A bony and sandy dinner

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It was an itch that was begging to be scratched.

This place opened with such fanfare, with one of the most famous chefs in the world - whose flagship restaurant holds 3 Michelin stars and had taken the No. 1 spot on The World's 50 Best Restaurants - joining forces with one of my favorite restaurant groups in Hong Kong. It was supposed to be one of the premier fine dining destinations in town - literally a stone's throw away from the heart of Central - boasting 3 floors with a lounge and a private club in addition to the main dining room. We would all come worship at the temple of haut cuisine from the Côte d'Azur.

Except that wasn't at all what happened. As I stepped foot tonight in the space that was Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco - after months of wrangling about whether or not to do it, and having been turned down by many friends including my own wife - the lounge on the ground floor had exactly zero customers. My friend V and I were the second party of two in the dining room upstairs, which would eventually grow to a total of 8 covers for the night. I'm not worthy to be a member of the private club, but word is that it's not exactly heaving, either.

Chefs have come and gone, including Heloïse Fischbach who came onboard after Écriture folded suddenly last year. She literally left a few days ago, which was why two chefs from Mirazur were spending their first day in the kitchen here, supposedly passing on "the Mauro way" to Konishi Mitsuru (小西充) - whose restaurant ZEST by Konishi is part of the same group. I counted 10 in the kitchen against the 8 covers.

We have long heard tales of empty dining rooms from friends who have been here, but it's not for lack of trying by the restaurant. V and I were here to take advantage of two current promotions that the restaurant is running - 50% off on the second set menu, and free corkage on Saturdays and public holidays. Maybe that's why we only saw tables of two... We did have another friend who couldn't find a fourth to get the discount, so she decided it wasn't worthwhile to join us.

For a restaurant that only had one other table filled when we arrived, it was strange that they chose to seat us at the table by the entrance. Thankfully the aircon was starting to drip on my friend, which gave us an excuse to move to a more comfy setting.

We chose the 6-course menu for the discount, even though I knew we would miss out on some of the most Instagrammable dishes only available à la carte. But first we started out with some canapés.

Barbajuan - with ricotta and lemon confit filling.

Squid ink cornet - with black garlic and artichoke purée, then topped with oscietra caviar from Kaviari.

Seabass tart - they substituted fish for beetroot and covered it with different flowers including marigold. Presented on a tart shell made of almonds and buckwheat. There was a lovely fragrance from kaffir lime that was subtle and elegant.

Abalone taco - the taco shell was made of chia seeds, which explains the deep flavors. Filled with diced abalone, abalone liver sauce, and some grapefruit to lighten things up. Pretty tasty, too.

Here comes the pain de partage that is also served at Mirazur. Somehow, the crumbly texture just doesn't do it for me.

It's also presented with the same poem by Pablo Neruda. This time around I managed to snap a picture as I read through it.

In keeping with the restaurant's oceanic theme, this sea lettuce olive oil is served with the bread. Honestly, I didn't quite get the flavors... at least, not when it's been soaked into the bread.

Our first course arrived about a minute or so after they brought us the bread... but why? Don't they want us to eat the bread while it's warm? Or they think we can eat the bread first, anyway, since the first course is a cold dish? A real head-scratcher...

Gillardeau oyster and pear - I had a similar dish at Mirazur, and this oyster also came with beautiful flavors, which was equally well-complemented by the pear and pear gelée. The tapioca pearls tonight were better than the ones I had in France.

French beans and huso dauricus caviar - these haricots verts were surely not as fresh as the ones which had just been picked from the Mirazur gardens, but they were still pretty nice after being poached in butter with garlic. I thought there was a nice harmony among the sweetness from the beans, the light richness of cream, and the salt from the Kaviari Daurikus caviar. Were those purple garlic flowers, by any chance? My favorite dish of the evening.

We were told that the Daurikus caviar comes from beluga sturgeon, but it most certainly did not. Huso dauricus is not the same as huso huso. You can be sure that if any caviar was extracted from the insides of a beluga sturgeon, they'd be calling it BELUGA and not anything else to get top dollar!

Chanterelles and cockles stew - this was a complimentary dish from the kitchen. Underneath all that meadowsweet foam we had chanterelles, clams (which were definitely NOT razor clams as introduced by the waitstaff), pickled cucumber, and radish. Honestly, I really didn't care for that dose of acidity from the pickles when I've got that nice, warm feeling from the alcoholic sauce, the clams, and the 'shrooms. It just didn't jive.

