Hong Kong’s banqueting madame is back.
Appropriating a space once housing a Chinese antique store, cheffe Vicky Lau’s TATE opens with thematic respect to its environment in its newest Sheung Wan location: dynastic pottery and auspicious collectibles are traded for eight-course tasting menus, clay creations from Lantau Island, Ukraine, and Jingdezhen, China, and a 2,000-year-old Han dynasty vase.
This is its third address since 2012, TATE’s love affair with bridging the East and West resumes. Her menu once again takes Chinese and Japanese and Hong Kong produce to meet with European ways of plating and building dishes.
Yet, changes abound with attempts to retain its reputation with fine-dining enthusiasts and attain that elusive third Michelin star.
Namely, in a literal sense, the restaurant shuns its lengthier title for a simple labelling. According to the restaurant, TATE is an expression of gastronomical art with roots in the Old English word for “cheerful”. Its Chinese name of 態邸 represents the journey from “soil and sea to the kitchen” (態) and the restaurant as a “grand residence or mansion” (邸).
The restaurant’s interior trades a past chinoiserie theme for clay and pottery with pieces the world over presented in cases across the main dining room, with larger ethereal Jingdezhen-produced artwork on the wall drawing in guests. The main dining room is cavernous and inviting with its warm beige tones and silver that frames the tables and ceiling structure. In more simple terms, it feels tycoon-like.
The fuss of normal fine-dining is stripped away with Vicky’s returning signature ‘Ode to Ingredients’ menu (HKD2,880). In eight courses, eight ingredients are spotlighted on the plate. We begin with the amuse bouche of sale & century egg, a pairing of pickled jellyfish with an egg custard bite and warm custardy mix of century egg, eggplant, and dashi.
Before our first ode arrives, we are treated to a cutesy portion of brioche bread served with fermented tofu butter and lime sesame soy cream which both bring a funk to the sweet fluffy carbohydrate. The soy cream is preferred if you require a less heavy spread.
The Ode to Bamboo Shoot, an ingredient central in Asian diets, comes forth with maximal green colours. Two golden bamboo shoots, julienned heart of palm, asparagus, and seaweed mousse topped with Oscietra caviar.
With the mousse and a green Sichuan pepper sauce useful for moistening the green ingredients, the dish is designed to reveal the raw and sweet flavours of the root vegetables.
The fun arrives with the Ode to Fish, a salt-dusted charcoal grilled Japanese sawara fish with frog leg sauce and a crispy frog leg to chomp on as a side. The sauce emits a roasted charcoal touch with a deep mushroom-y flavour, which helps to elevate the sea-fresh and milky fish fillet.
A mushroom ragout concoction with a cascading mound of shitake, porcini, and button mushrooms forms the Ode to Mushroom, paired with a mushroom consommé on the side.
A favourite of mine during the meal, the ragout is umami incarnate with a smack of mushroom sauce, chunks, sauce, and consommé upon every bite or slurp. It tastes beefy but remains vegetarian.
Building up to the main course, the Ode to Kinki invites a charcoal grilled kinki fish, another product of Japan, to bathe with an aged kumquat grenobloise sauce of French origins.
The tangy sauce of brown butter, capers, parsley, and lemon boosts each buttery bite of the kinki. The dish is the same reason why we eat hummus: we deserve to eat garlic raw, but we need chickpeas to mellow things out and carry the garlic to our palate in a sensible way. The fish helps us swallow up every last drop of the lemony sauce.
TATE’s enduring recipe Ode to Pigeon makes a return with a clay-baked bird sealed with its juiced left to steam and preserved mustard cabbage left sandwiched in between.
Possibly the most moist and soft pigeon I have ingested in a while, the once-feathered bird, sourced locally, leans on its natural flavour. The pigeon is sauced-up with a hairy fig pigeon jus, assisting the fruity body of the pigeon.
With a herb sorbet combined with gooseberry marmalade and jasmine foam transitioning oneself into dessert, the Ode to Flora almost has me asking for another portion. The theme is magnolia with a mousse and milk dressed over a sweet rice wine soy milk gelato that sits on a sweet bed of crumble. The milky and flowery elements of the dish dance on your tongue.
At the three hour and 45 minute mark, we left without polishing off the mignardines. Expect a dinner at TATE to make up your only plans for the night, for the better I believe. The worse is knowing the next night’s meal at home may not be able to compete.
Our verdict of TATE
TATE’s third iteration is conceived for diners desiring finer elements in their fine-dining. The service was humane, rather than the everpresent stuffy standard found at other two Michelin star restaurants locally. The dining room, with its plush cushioned seats and pleasant walls to gawk out, has a calming effect. And with a stacked eight course menu, it is a dining experience that sticks with you.
TATE, G/F, 68 Lok Ku Road, Sheung Wan, 9468 2172, book here
| Order this: dinner tasting menu Menu: dinner tasting menu Price for two: HKD5,760 | Atmosphere: regal with Chinese energy flowing throughout its silvery dining room Perfect for: Michelin star chasers and lovers of fancy Chinese food |
This review is intended to offer an individual perspective on the dining experience and should not be considered as a definitive judgement of the restaurant’s overall quality or reputation. The views expressed in this review are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions of Foodie.
