Appellation Australia

The final night of our (not so recent) stay in Hong Kong was at the newly opened Ritz Carlton. Tin Lung Heen was not full on the night we were there but I understand it is now exceptionally busy, especially for lunch. The view from Tin Lung Heen is very impressive, although it is out to the North-West of the building and not towards the city, the view from the Chocolate Library is to the East and there is more to look at.

The service was very mixed. It was obvious that they were trying hard but a number of requests were lost somewhere between the table and the recipient, so we had to ask for various items multiple times, a request to view the wine list was made twice and it failed to appear at all. A request at the start of the meal to have dessert at the Chocolate Library (we had emailed some months prior and were told that tables were on a “first come, first served” basis and to just ask on the night) seemed to cause some panic among the staff to work out how to handle it, this was sorted out in the end and we were personally guided and handed over but it just seemed like the level of service they are aiming for wasn’t quite in place yet.

The food on the other hand was top-notch. A sweet turnip appetiser was a perfect first bite. The Deep fried scallops with mango dip combines two of my favourite things, so I was very partial to it to begin with but the scallops were cooked just right and the mango dip gave the dish a lift with some sweetness providing a foil for the (light) deep fried coating. Pan fried lotus root stuffed with fresh crab meat was brilliant and the Crispy roasted pork belly pushed very hard for top spot of this dish among some extremely good competition.

Live crab with salt and chilli, wok fried in soy sauce was another wonderful dish. The quality of the crab shone and the other flavours played perfect support roles. This was an expensive dish but it was worth it.

Chilled shredded chicken with green onion and chilli oil was a good dish, the green onion gave the dish some texture, it just didn’t have as much of a kick from the chilli as expected so was a little bit one-dimensional. Deep fried crispy chicken was good as well but wasn’t quite up to the standard of Ming Court and Man Wah so suffered in direct comparison.

We then had dessert at the Chocolate Library, we were the only patrons there so we had our pick of tables.

Chocolate soufflé with raspberry coulis and chocolate petit fours was the better of the two dishes. This was a classic combination of flavours that was executed well and certainly passed the “deliciousness test”.

Chocolate fondue with marshmallow, brownie, brioche and chocolate pasta was straight forward except for the chocolate pasta which wasn’t that good anyway. The other items were fine and it’s hard to dislike something dipped in decent quality chocolate.

Overall the lacklustre service was made up for by outstanding food. The bill was HK$1000 at Tin Lung Heen with a large portion of that being the Live crab dish. The bill at the Chocolate Library was HK$330 including coffee and a hot chocolate.

Score: 16/20

Sweet turnip appetiser

Pan-fried lotus root filled with fresh crab meat

Deep-fried scallops with mango dip

Crispy roasted pork belly

Chilled shredded chicken with green onion and chilli oil

Live Fresh Crab – Salted and chilli, Wok-fried in soy sauce

Deep-fried crispy chicken

Petit Fours

Chocolate fondue with marshmallow, brioche, chocolate brownie and chocolate pasta

Chocolate soufflé with raspberry and chocolate petit fours

Chocolate Library Decoration

Dinner at Tetsuya Wakuda’s fairly new venture “Waku Ghin” in Singapore. There are two seatings per night and the first must have been running late as there was a 10-15 minute wait at the bar.

The restaurant is divided into a series of rooms each with seats at a counter and large teppan. The majority of the dishes are cooked on the teppan in front of you by a single chef through the evening. Desserts are served in a single larger room with regular tables and a view of the bay.

The dish highlights were the Crushed potato with smoked eel, Marinated Botan Ebi with Sea Urchin and Oscietre Caviar, Steamed Alaskan King Crab with Yuzu scented Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Braised Canadian Lobster with Tarragon.

Service was excellent – friendly and well informed.

I would recommend it as the food is utterly brilliant, easily among my favourites from the trip, I just wish it wasn’t so expensive.

Cuisine: Japanese with European touches
Cost: Incredibly expensive. About AU$350 per person plus drinks. I can’t find my receipt but I also got outrageously gouged on bottled water, if I find the receipt I’ll post how much it was.
Score: 19/20

The wine list was extensive but to continue the theme, very expensive. I had the following by the glass;

2007 Schlossgut Diel Dorsheimer Goldloch Riesling Großes Gewächs – Intense minerality to the nose with background elements of peach and floral notes. Palate is dry with lovely pure fruit intensity. 91/100
2007 Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss Gewurztraminer Kritt – Golden coloured. Fairly classic Gewurz nose of turkish delight and floral characters with some lychee and honey. Palate is also honeyed and quite opulent. Has just enough acid to balance the intensity and give the palate focus. 89/100
2007 Domaines Schlumberger Gewurztraminer Vendanges Tardives Cuvée Christine – Lovely nose with shifting aromas of spices, lemon, mango and citrus. Palate is rich and is probably a high Auslese level sweetness. The acid structure is impeccable and focuses into a long finish. Lovely. 92/100

Crushed potato with smoked eel

Soup of White Asparagus with White Miso Cream and Oscietre Caviar

Marinated Botan Ebi with Sea Urchin and Oscietre Caviar.

