Amber Restaurant: A Star-awarded Student In Hong Kong

Habits are, sometimes, fine.

I especially say “sometimes”, they too can be dangerous because they are like the familiar arms of your beloved ones. The more you give yourself up to their promise of safety without any worries, the longer you’ll be sleeping refusing all the opportunities for new experiences.

I try to include in my business trip schedules as many places I haven’t tried before as possible, even though I would need to research and scan all the restaurant guides for a while before I go. Again if we’re talking about the hotels, I cannot deny that I have my own habits.

For example, I always prefer The Landmark Mandarin Oriental over others despite the fact that there are better choices in Hong Kong that would suit my wants and schedules.

Fortunately, my habit lead me to an opportunity that would make my palate happy in the end. Hence, I eventually visited Amber Restaurant which is regarded as one of the best restaurants in Asia and I hadn’t have the chance to visit until that day.

Located on the 7th floor, Amber looks like a giant pan flute with all the bronze bars dangling over the tables. But the splendor in its look does not intimidate the visitors at all; to the contrary it brings about its cozy atmosphere.

Richard Ekkebus was born in Germany and has been running the restaurant since its opening in 2005. During his carrier path he lead as a globetrotter, he gained many experiences working with a lot of renowned chefs such as Alain Passard, Guy Savoy, Pierre Gagnaire in various countries like France, Netherlands, Barbados and Mauritius, and finally found the opportunity to put them into practice in the 2-star-awarded Amber Restaurant.

As he makes the best of the cross-cultural platform in Hong Kong between the West and the East, his menus mainly feature the classical French dishes with some Far-Eastern touches that are made with the best ingredients that he can source in accord with this context. The menu was focused around the Alba truffle as it was the case with Robuchon au Dome a day ago, because we were in the truffle season. In the conversation we had with the chef, he said “I’m trying to create delicious and light dishes with little touches, so that you can return to your dance floor when you leave the table.” We settled on a special menu with 8 dishes (a.k.a. tailor-made menu) with the help of the staff and the Restaurant Manager Sebastian Noyelle and set to wait.

The opening of the night before the amuse bouches was great with a glass of green tea and a slice of cucumber which was marinated with vinegar and put through a stick on the top of the glass.

It was followed by a bread basket which comprised a different type of bread that tasted like baguettes and croissants and the known ones such as sourdoughs and whole-wheat breads. As it was obvious that they were freshly baked, the breads were accompanied by two different butters: salted and unsalted as it should be. No one at the table couldn’t control themselves in the presence of these two tastes and finally gave up.

First, we had the amuse bouches or “canapés” as they call it. The most outstanding ones included ravioli which was filled with chestnuts; fois gras lollipop on sticks, and artichoke slices with some mushroom foam on top of them. The canapés were followed by the most famous dish of the restaurant.

The signature dish of the restaurant, Hokkaido sea urchin comprised four pieces of Hokkaido sea urchins coated with lobster jello and enriched with cauliflower mousse, and crowned with some “shrencki” caviar from China. As it was served in a special porcelain dish accompanied by thin crunchy pieces of bread; when I took the first bite with the pearl spoon, its taste was almost orgasmic.

After such a magnificent start, langoustine kept up that fine dinner experience, accompanied by cauliflower couscous and pureé, aka sea urchin and beef consomé jelly. When added to that was a lavish amount of flakes of truffle, the dish transformed into a completely different taste.

The following dish struck me as it featured one of the tastes that I could not resist, in other words offal. Served warm, the dish was composed of a beef tongue placed in the center and surrounded by capers in sauce poulette, and it was just the reminiscent of one of the prized Turkish tastes, söğüş (cold cuts). Also featuring some onion rings and aromatic vegetables, the dish just made me wish “If only such modern interpretations of the classical dishes could start to get featured in the menus more!” When added on the top some truffle flakes, the beef tongue was raised to another level and became irresistible.

The cuttlefish was marinated with the renowned Italian sauce “carbonara”. The dish featured quail egg yolk, pearl onion petals and smoked Alsatian bacon. When the almost transparent Alba flakes were sprinkled on the top, it became a masterpiece as one of the most creative dishes of the night.

Made with the thin slices of artichoke (almost as thin as they are sliced with a cucumber peeler) exposed to fire for a moment (also known as searing method) and the Italian parsley bouillon, Normandy diver scallop featured also black truffle flakes from the autumn. As the dish agreed with my palate, it also got a good mark from the other people at the table.

Our last dish was patis poularde which composed of a piece of poached chicken breast enriched with sauce “albufera”, one of the best sauces that go with chicken dishes. The dish was garnished with crispy cereals and virgin hazelnut oil. If it wasn’t for that bombastic Chinese chicken that I ate at “Fook Lam Moon”, a restaurant mostly preferred by the Chinese, I could say that the chicken breast at Amber was the best that I’ve eaten so far.

When we moved on to the desserts, there was a grumble raising from the table. Because the dessert Richard Ekkebus namely gianduja also featured truffles! The Panna Cotta in the hollow of the dish was enriched with the “macadamia nuts” also known as the queen of the nuts. With the vanilla ice cream and a thin layer of biscuit with chocolate, the dessert was sprinkled with quite thin truffle flakes. Although others at the table first hesitated to take a bite, it was the starring masterpiece of the night for me. Because when you dip your spoon into the dessert which already smelled deliciously, you will find that it has a rather balanced taste. Although I don’t have a sweet tooth, I considered ordering another one as it had a nuance that won’t overwhelm your greedy stomach.

While my palate was enjoying a delightful digestive at the end of the night, the taste and the atmosphere made me think that “I wish I’d visit the restaurant earlier.” Although it is true that every dish was boosted to another level with the truffle flakes, they had a balanced and delightful taste as basic as they were originally served.

I highly recommend to those who may visit the city, Amber Restaurant which I was late to have a try at even though it was just as close to me as others. I finally wrote it down in my Hong Kong list.

Bon appétit and enjoy the taste of life…

Amber Restaurant

www.amberhongkong.com

The Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel

15 Queen’s Road, Central, Hong Kong

+852 2132 0066