With a history dating back to the late 1960s in Mongkok, JUNON – the 852’s first revolving restaurant, closing in the 80s – reopened earlier this year, relocating to Wanchai in collaboration with Cantopop star Hins Cheung.
JUNON may no longer be revolving, but the turn-of-the-century opulence remains, from the elaborate wooden facade to the interiors decked out with with heavy draping, antiques, plush patterned carpets and a showstopping stained-glass ceiling. Yes, it’s OTT, but it’s all the more fabulous for it.
The interior encompasses three spaces: the hallmark of JUNON is the French fine-dining restaurant with stage, where local and international musicians perform nightly – dubbed La Scène de JUNON – then there’s a more casual (but still quite luxurious) bistro and a bar.
Chef Bruno Ménard
Overseeing all three is new culinary director Bruno Ménard, who arrives to Hong Kong with three Michelin stars to his name. Chef Ménard is based in Singapore, but he travels to Hong Kong each month for fine-tuning at JUNON (unlike other consulting chefs who usually love us and leave us after just a few months).
The chef’s menus at JUNON are seasonal, combining his extensive French culinary background (side note: his father is one of France’s top chocolatiers) with Japanese flavours and techniques gained during his years helming French restaurant L’Osier in Tokyo, where he was awarded the trio of stars.
JUNON lunch menu
For lunch, there are both set and à-la-carte offerings (the menu is charmingly printed each morning as a retro newspaper from the 60s, with stories and ads to match), but come dinnertime, it’s all about the five- ($1,688/person) and six-course ($1,888/person) tasting menus.
We loved everything about our meal at JUNON, which included:
Light and delicate mushroom tiramisu, a savoury twist on the classic Italian sweet
Pretty-as-a-picture lightly cooked Tasmanian trout with chlorophyll jelly, wasabi and vegetable condiments
Hanwoo beef with black truffle jam, beetroot couscous, cacao vinegar and hibiscus oil, an intriguing combination of flavours that sung
Chocolate Madness, a chocoholic’s dream of rich, nutty brownie accompanied by chocolate sorbet laced with allspice, warm chocolate espuma and a sprinkling of crumbled biscuit, salted almond and other assorted crunchy, chocolaty bits
Some of the loveliest petits fours we’ve had in Hong Kong – the salted-caramel wafer “sandwich” was our fave of the winning quartet
2/F, Wu Chung House, 213 Queen’s Road East, Wanchai, 2808 0882, book online
This write-up is based on a complimentary media tasting provided in exchange for an honest review and no monetary compensation. The opinions expressed here represent the author’s.
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