Slow cooked John Dory with Roasted Eggplant

Alaskan King Crab presented prior to cooking

Steamed Alaskan King Crab with Yuzu scented Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Tasmanian Abalone presented before cooking

Tasmanian Abalone with Polenta, Tomato and Garlic Cream

Braised Canadian Lobster with Tarragon

Australian Blackmore Wagyu Roll with Wasabi, Citrus Soy and Radish

Charcoal Grilled Mixed Vegetables

Consommé with Rice and Hirame

Strawberry “Shortcake”

Ghin Cheescake

Petit Fours presentation box

Petit Fours

Lunch at the Cantonese restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Central, Hong Kong. This restaurant was highly recommended on various forums/blogs and it was indeed very good, but also relatively expensive. We arrived slightly early and were invited to wait at the bar outside. The bar has a great view of the harbour from the 25th floor and I was happy to find they were serving Krug by the glass. After our drinks we were escorted to the restaurant and everything went smoothly afterwards. The dining room itself is wonderfully opulent. Overall I was impressed and would be happy to go back, but I probably just preferred Lung King Heen.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Service: Formal and very professional.
Food:
Tiger prawn, bamboo shoot dumpling – These were excellent. Translucent and delicate wrapping with good flavour and texture.
Conpoy and summer spinach dumplings – Really liked these too. The summer spinach was full of flavour and the conpoy was only a background note adding complexity rather than being the focus.
Shanghainese soup dumpling, minced pork and hairy crab mousse – Liked the presentation of this with its own basket and tray. I liked the richness of the soup component, though I couldn’t really taste the crab over the pork with the rest.
Chicken spring rolls – Crispy pastry and the filling was good, but not especially memorable.
Barbecued pork belly – Delicious. The bite sized pieces of sweet pork were wonderful and the skin was perfectly crispy.
Deepfried crab claw, minced shrimp – This was one of the weaker dishes, it was okay but I’d order something else next time.
Crispy Ka Mei chicken – Carved table side and with bones removed, this was excellent with extremely crispy skin and great chicken.
Toffee apple – These were great bites also. Had that crunchy-chewy outer from the glaze and batter, with some freshness from the apple inside.
Double boiled pear, chun bei, tangerine tea – The pear was great, offering little resistance when cut but not being mushy. The tangerine tea was an interesting combination that I think worked very well. I’m still not entirely sure what chun bei is, but they didn’t have much flavour, another textural element I assume.
Cost: Excluding the pre-lunch drinks it was AUD$160 for two.
Score: 16/20

Appetiser

Tiger prawn, bamboo shoot dumpling

Conpoy and summer spinach dumplings

Shanghainese soup dumpling, minced pork and hairy crab mousse

Chicken spring rolls

Barbecued pork belly

Deep-fried crab claw, minced shrimp

Crispy Ka Mei chicken

Toffee apple

Double boiled pear, chun bei, tangerine tea

Lunch at Robuchon a Galera in the Hotel Lisboa, Macau.

The food was outrageously good. The presence of gold leaf on almost everything was pointless but didn’t detract from the meal.

Loved that the wine list comes either as a massive leather bound 300+ page tome or on a somewhat more modern ipad with searchable pdfs for each region.

Loved the numerous trolleys with selections of bread, butter (!) and dessert.

Wine and food service was perfect, couldn’t have asked for any more. Overall it totally lived up to its reputation.

Cuisine: French
Food:
White asparagus panna cotta with tomato coulis – Vibrant and delicate. This was a perfect start.
Tuna belly on heart of romaine with crunchy vegetable medley and “tonnato” sauce – Beautifully presented. Lovely seared tuna belly. The tonnato sauce had a real punch to it.
Crabmeat in tomatoes broth perfume with fresh herbs and waffle toast – An out of this world level of good. Intense, concentrated tomato flavour in the broth, the crabmeat had delightful pockets of roe as a surprise throughout. The shiso leaves on top were interesting with their sweet&spicy notes and gave some extra depth to the dish. The waffle toast was just delicious.
Scallop, squid and shrimp with saffroned fregolas and basil emulsion – Scallop was perfect. The squid was stuffed with chorizo and was wonderfully good. I haven’t had fregola before but it was interesting and paired well with the other elements. The basil flavour in the emulsion was very mild thankfully.
Braised “Wagyu” beef cheek pepper aromatic and creamy polenta with parmesan- The beef was incredibly tender and the sauce was nicely rich. The polenta on the side was tasty as well. This dish probably had the least wow factor, but was still very good.
Cost: Around AU$80 per person for bread, amuse bouche, 5 courses and petit fours at lunch. Ridiculous value for money.

