Reviews

• 

  The best New Year

  Barbara Sturdy | Jan 4 2011

  On New Year's Eve, we dined at the St. George and were treated to a truly splendid and memorable experience orchestrated by Michelin star chef Philippe Oricco (the protege of the world-renowned Pierre Gagnaire de Paris).
  This restaurant is a "must visit" for every true connoisseur of fine cuisine and its elegant ambiance makes for a very special enjoyment.
  Our culinary extravaganza started with a lobster jelly in cauliflower cream with colourful drops of salmon roe and Ossetra caviar. The delicate composition was perfectly balanced and satisfied the eyes as well as the palate.
  Next, we had a Gillardeau Oyster soup with Bellotta ham and seaweed knoedel. The oyster was plump and fresh and the ham was flavourful by itself, but without overpowering the oyster, while the seaweed knoedel were a truly innovative creation and added wonderful texture to the dish.
  After this followed the most amazing roasted US scallop, which was so tender, its soft and smooth texture reminded me of a Garoupa’s cheek. The golden apple and Agria potato with cinnamon added a festive note and the grilled baby squids were accompanied by delicate slices of aromatic black truffles.
  The next course was an excellent fatty tuna with Palamos prawns and was served with sea snails, razor clams, sea almonds that were gently alleviated by a Bouillabaisse foam and accompanied by precious morels cooked in champagne and confit orange.
  Then we had blue lobster with homemade mushroom pasta, cuttlefish and yellow wine sauce, which was equally delightful.
  The main course was an excellent marble score eight Wagyu beef, cooked to our individual preference and served with a delicate and festive red cabbage with black currant as well as the most delicious bone marrow with "burned" flower shortbread.
  The cheeses were a decadent spread of Brie de Meaux stuffed with precious black truffle and aged Comte and Endive salad.
  Last but definitely not least, the "Desserts du Saint George" rounded off this feast of the culinary senses. The wild strawberries with raspberry sauce ignited some happy childhood memories of picking these intensely flavoured fruit in the forest; I all could do was gasp in delight.
  This was one of the most memorable meals I have had in a very long time and yet another triumph for the celebrated Michelin star chef Philippe Oricco – bravo et encore, encore!

  • How much did you spend?
    HK$2,888 (special occasion dinner)
  • Overall Rating
    Good

  
  • Food 10
  • Service 10
  • Ambiance 10
  • Price 5

• 

  Perfect anniversary dinner

  KC | Sep 27 2010

  After all the controversial reviews, I decided to give the St. George another go now that the dust has settled. My wife hadn't been to the St. George yet and, since it was a special occasion, I took her there for a romantic surprise dinner. (She was under the impression I'd forgotten our little anniversary and thought we were on our way to a party at a friend's house... The surprise worked like a charm!) We started off with some Veuve Cliquot champagne (my wife’s favorite) and after long indecisive brooding over the sophisticated menu, we decided to go with the 5 course tasting menu. The fatty tuna, gambas and scallops sashimi was amazingly fresh and reminded me of my first ever real sashimi meal in Okinawa while on business trip. The tomato cause and tarragon were a perfect accompaniment for this delicate starter. Next we had the Atlantic sole filet poached with mussels, pistachio and seaweed. My wife and I are both fans of sole and we both agreed that the fish was poached to perfection. It was soft enough to melt in the mouth, yet firm enough to maintain its texture on the way to the mouth. The combination of pistachio and seaweed underlined the natural flavor of this dish. The next course was blue lobster poached with ginger, which was sweet and tender with just the right texture. The peach, curry and coconut sauce tantalized the taste buds and created a delicate ribbon of flavor between the lobster , the baby squid (which was soft but not mushy) and the fish (tender pieces of hake called “Cocotchas de Merluza”). The meal came to a crescendo with the Lozere lamb saddle, which was served with red onion and "fairy ring" mushroom with parsley, sweetbread and apple with sorrel, red pepper and garlic chips. Especially the accompanying hibiscus jelly, red currant and goat cheese "Anneau de Bilh" with honey were absolutely delicious and made us both swear an oath to visit the St. George more often in future. Last but not least the "desserts du Staint-George" were a delightful degustation platter of fruit, ice cream and chocolate treats. I also would like to mention that the romantic atmosphere and attentive yet discreet service helped make this anniversary dinner a very memorable and special one.

