As there is only a handful of places in town
that offer hearty French bistro cooking, I was excited to see what this new “modern bistro” can offer. I lowered my
expectations, however, after I read the close-to-monotonous description of the
several signature dishes and the decor of the restaurant in many of the
previous reviews. Anyhow, I found an opportunity to find out if the
restaurant is a genuine article.
The decor of the bistro was anything but exciting. Maybe I am not a big fan of modern chic design, but I just have
difficulties understanding what the decor is telling me about this restaurant
and its food. Maybe it is part of the problem: this place is a “modernised” bistro,
but instead of enjoying the interesting tension between tradition and modern, I
found myself slightly disoriented.
Alas, the menu shared the problem
of the decor. Many traditional classics in a bistro such as beef stew and
confit duck were absent, or could I find many modern twists. We had a hard time to pick an entrée and two mains; we almost decided to have a
second round somewhere else.
Foie Gras Crème Brulee sounded very interesting. The dishes that combine sweet and
savory usually works
for me, but this one was not among them. The foie
gras crème was smooth, albeit a bit watery. The taste was too light and so was its texture. Again,
I just did not see the tension between the sugar crust and the foie gras.
The baguette, on
the other hand, was better, as it was crispy outside and soft inside. My only problem was the rather bland butter and table salt.
The first main dish was a mushroom tagliatelle with 63 degree egg and parma ham. The tagliatelle was chewy and
flavourful – the best part of the dinner. While the creamy cheese sauce worked well with the egg, the
parma ham was
insignificant.
The chicken “demi deuil” was a rare dish in Hong Kong
– it was, however, a real disappointment that night. We did see black truffle stuffed
between the skin and flesh of the chicken parts – no problem with that. But the
truffle failed the dish. We were like eating braised chicken
with black fungus in
Chinese style – not itself a problem – except that the chicken was
bland and not tender.
I read about the background of the chef and found that he
was the chef of St. George. I recalled what I had and found the two experiences pretty consistent.
The food was okay, good perhaps, but lacking in something to make it truly
interesting. If I dined in a lovely historical structure like 1881, I would
be more willing to pay for
this dinner with this price, but not in a “chic”
bistro. There are gaps, not
intriguing tension, between the decor, the food, price, and the positioning of this restaurant. With
time, I hope, these gaps can be filled; after all, the food was by no means bad
in local standard.
Upper Modern Bistro
6-14 Upper Station Street, Sheung Wan
Food: wwwwww1/2w
Service:wwwwww
Environment: wwwwww
