[Hong Kong] 1* Tate Dining Room - New Location, New Concept

Rating: ❤❤❤❤❤ (5/5)

I can't believe it took me so long to revisit Tate Dining Room! We’ve been to the old location a few times and loved our meals there, but it was our first time at the new spot since its move last year. The dining room is even more elegant and chic than before with soft white and pink tones combined with metallic gold trimmings. Chef Vicky Lau’s cuisine has also elevated. Voted Asia's Best Female Chef in 2015, Vicky's food was more Japanese influenced before but now she has gone back to her roots with a focus on Chinese flavors and ingredients. Perhaps it's working with what she knows best; the attention to detail with the plating was amazing and the flavors were even more exquisite. We celebrated J's birthday here and truly had a wonderful time with the fantastic food and service.

Titled "All The Odes", the restaurant offers a tasting menu of 8 courses for HK$1680 per person with a 3-glasses wine pairing for $480 and 6-glasses wine pairing for $780.

By chance we discovered a little surprise under the table - a drawer where you can put away your phone for a few hours to enjoy the company of your guest during the meal.

In celebration of the 6-year anniversary of Tate, they served complimentary cocktails to every table. The cocktails also showcased Chinese ingredients and they were pretty good - shouldn't be missed if you're a cocktail lover.

Sourdough with house seaweed butter

Ode to Tomato: fruit tomato with tomato green tea kombucha, Sicilian red prawn, langoustine and Chinese onion. The dish was delightfully refreshing and we felt that the real stars were the flavorful red prawn and langoustine.

Ode to Chinese Yam: Chinese yam escorted with smoked eel, aroma of sesame oil with a delicate touch of Ossetra caviar. This may be the prettiest dish I've had in Hong Kong as of late - I think I literally gasped when I saw the gorgeous plating. The flavors were also well-balanced and I especially liked the smoked eel taste which really stood out here.

Brioche with house fermented tofu butter 

Ode to Kumquat: warm sea scallop accompanied by aged kumquat grenobloise-style sauce. The scallop was cooked perfectly with a semi-raw center while the tangy grenobloise sauce was nicely accentuated by the kumquat.

Ode to Olive: Alfonsino fish escorted with fish bone olive sauce, eastern olive leaf, and dracontomelon jam. Both the fish and the olive sauce were nicely executed but I just wasn't sure they were the perfect match for each other.

Ode to Scallion: blue lobster lightly steamed balanced with scallion ginger sauce and duet of Vin Jaune Shaoxing wine foam. The flavor profile was very much Chinese while the execution was very much French - it was one of our favorite dishes of the night.

Ode to Foie Gras: foie gras custard with charcoal grilled Mierel duck and plum sauce. This was another gorgeous dish that I was totally in love with. The foie gras custard was just perfect with enough foie gras flavor so that you know it's there but not too much so it's overwhelming. The plum sauce also served to cut through the richness of the foie gras.

We got to pick out our own knife earlier in the evening from a variety of design which were all beautiful.

Ode to Mayura Beef: beef striploin with soy braised shiitake mushroom and grilled green asparagus. This was actually my least favorite dish. So Mayura beef is an Australian wagyu that's famous for feeding chocolate to their cattle. But we thought that the beef had very little flavor on its own and maybe that's why there was a lot of sauce to go with it.

I love mangosteen and I think this is my first time having Mangosteen Sorbet! It was definitely lovely as a palate cleanser.

Ode to Tofu: light tofu vanilla espuma with lemon mint compote and balanced with Dragon Well tea ice cream. They were warning us about the fragile candy shell (basically not to take too long to eat it) but mine was already breaking before they poured the longan sauce. Appearance aside, I really liked the subtle flavors of the dessert especially the chewy bits of the longan fruit, and it felt nice to end the meal on a light note.

Ode to Urban Honey: ginger pastille, honey gateau, kumquat honey burst, white chocolate honey crunch, banana caramel honey bon bon. We then ended the meal with petit fours that arrived in a very cute wooden honey hive container. It emitted a buzzing bee sound and we had to go through all the layers to turn it off (hint: it's the most bottom layer!). Our favorite was the white chocolate honey crunch which looked like a honeycomb.

*By Invitation

Tate Dining Room & Bar

210 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan

Tel: +852 2555 2172 
http://www.tate.com.hk/




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