HK Series 4: Pierre Restaurant (Hong Kong) 04/03/09

Pierre Restaurant was a michelin one star restaurant situated in Mandarin Oriental hotel. Chef owner Pierre Gagnaire was at the forefront of fusion movement.

The restaurant was composed of three dining rooms, and each one presents an intimate setting with modern decor.

Two free Amuse Bosche was accompanied with the set lunch menu. The first amuse, "olive" , consisted of green olive sorbet, black olive candy, and salmon roe. The texture of the olive sorbet was an eye opener, somewhere between nuts puree and icecream.

The second amuse was "petit four with fish consomme gelee". The macroone was made with a special technique where the gluten in flour was killed by roasting. As a result, the macroone does not have any protein to bind it together, and falls apart in one's mouth like bread crumbs.

The fish consomme gelee here acted as a carrier for the chopped celery to jump out in terms of texture and flavor.

For starters, we had chilled aspragus soup with crab meat and venison terrine with mango chutney. The aspragus soup was divine, taster first sensed the cooling effect of the cold soup, followed by the spring and firm texture of lump crab meat, and rounded all up with a not of aspragus aroma. Comparing to the soup, the venison terrine was a bit disappointing. The meat was pre-cooked and then packed into a terrine, sort like can food. The mango cutney helped cover up some of the gaming smell of the venison.




For the middle couse, I had foie gras ravioli with white veloute and paprika powder. The dish was a bit underseasoned, tough the foie was nicely cooked inside the ravioli skin.


For main courses, we had roast prawns with curred soup basmati rice and roast iberico pork with purnes. Both dishes were disappointing. The roast prawns tasted like a thai curried lunch dish you paid $USD 8 in US while I can find better pork in HK for less than $USD 3.

For dessert, we had "dark and milk chocolate mousse with praline diplomate". The waiter asked us to mix the cripsy praline with the rich chocolate mousse. It was a satisfying dessert which failed to impress.

Overall, the lunch at Pierre restaurant was mixed. While the white asparagus soup stood out, other dishes failed to impress.