Score: 19/20

white asparagus panna cotta with tomato coulis

La ventrèche de thon, dans un cœur de romaine, méli-mélo de légumes croquants lies d’une sauce
Tuna belly on heart of romaine with crunchy vegetable medley and “tonnato” sauce

Le crabe, dans une eau de tomate parfumée aux herbes fraîches
Crabmeat in tomatoes broth perfume with fresh herbs

Gaufrette moelleuse et croustillante
Waffle toast

La Saint-Jacques, le calamar et la crevette aux fregolas safrané et une émulsion au basilic
Scallop, squid and shrimp with saffroned fregolas and basil emulsion

La caille, caramélisée au foie gras et sa pomme purée
Caramelized quail stuffed with foie gras and mashed potatoes

Le bœuf Wagyu, la joue braisée aux aromates poivrés, crémeuse polenta au parmesan
Braised “Wagyu” beef cheek pepper aromatic and creamy polenta with parmesan

Selection from the dessert trolley

Petit fours

Dinner at the Cantonese 2 Michelin star restaurant at the Hotel Lisboa in Macau. This was an interesting meal, with a couple of dishes that I struggled a bit with, but overall I liked it and I think I can see why it is well regarded. Lighting for photos was not super either, so they didn’t come out to my satisfaction.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Service: Very attentive. We went on a public holiday, so I thought it would be busy, and I booked months in advance etc. – but it was almost empty. This resulted in the main room having us and one other table, but wait staff standing around everywhere with nothing to do most of the time.
Food:
Century Egg: Complimentary starter. I can’t say if this was a good version (I’m sure it is based on the care that goes into the other dishes) as I haven’t had one before, but the sulphur was overwhelming and I wasn’t especially fond of the jelly/creamy texture either. Gave it a go, but I think these may be an acquired taste.
Steamed Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Winter Melon: Love the expert de-shelling, the tender and slightly sweet crab meat and the winter melon having the slightest resistance when biting into it. I’m not sure what the sauce consisted of, but it lent a slight richness to the dish. A definite highlight of the meal and my favourite of the two crab claws.
Deep-fried Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Peppercorn Salt: This was good also, the crab was still tender and the batter is lighter than it appears, letting the crab flavour shine. The peppercorns gave it a nice little punch. This was Anjuli’s preferred crab claw dish.
Sautéed Garoupa Fillet with Broccoli: The fish was very moist and had good flavor, the vegetables were similarly well cooked. Relatively simple but a good way to present the fish and show off its quality.
Sautéed Chicken with Onions in Black Bean Sauce in Casserole: I liked this dish, it’s probably a bit closer to the Cantonese style I’m used to, but I thought it was well balanced and just generally tasty.
Braised Pomelo Skin with Shrimp Roe: First dish we were presented with was undercooked, the waitress couldn’t slice it. A second attempt came not too long after and this was better. This is one of the signature dishes of the restaurant, so I was excited to try it, but to be honest I struggled a bit with it – the shrimp roe was incredibly powerful and the texture was a bit too mushy. It was interesting but I don’t think I’d order it again if I went back.
Pan-fried Noodles with Fresh Crabmeat: This dish was fine, but not especially memorable; we probably should have ordered something else.
Cost: 1000 MOP/ 120 AUD
Score: 14.5/20

Century Egg

Steamed Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Winter Melon

Deep-fried Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Peppercorn Salt

Sautéed Garoupa Fillet with Broccoli

Sautéed Chicken with Onions in Black Bean Sauce in Casserole

Braised Pomelo Skin with Shrimp Roe

Pan-fried Noodles with Fresh Crabmeat

We made a last minute booking for the pre-theatre dinner (starting from 6-7pm) at Guy Savoy in Singapore. We arrived right at 6 and they were still getting the restaurant ready for the evening, we sat for around 10-15 minutes in the loungue area and the staff brought us some small bites while we waited. For the duration of our meal (just a bit over an hour), we were the only people in the restaurant so it was nice and quiet, and the service was very quick with about a dozen floor staff for the two of us! Loved how each dish was delivered with some tableside presentation -pouring or spooning sauces, buttering the brioche and so on.

