L'atelier (pronounced as la-tel-yea) by Joel Robuchon.
quick facts:L'atelier is French for a workshop for an artist.
it has attained 2 Michelin stars for this branch in HK
JS and i were trying to decide between Le Jardin or L'atelier but we decided that we wanted to try the ala carte with more choices so off to L'atelier we went...
kitchen wise, i wasnt too impressed by the design... it all seems so similar now and right in front of us was...
it was kinda useless and redundant turf of plastic grass with flowers and quails' egg
but on to the food.....
an amuse-bouch of cream with bacon and bacon foam and more bacon wrapping something really yummy
our bread basket was an interesting mix of hits and misses... but i have to say i particularly like the mini crossiant in the middle :)
instead of ordering with their set menus, JS and i decided to order smaller dishes and share
first off were...
half a dozen of fresh oysters frm somewhere in the world served on grey salt in between really salty seaweed
this has got to be the first time ever ive eaten oysters this good... i now understand y pple are willing to pay so much for really good oysters coz they arent fishy at all and huge and they taste literally like the ocean
this was a mouthwatering order of Le Jambon - iberian bellota ham served with toasted bread and tomatoes
of course the ham was good, but what caught my attention was the chopped tomatoes... they were chopped so finely yet still maintained their shape and crunchiness... i wondered how they were able to cut it so uniformly and with that size, not come out mushed
Le Caviar Oscietre - the surprise of the oscietre caviar
it was served really impressively... at the bottom was crabs' meat with a thin layer of lobster jelly and topped with of course caviar
L'oursin - Sea Urchin in lobster jelly, topped with califlower cream
this was a brilliantly clean dish.... the uni was sooo fresh and surprisingly the lobster jelly did not over power the uni
La Langostine - Crispy Langostine papillote with basil
this was ordered frm the recommendation of the server coz i didnt know what langostine was haha and it turned out wonderful... it looks like wontons but tasted great... googling langostine = a type of lobster and papillote = french for being wrapped in a parchment. the skin was nice a thin and crispy thou the basil sauce was kinda too soft, that the taste of lobster overpowered it... not that im complaining really
Le Foie Gras - warm goose foie gras with season's fruit
this was JS' order.... he was very happy with the size of the foie gras that was placed before him... and even thou i picked at it... i still dont understand how he managed to eat most of it
Le Risotto
this was actually a dissappointing end to the dinner... its good, just not great. it was really very uni-fied haha the sauce was made frm uni... topped with more uni and gold flakes
thankfully.... there was dessert
Le Chocolate Sensation - creamy "Guanaja" chocolate, coco sorbet on chocolate cream
OMG this was AMAZING... ever since my chocolate craze, i havent really been able to eat too much chocolate but this was soooo good. i cant help but rave abt this. the presentation was absolutely gorgeous too
La Rose - Rose golden sphere with rose cream,"Dita" jelly and rasberry sorbet
i thot this was brilliantly done... thou JS found it a little too sweet afterawhile. the sphere in the middle was a very very thin layer of rose flavoured candy i think, containing lychee foam and rasberry fruit
we actually had a very hard time choosing our desserts coz every thing looked awesome... since we were seated by the counter, JS and i were peeking at other pple's dessert when it was being served... their souffle looked absolutely amazing too. i wish i cld make it as well as they do - that shall be my next next conquest i think hahaha and the guy next to me ordered their surprised chocolate ball with caramel icecream. it got served looking like a huge chocolate lollipop and the server then poured warm caramal on the top melting the top of the thin chocolate sphere exposing the caramel icecream inside
other things worthy of raving was their never ending wine selection! hahaha we were given a book of 294 pages of pure wines to choose frm. too bad their sommelier was not arnd and the server wasnt helpful at all but we ended up choosing a 2003 Chateau Pichon-Longueville - a deep not so dry bordeaux
this was truely a wonderful experience and im desperately looking forward to them opening theirs here in sg
ps i just found out today that one of my most favourite restaurant in LA is opening here!!! im ssssoooooo terribly excited. i just hope they will keep their standards otherwise i'll be very dissappointed... now only to make friends with the concierge/head server
