What better way to make myself feel better than to treat myself to a good meal? I joined new friend JY and her dad for a wine-paired lunch at Amber while they were visiting over the weekend from Singapore.

Located on the 7th floor of the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, I liked the restaurant’s elegant, earthy brown tones. As I was still having a bad cough, I chose not to have the wine as I couldn’t have any cold beverages. There was also a non-alcoholic option but the drinks were still cold, so I stuck with my warm water.

The breads were served warm and the staff were very good with asking whether we wanted more. I liked the olive bread best. You can also choose to have olive oil, salted or unsalted butter to go with your bread. We had the olive oil and unsalted butter and they were really yummy!

The first of three amuse bouche: this comprised a dollop of mozzarella cheese, a juicy cherry tomato (hidden under the foam) and some pistachio nuts for some crunch. This was pretty nice and light in taste.

Foie gras lollipop: if all lollipops were like that, I’d have them all!

Third amuse bouche: iberico ham croquette. I loved this one too as it was to be downed as a shot and the moment you bite into it, liquid iberico ham squirts out to dance on your tongue.

I chose the duck foie gras as my starter. It was made up of aspic, brown morels, green perthuis asparagus, dry sherry and mushroom jell-O. This was a duck foie gras mousse and much as I love foie gras, I couldn’t finish all of it. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the dry sherry and mushroom jell-O. It came with the three thin slices of bread in the background.

My middle course was the seared line-caught john dory with fregola sarda and dungeness crab prepared as a risotto, and fine french beans for some greens. The john dory was cooked to perfection and the risotto was very extremely flavourful. Fregola sarda is a Sardinian pasta that has a nutty flavour and is made from coarse semolina. Dungeness crabs come from the west coast of North America and is a popular delicacy in the US.

Next up was the main course which saw the line-caught Atlantic cod, presalted and confit, served with white asparagus and garden peas. The gravy was a warm lemon verbena and grey shrimp vinaigrette. I thought this dish was rather bland and didn’t like this as much as john dory.

The first of our three desserts was the raspberry and bell pepper sorbet with steamed line meringue. I liked the tangy taste of the raspberry sorbet and even though I’m not a huge fan of meringue, this one was light enough that I actually ate it.

I liked our second dessert best with the Malaga strawberries atop a yuzu panna cotta and wild strawberry jell-O. The micro lemon basil and greek yoghurt sorbet was also very light and easy on the palate. The biscuit with the bits of gold foil on it was nice and crunchy on the outside with tasty vanilla bean custard in it (which I’m a total sucker for).

The third dessert was the manjari 64% chocolate bar with bitter chocolate glaze and cherry sorbet.

Lastly there were the petit fours which we didn’t finish as we were too full. I only touched the third layer with its coffee cream puffs and chocolate madeleines. The rest I wasn’t a fan of.

Service was good and the bill came up to about HKD878 per person including the 10% service charge. I enjoyed the food and would recommend the place if you are looking to pamper yourself. Good place, too, for a date if you’re trying to impress a gal.

 

Amber
15 Queen’s Road, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental
The Landmark, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2132 0066