Cuisine: French
Food:
“Peas all around” - Only tried a little bit of this but it was delicious with the runny egg lending richness. Obviously you need to like peas as there are 3-4 different pea elements to the dish.
Artichoke and Black Truffle Soup with Toasted Mushroom Brioche with Black Truffle Butter - This was hard to photograph and make it interesting as it appears so simple, but it is brilliantly delicious – so rich and satisfying. One of my favourite dishes on this trip.
Poussin “en Cocotte” with Lemongrass and Ribbed Vegetables – I only tried a small amount of this as well, but it had subtle flavours individually that worked well combined together.
Atlantic Cod with Asparagus “en Soupe et Salade”, Lemon Sabayon – Another star dish for the trip. The cod itself was mild, but it had a lovely light char on it and the lemon sabayon was perfect.
Chocolate Fondant with Layered Praline and Chicory Cream – Not overly sweet, but very rich, creamy and tasty. The fondant had a lovely airy texture to it. The chicory cream was only a distant taste but it added interest. I preferred this to the desert I got below.
Grapefruit Terrine with Tea Sauce – Quite tart on the first bite after trying the chocolate based dessert, but this was an interesting combination of flavours and refreshing.
Cost: The pre-theater menu was AU$150 per person including 17% tax for three courses from a limited menu selection, bread and amuse bouches.
Score: 17.5/20

Vegetable minestrone with parmesan

Underneath the minestrone – amuse bouche

“Peas all around”

Artichoke and Black Truffle Soup

Toasted Mushroom Brioche with Black Truffle Butter

Poussin “en Cocotte” with Lemongrass and Ribbed Vegetables

Atlantic Cod with Asparagus “en Soupe et Salade”, Lemon Sabayon

Floating island and diced fruit with a pineapple crisp

Chocolate Fondant with Layered Praline and Chicory Cream

Grapefruit Terrine with Tea Sauce

View from the table

Lunch at the Cantonese 3 Michelin star restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel in Central, Hong Kong. Overall it was very good, the setting was very nice with lots of natural light and a view of the harbour, the service started badly but recovered well (see below) and overall the food was excellent.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Service: A few problems here – the first dish to arrive was not something we ordered, the second dish was something we ordered but it was described quite differently to the menu so there was more confusion over whether it was ours. Not even close to enough to spoil the mood, but was surprising for a 3* venue! After these hiccups everything was very smooth and professional, so they recovered well. The service of tea was the best that we had across many restaurants, there was only water in the teapot then individual gaiwans for each guest with the leaves for steeping, then the gaiwans were emptied into another teacup to drink from. Solved the problem elsewhere where the tea would oversteep in the teapot if it wasn’t consumed quickly enough.
Food:
Steamed Lobster and Scallop Dumpling: Quite enjoyed this, was presented very nicely with a delicate skin and ingredients that I am quite partial towards. Fresh and juicy, I would have had a second if there wasn’t so much other food!
Crispy Taro Dumplings: Filled with seafood and vegetables, these were surpringly good. It’s an interesting combination of flavours, but it works and the gooey inside and crispy outside are a nice contrast.
Baked Barbecued Pork Buns with Pine Nuts: So good. Loved the crust on top, buns with just a touch of sweetness and delicious bbq pork and sauce with the pine nuts adding a nice background flavour element. Would come back just to eat these again, these were a highlight for the trip.
Steamed Vegetable Dumplings with Bamboo Pith: Liked the presentation with the translucent skin, and the filling was good, but not a standout.
Braised fresh bamboo piths with fresh crab meat: This sounded interesting on the menu, and it was interesting, but probably missed the mark a little bit for my taste. The crab was very good, the bamboo pith was a different texture and the vegetables were cooked well, but I just didn’t understand how it all fit together really.
Lung King Heen Roast Chicken: Liked that this was served tableside and we were offered the choice of having it on or off the bone. Excellent crispy skin and high quality, very tender and juicy chicken. Simple, but great anyway.
Baked Cream Custard Puffs: Light crumbly pastry and a delicate cream filling – a nice end to the meal.
Cost: HK$1100/ AU$130 all up for two people.
Score: 17.5/20

