Pierre, Hong Kong

[felixhirsch]

Pierre Gagnaire is a brilliant chef, there's no doubt about it. His cooking is of the highest order and unlike anything else. With his restaurant Pierre at the Mandarin Oriental he has created a superb embassy for his style. As with most HK restaurants of this standard, the service here is very good, far better than most of what you have in London for instance. The food is certainly not cheap, both starters and mains are around the HKD 500-700 mark. However, you get some three to four dishes with everything you order. I went for a starter from the lunch menu and the rest from the normal a la carte.

Foie Gras soup with citrus sorbet was tasty, moreish and quite simple. The flavours went more than well together and created a pretty refreshing version of a foie gras based dish.

SOle with langoustines and girolles was a masterpiece. Served in three different ways, you were presented with the roast fillets and mushroom salad, a little bowl of girolle and langoustine fricassee and a few dices of fillets with lemon caviar and roast langoustine. The fish was of high quality, very firm and full of flavour, the balance in every serving superb and generally speaking I really adored this dish, IMpressive stuff!

Dessert was a wild strawberry millefeuille with a strawberry composition on the side. Both were perfectly executed and absolutely delicious.

So, the 2* are more than earned in this case, as the food here is not only of a very high standard, but everything around it is so too. Very much recommended!

[threestars]

Hoping to try this restaurant when I get there in October... Care to share some pics of what you ordered?

Edited September 23, 2011 by threestars (log)

[Bu Pun Su]

Pierre, situated on the 25^th floor of the legendary Mandarin Oriental, was the only Gagnaire’s gastronomy restaurant outside Paris that I’ve ever been. However, it has been more than a decade that I have not returned here. Thus, in the late Oct last year, I decided to return here. As far as the hardware was concerned, everything was still the same especially some of the eye-catching chandeliers. There were plenty of seats with harbor views. In short, most of the things were still in good conditions; kudos to the maintenance team! However, the clienteles profile changed … more wealthy diners from mainland China could be observed while only 1/3 or less of the guests were Caucasians

 

For the food, I ordered from the a la carte     

-blue lobster whose tail was chopped off into smaller pieces, served with some Asian flavors such as mango, grapefruit and lime. As expected, the lobster was tender and flavorful, thanks to its jus mixed with some seasoning and fruity taste. There were buckwheat pancakes and ricotta that I thought did not really improve the lobster’s overall enjoyment. Regarding the side dishes, I found the bisque mousse was a bit too thick & rich. I prefer the buttery avocado served with delicate taste of the claws

-I played ‘safe’ with the main course + was curious how top French chef would prepare Japanese beef. The main item was a thick, juicy and rich ‘beefy’ fillet. It came with dark & quite sweet sauce and served with nutty Chinese artichokes and green cabbage. Well, no spectacular presentation; simply a well-executed and delicious piece of beef … for some people, it might be “boring”. The more interesting part was the crisp marguerites potatoes with smoky marrow to accompany the Japanese beef whereas the cold beef consommé was light and refreshing; balancing any intense flavor

 

HK people may not be known for their friendliness but somehow the hospitality at the 5 star hotels / high-end restaurants there was usually very good. I was taken care of by Kevin? who has been around at the hotel, mostly at Pierre for a dozen year or so. Surprisingly, in Hong Kong, I often encountered not few locals were willing to make the jobs at the restaurant industry as their careers. Kevin delivered sincere service with confidence; he pretty much was familiar with every service aspect of the restaurant. The rests of the staffs were alright, they showed good effort to please the guests. Jacky Tauvry, chef de cuisine, came out to greet some guests towards the end. Nowadays, more and more celebrity chefs like Robuchon, Gagnaire or Ducasse would entrust their restaurants to their “young” (under 40 years old) brigade. As a ‘regular’ and big fan of Gagnaire Balzac, well … Pierre HK still lacked in terms of food when compared to the Wizard’s flagship restaurant but possibly Jacky and his team should still be able to hold the 2-star for a few more years.

 

Pictures of the meal: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@N03/albums/72157707696280024