Friday, April 23, 2010

Mandarin Grill & Bar (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★★

The hotel's official website described Mandarin Grill as a place where million dollar business deals were clinched. On this particular afternoon though, there was no business propositions on the table. It's just a simple lunch to celebrate my upcoming birthday.

This marked my first dining experience at the Mandarin Grill. I was expecting something resembling a traditional steak house in the lights of Hugo but boy, was I wrong! The restaurant was nicely decorated with a very modern design highlighted by white and black colour. There's an open kitchen on the side, with head chef Uwe working very hard behind the scene.



Chef's Salad, 10/10
This is one of Uwe's many masterpieces, also a signature dish from the Krug's room. The salad was presented like a flower plant. The 'base' was a thick puree made of various vegetables and chicken bits. The middle layer of 'flowers' consisted of crispy parma ham and a salmon sashimi curled into the shape of a rose, which was then topped with a special salad and edible flowers.

What an outstanding presentation! ...and it tasted even better than I looked. The many different layers created a wide range of textural contrast much to the delights of my taste buds.



5J, 7/10
The restaurant staff carefully sliced this famous brand of Spanish Ibérico ham piece by piece onto our plate. The fat-meat proportion is simply perfect.



Pan fried codfish with saffron risotto, 8/10
I am not a particular big fan of fish but this afternoon, I decided to take my chance on the codfish and that decision made me a genius. The fish fillet was cooked to perfection and placed beneath was a bed of delicious saffron risotto.




Service, 9/10
The service level was exactly what you would expect from a five-star hotel. The staff was very attentive and also patient enough to explain the details of our every dish to us, which was very important, considering that there were so many different ingredients in each of these dishes.

Food Rating: 8.5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 5 Connaught Road, Central, Hong Kong 
Closest Metro Station: Central 
Tel: +852 2825-4004
Website: Link


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