Shenzhen with MO day 2: elevation 388

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After a much-needed and restorative massage at The Spa at the Mandarin Oriental, the team took us on a tour of the Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen to show off some of the facilities and fantastic views. This included taking us up to the rooftop helipad at a height of 388 meters, where we got a 360° view of the city as the sun was setting.

As night fell, we settled into our seats at the counter facing the open kitchen of OPUS 388 for dinner. Chef Alessio Durante is relatively new to Shenzhen, having recently joined from Alain Ducasse at The Morpheus in Macau. I would imagine he's still learning the peculiarities of this market, although the menu that had been prepared had a few interesting things that piqued my interest.

Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut, dégorgée le 22 Janvier 2024 - a little mineral and flint on the nose, and good acidity on the palate.

The dinner started by having our napkins sprayed with a perfume that was meant to smell of bread...

Then came some grissini along with other breads.

A coral from the sea - the amuses bouches were presented on a ceramic coral stand, which certainly made an impression...

Squid tart - encased in the squid was a sauce made with grape seeds and lemon, which delivered a dose of acidity.

Cod and piquillo tart - the piquillos were very nice.

Deep-fried olive - the pitted olive was robed in bread crumbs and egg white before being deep-fried. The olive purée on top was actually on the sweet side.

Sea urchin, buttermilk - this dish was described as Chef Alessio wanting to share his childhood memories of finding and eating sea urchins "in one bite" by the sea.

Under the sea urchin was a mix of buttermilk, lemon juice, sunflower seed oil, and parsley. The hit of acidity from the lemon was tempered with the creaminess of sea urchin and also the buttermilk, although perhaps there was just a tad much of the latter. The fragrance of lemon zest was pretty nice.

Gilardeau in vichyssoise - I was so looking forward to this dish the second I saw the word vichyssoise on the menu, as it's something I love dearly and Foursheets occasionally makes at home. Unfortunately this didn't turn out to my liking. The leeks have been replaced and we've got clarified butter in addition to having the Gillardeau (spelled with 2 'l's) oyster in the vichyssoise. The clarified butter made this seem much too "cheesy" and certainly too heavy for me to enjoy, and I felt this clashed with the mineral flavors of the oyster. I chose to finish the dish, although on second thought I would have been better off not to.

Carabinero cannolo - the crisp tubular shell came stuffed with mi-cuit carabineros along with some shrimp paste. We were encouraged to enjoy this with the perilla leaf, although it was certainly tasty without it.

2022 Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Trocken - classic nose with notes of petrol.

OPUS 388 iced tea - hibiscus flower (木槿花) tea.

Bone marrow, Robbins Island tenderloin, Perseus Amur beluga caviar - WELL! This is a familiar-looking dish and I've certainly had different variations with similar ingredients. This was a 10cm section of marrow bone and, according to Chef Alessio, the portion had already been reduced...

As I always do when having this dish at my beloved Neighborhood, I would only take bone marrow on top of bread. The wagyu from Robbin Islands had some lemon zest mixed in for a lighter feeling, and it worked well with the caviar and the marrow - the latter getting liquefied and soaking the bread with its fatty goodness. I was really happy, but also felt more than half full when I was finished with the dish.

Foie gras, bittersweet red onion, salty croissant - it's always nice to have a piece of foie gras pan-fried, and as I suspected, the chef was using duck and not goose liver. The red onion confit on the side added fruity acidity to cut through the fat of the liver, although I didn't think the fresh almonds hidden inside for texture were necessary.

The foie actually came with a crust of cacao nibs, pistachio, and fleur de sel, which was nice but could occasionally be salty. This was well-executed, though.

I honestly thought the salty croissant was not the right choice, given how fatty the pan-fried foie would be. If any bread was needed here, a "regular" slice of sourdough or baguette would be my preferred option that is less rich.

Pigeonneau, butter lettuce, double consommé, panissa - very interesting to see that chef has chosen to use 'local' pigeon from Zhongshan (中山), with the fatty and milky taste that I love from young Chinese pigeon. The flavors of the breast were pretty strong when taken with the skin, and those flavors were quite distinct from the French pigeons I'm used to having... which made me do a little double-take.

While I always love the pigeon leg, I was also very interested in the presentation of "the finger"...

The poultry consommé was made with chicken, duck, and pigeon along with some rosemary.

As Chef Alessio hails from Liguria, we had panissa on the side. Unfortunately I didn't care for the taste myself, but perhaps that was a result of having a few rich dishes in succession.

2022 Louis Latour Bourgogne Pinot Noir - acidity on the palate was a little high.

The shell - the palate-cleanser was again inspired by chef's childhood memories of going along the ocean, and I thoroughly enjoyed licking inside the clam shells for the blend of carrot juice and egg yolks.

Valrhona 72%, Cognac Martell Cordon Bleu, cacao nibs - the sauce was made with milk, chocolate, and Martell Cordon Bleu. Very nice.

The secret - the Chinese jewel box contained a hazelnut crunch, Valrhona chocolate with an alcoholic ganache, raspberry marshmallow, and passion fruit jelly.

This was a meal that turned out to be richer than expected, although I enjoyed most of the dishes and this was certainly the best restaurant I've been to in Shenzhen serving "Western" cuisine. I'm very grateful to the team at Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen for their hospitality, especially when I made the embarrassing request to take home some chicken from The Bay by Chef Fei (东湾 - 由辉师傅主理) so that Foursheets could taste it...