Tea

Steamed Lobster and Scallop Dumpling with prawn

Crispy Taro Dumplings with Seafood and Vegetables with X.O. Chilli Sauce

Baked Barbecued Pork Buns with Pine Nuts

Steamed Vegetable Dumplings with Bamboo Piths

Braised fresh bamboo piths with fresh crab meat

Lung King Heen Roast Chicken

Petit fours

Baked Cream Custard Puffs

We had dinner at this 2 Michelin star restaurant in the Langham Place Hotel in Mong Kok. I really thought this was excellent with a mix of exceptional dishes and great service. Lived up to the Michelin rating.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Service: Great, very friendly and no problems at any point.
Food:
Roasted crispy pork w/ 5 spices – Flat out delicious. Probably my favourite version of this dish tried on the trip. Pork had great flavour, the skin was perfectly crisp and the spice was spot on.
Shredded Chicken in spicy sauce – Nice level of spice giving the dish a kick but not overpowering the other flavours, liked the textural elements of the vegetables.
Deep Fried Crab Shell with crab meat – Not bad, lacking a little bit in flavour. The weakest dish of the evening.
Sliced spotted garoupa 2 ways – stir fried with premium mushrooms & deep-fried with sweet and sour sauce – good quality fish cooked perfectly both ways. Interesting contrast between the two styles and liked the dual presentation. Sweet and sour had great overall flavour balance and the mushrooms and stir fried garoupa had bolder flavours. Another highlight.
Crispy Chicken and lotus root “chips” – Nice layer of crisp skin, chicken was moist and tender. Accompanying salt/spice mix brought out excellent flavour. One of the better versions of this dish on the trip.
Shark fin crystal extravagance – shark fin jelly with mango pudding base – the presentation was entertaining (see the pictures at the end) even if it was gimmicky, it certainly does a great job marketing the dessert to the rest of the restaurant. I like mango so the desert was tasty and while the shark fin was not essential, it was an interesting combination.
Cost: HK$935/ AU$110 – includes service charge but not drinks.
Score: 17/20

Roasted crispy pork w/ 5 spices

Shredded Chicken in spicy sauce

Deep Fried Crab Shell with crab meat

Sliced spotted garoupa 2 ways

Half a Crispy Chicken

Marshmallow Rabbits

Shark fin crystal extravagance

We visited here for dinner based on some research showing it to be one of the better known places for Typhoon Shelter Crab – Singapore Chilli Crab is one of my favourite foods, so I was looking forward to trying this as a totally different take on a spicy crab dish. There are 3 restaurants with this name in a cluster on Lockhart and Jaffe Road and I believe they share a central kitchen.

Cuisine: Known for Typhoon Shelter Crab, but the menu has hundreds of dishes
Service: Good, our waiter spoke next to no English but he was patient with us and there were no problems
Food: Well … we ordered two dishes to start and the house specialty crab. The lemon chicken was pretty terrible, overpowered by harsh lemon flavour. The deep fried fish and corn wasn’t what we were expecting based on the menu description, but was actually reasonably tasty, though a few spoonfuls were enough as it got a bit heavy. The crab dish was definitely the star, good quality and fresh crab under a pile of garlic, chilli and scallions – the topping was tasty on it’s own and combined with the crab it was excellent (and surprisingly the topping wasn’t too overpowering). There are 5 spice levels that can be ordered, we ordered the medium spicy level (3) and it was a good balance at that point for my tastes.
Cost: About HK$500/AU$60 for food excluding drinks.
Would I go back?: Yes, either just for the crab or after having done more research on better side dishes to order.
Score: 12/20

Under bridge spicy crab

Deep fried fish and corn

Lemon chicken

Lunch at this 1 Michelin star restaurant. It was full when we arrived towards the end of lunch but they found us a table after 10 minutes at the bar.

Cuisine: Shanghainese
Service: Efficient and impersonal
Food: For the most part very good;
Shanghainese Spring rolls – simple but executed well. Pastry was crispy and not oily. Vegetable filling had a nice crunch to it.
Sauteed minced chicken with pine nuts and sesame pastry pockets – A signature dish. Chicken had good flavor with lots of garlic and onion. The pockets were nice and flaky.
Camphor smoked duck – Duck was dry and tough. The weakest dish by far.
Shredded chicken, chilli oil – Excellent dish, well balanced, nice amount of heat/spice. This was the highlight dish.
Pork dumplings and black truffle – Truffle was not too obvious, just a hint. Pork filling had good flavour and the wrapper was good.
Cost: $500 HKD / $60 AUD for quite a bit of food for two people – includes service charge but not drinks.
Score: 13.5/20

Shredded chicken with pepper and chilli oil

Sauteed minced chicken with pine nuts and sesame pastry pockets

Pork dumplings and black truffle

Shanghainese Spring rolls

Camphor smoked duck