a chocolate cake with ice cream and fresh fruit. It turned out to be a chocolate tart served over a roasted pepper and a coconut jelly. The amazing thing about the jelly is that if you take a bite, it starts tasteless but after a few seconds, an intense coconut flavor floods your mouth. What that means is that when eaten together, you start off with dark chocolate with the meatiness and spiciness of the pepper but as that fades, coconut rises and finishes off the bite. The fresh fruit turned out to be thinly sliced fruit in a cointreau gelee and handmade marshmallows. The ice cream was passion fruit and vanilla ice cream studded with dark chocolate.
I found myself wondering if I had ever had a meal quite like this. I came away realizing that I had never had a meal so good. The meal was challenging without being gimmicky. The fundamentals were impeccable while the experimentation was precise.
Pierre l Central l Hong Kong
Hong Kong is bursting with restaurants. One of the things that makes Hong Kong a world class city is the number of destination restaurants that call Hong Kong home. There weren’t a lot of places that really peaked my interest though until I heard about the anchor restaurant in the newly renovated Mandarin Hotel.
Pierre Gagnaire is an iconic figure in the world of French cuisine. A 3 star Michelin chef and leader in the forefront of the fusion movement, he has revolutionized French cuisine by pushing the boundaries of taste and texture combinations. Of course, when I found out that he was anchoring the Mandarin Hotel, I could not let this opportunity pass.
The level of service at Pierre was what I had come to expect from the Mandarin Hotel. As we arrived at the top floor, the manager came out to greet us to lead us in. We entered the room and found nothing but an amazing open view of Victoria Harbor. The room was immaculate.
We started off with a series of amuse bouche. All were wonderful and clever, from the wafers in cumin sugar to the deep fried quail egg yolks. I started with tiger prawns with soft boiled eggs. My companion had three starters. The first was a mushroom medley, the second was a sorrel arugala salad over roasted eggplant and the third was a brilliant slow cooked salmon over celery root salad. All were phenomenal. The sorrel arugala salad had the sour, peppery taste of the greens and the fullness of the roast eggplant. The salmon came out raw looking but with a greatly intensified flavor.
My main course was a sole meneure with a parsley olive oil and white polenta with béarnaise sauce and sultana raisons. Eaten together there was the butteryness of the firm sole and the rich creaminess of the polenta and béarnaise sauce. The sultana raisons gave your mouth sudden turns with its plump sweetness which reset my palate and never let the dish from becoming overly rich. My companion had a roast chicken which turned out to be a perfectly cooked breast in a cream sauce. The dark meat was turned into a sausage wrapped in caul fat and served on a roasted yam. The chicken’s flavor was intensified in both dishes while bringing out the differences in the dark and white meat.
Dessert was a true adventure. My companion had a chocolate cake with ice cream and fresh fruit. It turned out to be a chocolate tart served over a roasted pepper and a coconut jelly. The amazing thing about the jelly is that if you take a bite, it starts tasteless but after a few seconds, an intense coconut flavor floods your mouth. What that means is that when eaten together, you start off with dark chocolate with the meatiness and spiciness of the pepper but as that fades, coconut rises and finishes off the bite. The fresh fruit turned out to be thinly sliced fruit in a cointreau gelee and handmade marshmallows. The ice cream was passion fruit and vanilla ice cream studded with dark chocolate.
I found myself wondering if I had ever had a meal quite like this. I came away realizing that I had never had a meal so good. The meal was challenging without being gimmicky. The fundamentals were impeccable while the experimentation was precise.
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