  • How much did you spend?
    +/- HK$3,600.--
  • Overall Rating
    Good
  • Food 10
  • Service 10
  • Ambiance 10
  • Price 4

• 

  St George

  Oz | Sep 13 2010

  The restaurant concept is marvelous - a contemporary fine dining restaurant within a stunning colonial building that used to house the former marine headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui. The menu offers a wide range of sumptous and exciting delights. A michelin star chef in residence.
  Not all is as it seems on first read.
  
  The ambiance is superb, a subdued, selectively lit large room uncluttered by an overabundance of tables; each table has its space. Sound doesn't travel as the walls are not only adorned with fabric but they're padded too. The banquettes however are an ill-thought adventure - the peaks and caverns between the cushions force everyone into preset positions, acres apart from the person beside you, necessitating raising your voice - perhaps this is why the walls are padded.
  
  The amuse bouche was delectable - I presume that foam creations are the chef's forte, they were consistently delicious.
  
  We ordered two sets of a sushi appetizer, sadly this was the memorably worst sushi I have had in my life, dating back to when the airconditioning failed at the YO! Sushi kaiten zushi (conveyor belt) restaurant at Whiteley's mall in London about 10 years ago. It was warm and fishy.
  
  I ordered the ribeye medium-rare, it came medium, which was fine - I couldn't complain, it was scrumptious, it was partnered with miniature blini's topped with potato and a few morsels of caviar.
  
  another great amuse bouche
  
  The dessert proved to be the most eye opening course - we ordered the desert tasting menu which turned out to be very middling - so not on par with the gateaux and chocolates at the mandarin cake shop or le salon at Robuchon. The dessert menu however turned out to be the highlight of the evening. It contained a dozen spelling and grammatical errors that of course completely changed the intended meaning...
  
  Disappointing. Will return when I hear they've improved markedly.

  • How much did you spend?
    $1000/head
  • Overall Rating
    Bad
  • Food 3
  • Service 2
  • Ambiance 10
  • Price 5

• 

  Philippe is better than ever

  Peech | May 1 2010

  At long last, I got my first chance to sample the cuisine at St. George, the upscale restaurant at Hullet House. I'm a big fan of Philippe Orrico, who used to run the kitchen at Pierre, and have been wanting to see what he's been able to do outside the world of Pierre Gagnaire. I've gotten very positive feedback from my friends, so expectations were high.
  
  I browsed through the menu, delighted that many of the dishes can be ordered in smaller portions. My friends weren't that hungry after their big meals, but surprisingly my stomach was growling a little... After some hesitation, I decided to order the 8-course tasting menu since there is no rule dictating that tasting menus have to be ordered by the entire table.
  
  The amuse bouche was a cup of white asparagus cream soup with crispy orange and pistachio. This was pretty nice, with additional ingredients providing a pick-up to the subtle flavors of the asparagus.
  
  Gillardeau oyster, pink radish with horseradish and parsley water served with 2 wild caviar - Sevruga and Osetra - Gillardeau is my favorite oyster, and the flavors were so nicely balanced between the sweetness, creaminess and a little bit of brine. The Osetra caviar packed so much flavor in such a small serving... Wow!
  
  Duck foie gras, pan seared with ginger, Lebanese tabouleh & watermelon with Coleman's mustard - the foie was absolutely perfect. Lightly seared on the outside and the entire block was so soft and wobbly as I tried to cut into it. The tablouleh was an interesting touch, and the watermelon added an interesting sweet and refreshing element to the dish. One of my favorite dishes of the evening.
  