Worst of all, the clams came with sand. The kitchen obviously didn't take the time to properly get the sand out, which is something even Foursheets does better in our home kitchen. I wish they hadn't given us this extra dish... because it definitely did NOT earn any brownie points.

As Mirazur is in Menton, it's not surprising that they use a lemon and ginger olive oil. The staff served this to us as a comparison to the first olive oil, and this one I liked a lot.

Kinmedai and kumquats - the splendid alfonsino was grilled over charcoal to deliver that smoky flavor and charring on the crispy skin. The bouillabaisse sauce was beautiful, but the slight peppery flavor - coupled with the choice to cut salicornia into very thin strips - meant that I had difficulty tasting the distinctive flavors of the plant. I did think that adding the kumquats for a lovely citrus highlight was a nice touch.

Pintade and mussels - my heart sank the moment I sank my knife into the guinea fowl, which was introduced as "chicken" before the waitstaff corrected himself a few seconds later. I knew it has been overcooked, at least on the ends, despite being "slow cooked". Served with a tomato and saffron cream, accented with the jus of the bird. We've got a few mussels - and yes, contrary to what some ignorant Kong Girls think, mussels from France do come in this size - along with a quenelle of diced sun-dried tomato confit and marigold.

What I least expected, though, was the piece of bone that came with my guinea fowl breast. Pretty sure I didn't order this "bone-in"...

Cherries and elderflower - the deep-red cherry granita looked beautiful against the blue and aqua bowl, and we've got some oxalis as garnish.

Under the granita we had sliced cherries, goat cheese, and elderflower jelly. Everything tasted as it should, and this was a refreshing and beautiful dessert. I would have wanted seconds.

Peach and geranium - we've got sliced peaches, chocolate ganache that was very fruity, crunchy fresh almonds, a peach and geranium sorbet, peach and geranium foam, and a piece of torched milk skin adding some smoky, bitter flavors.

Then we had mignardises to finish:

Bailey's Irish Cream tart with dulce de leche and ice cream made with Bailey's. This was very nice.

Lily bulb panna cotta - couldn't taste the subtle flavors of the lily bulb, perhaps because it got overpowered by the seaweed.

Apricot and Timut pepper macaron - my unsophisticated palate didn't pick up on the pepper... just the apricot.

Madeleine - I don't know why these were introduced - like it is in many other restaurants - as "homemade". Isn't EVERYTHING supposed to be made in-house at this level?! But I did love this, as it was nice and crunchy outside thanks to it being well-caramelized.

Pine chocolate - with a seaweed biscuit.

We did bring two bottles of wine since they weren't charging us corkage, and I deliberately brought a bottle that I didn't think Foursheets would want to drink with me... that was actually a gift from V. This would be the first time for him to taste this wine, too!

2020 Frédéric Cossard Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières - the nose started off being a little metallic, and kinda sweet on the nose like apricot. But DAMN! The acidity on the palate was so high but at the same time the wine was so rounded and fat. There was a lot of ripeness on the nose, but none of that buttery profile that many love about white Burgs. An interesting beast.

1980 Vega Sicilia Unico - decanted about an hour after opening and started drinking 15 minutes after decanting. Initially the nose showed a lot of exotic spices, vanilla, and coconut butter that I have come to love from Unico. What a lovely nose! There was a good amount of sweet fruit, almost like strawberries. So smooth and drinking so very well now.

Well... what can I say? I really wanted to like this place, as I loved my dinner at Mirazur, and a couple of friends whose palate I trust had enjoyed their meals here. While there were more dishes that I enjoyed tonight, I also could not believe some of the mistakes that were made in a kitchen at this level. Simply unacceptable. In the end, this isn't a place I would be comfortable recommending to friends... although it's clear that I have very few friends who would be willing to join me, anyway.

P.S. When I got home, I received an email from the restaurant asking me for some feedback. I gave the place 3 out of 5 stars, and answered 'NO' when asked if I would recommend the restaurant to a friend. Subsequently I received two additional emails from the "General Manager" in the space of a couple of hours, and the second one included the phrase "we are delighted to have exceeded your expectations"!!! Well, the only way my expectations could have been exceeded for was them to be ZERO in the first place, but maybe that should have been the correct level of expectations.