  Roasted langoustine with Colonnata, roasted almonds avocado and green asparagus - slightly disappointing. The flavors here all worked together, from the nicely roasted almonds to the asparagus, avocado, pear and the thin slivers of lardo di Colonnata - one of my favorite things to buy at a deli counter. But the problem was with the langoustine...it was juicy, a little mushy and almost liquid in some parts...leading me to wonder about the freshness. Given that air shipments from Europe has only resumed in the last day or two, I guess this may be from an earlier shipment before the volcano eruption?
  
  Atlantic scallops, creamy potato with sherry wine and seaweed, baby leek with mustard and smoked milk foam - very nicely done... lightly seared on the outside and still fresh on the inside. The creamy potato was very yummy, and the crunchy seaweed was interesting.
  
  Roasted veal sweetbread, with espelette pepper, red apple confit with reduce farm cider, crab meat, baby spinach and green olive - very creamy and nice. Interesting pairing with the crab meat...and the apple confit was really nice.
  
  Pink Champagne granite, tomato jelly and prawn Obsiblue served cold with a cocktail sauce - the granite was probably my least favorite part of the meal... The combination of the Champagne and savory tomato jelly just tasted a little bitter in the mouth... Not a fan.
  
  The Obsiblue prawn was pretty decent, but I'm not sure I appreciate it being served with cocktail sauce, even though it's served in similar fashion around the world...
  
  Pigeon Mieral, couscous, piquillos, foie gras, sultana and crispy curry - this was very, very nice. The pigeon was definitely very gamey, just the way I like it. The foie was battered and deep-fried, which is kinda weird and interesting. The white sticks are made with curry and sweet at the same time, which kinda screwed with my head. But the combination worked, and I liked it a lot. I also got a slice of goat cheese, which I ate after the pigeon.
  
  Just like at Pierre, St. George's kitchen also sends out multiple desserts in waves. There was a pre-dessert of citron sorbet, which was really interesting as they used chili powder to make it really spicy. I think it went far beyond waking up my palate, it kinda killed it for a while...
  
  Rose ice cream with wild berries and raspberries - this was pretty nice...the rose flavor wasn't overpowering, and I just loooove wild strawberries...
  
  Pistachio custard with sago - now this was interesting...the roasted pistachios were really fragrant, and once you add in the pomelo pulp and candied pomelo rind, it almost feels like a pistachio flavored 楊枝甘露...
  
  Vanilla cream with coffee granite - pretty tasty and reminds me of the taste of affogato.
  
  Chocolate-covered pop rocks - what is it with people making desserts out of pop rocks these days?
  
  Hot chocolate - nice and yummy with orange and cinnamon.
  
  Finally, the petits-fours which included a nice little marzipan and white truffle macaron.
  
  I brought two bottles of wine tonight, expecting to be charged HKD 350 per bottle for corkage. I was informed that it had been raised to HKD 500 a few months ago. Huh? Raising the corkage and you've only been open for a few months? WTF...
  
  I handed the two bottles to a waitress, instructing her to open both, chill the white and decant the red. Twenty minutes later, the head waiter approached me and asked whether it would be time to open the bottle of white. Huh? Shouldn't it have been opened when I arrived?
  
  I thought the food here was excellent. My friends were right - Philippe has only gotten better after leaving Pierre. But months after opening, the service still needs a lot of work. 10 minutes after sitting down, no one had come to ask if we wanted any water. The local staff really don't speak English well, and couldn't distinguish between citron/Sichuan and pistachio/prosciutto. And what's with dimming the lights after 10pm? I could barely see my food...and the freezing air conditioning... were they trying to kick us out?
  
  Regardless of how good the food is, a restaurant needs to provide good and friendly service so that customers would think about going back. For the price that I was paying, I expected 5-star hotel service but definitely didn't get it. I hope the people at Aqua can fix that, or it's back to hotel dining for me again.
  
  original blogpost with pictures and notes on wine: http://chi-he-wan-le.blogspot.com/2010/04/la-nuit-saint-george.html

  • How much did you spend?
    1200
  • Overall Rating
    OK
  • Food 9
  • Service 6
  • Ambiance 7
  • Price 5