In light of COVID-19, we encourage diners to take precautions when going out. You can also support your favourite restaurants by getting takeaway and delivery.
I’ve wanted to try Crown Super Deluxe since it opened last year. Just look at the space!
Maybe we can’t travel right now, but restaurants sure can be transportive. How do we feel tonight? What kind of crowd do we want to be surrounded by? What do we want to wear? For some, this means overthinking things. But I believe many of us think about more than just the food when we’re booking a restaurant – we’re also after an experience.
So why did I want to try Crown Super Deluxe?
The vibe
Given the calibre of Black Sheep Restaurants, I had no doubt that this modern take on teppanyaki would be decent. But the restaurant also just looks like so much fun (what other restaurant in town is covered in purple and gold velvet?).
Having now tried Crown Super Deluxe, I can confirm it’s definitely a vibey, escapist kind of place – edgier than I had expected. And I think you’ll get a different experience depending on what time you go.
I visited for a late lunch on a weekday. There was a slight buzz, with groups of two (COVID restrictions) sat around the main teppanyaki table and a few groups in the dessert/whisky lounge. But it was quite chill and the noise levels were manageable. If you’re after an electric, buzzy atmosphere, I hear that towards the end of dinner service is when the place really shines.
The food
The regular menus prominently feature beef, but the purpose of my visit was to sample Chef Toru Takano’s new seasonal seafood menu ($988/person). At the moment, Hong Kong is able to get an unexpected number of Australian spiny lobsters (given the ban on Australian imports in other places), so these are the stars of the show.
Here’s the menu I sampled, from beginning to end:
Mizuna salad: this was a fairly simple salad, but it came with a deliciously tangy dressing. Maybe I knew I needed to start with some freshness given the rich dishes to come, but it was so good that I kept on eating it even when the other dishes started to appear.
Toyosu Market sashimi: during our visit, we were served tuna, amberjack and sweet shrimp. Nothing out of the ordinary – just a plate of good-quality sashimi.
Tokushima fruit tomato: a beautiful peeled tomato that was sweet but tangy enough to be full-bodied. Some salt flakes were provided on the side, though I enjoyed the natural taste of the tomato alone.
Amadai: the amadai was served with a wakame and yuzu dashi sauce. It was a nice dish, but I felt it was surprisingly homestyle compared to the luxurious vibe of the restaurant.
Grilled seasonal vegetables: the teppanyaki-grilled vegetables were fab. Both the sweet potatoes and mushrooms were like sophisticated Japanese snacks, in that you want to eat 10 of them but need to be satisfied enjoying the few, perfectly prepared ones you get. This has to do with the quality of the produce as well, with the sweet potatoes coming from Tokushima and the shiitake from Niigata.
Teppan spiny lobster: finally, the main attraction! Lobsters are fished out of a tank near the front of the restaurant and presented to guests before cooking (the heads are taken away to prepare the final course of lobster miso soup). The lobster meat was tender and covered in a classic yet absolutely addictive coral butter sauce, which was also soaked up by two slices of crispy garlic baguette at the bottom of the dish. While the price of this menu is on the higher side, I think it’s reasonable given the overall quality of the restaurant, but especially because it includes this dish. It was such a treat to be presented with a large pile of fresh lobster chunks covered in decadent sauce. Maybe I wouldn’t go back for the earlier dishes alone, but I certainly would if they were part of the experience along with this teppan spiny lobster.
Garlic fried rice and lobster miso soup: we ate a lot of garlic during this meal, but it was of the Aomori variety, so it had lots of flavour but less stink (fairly office appropriate). Both the fried rice and soup were well prepared and quite classic in taste.
Verdict
Crown Super Deluxe is a solid restaurant with a fun vibe. Chef Takano and his team are certainly masters of the grill, and there’s a lot to love about what’s being cooked up. Personally, I was a bit surprised at the classic recipes served – given the vibe, I thought they would have been more inventive. That said, I enjoyed my experience here, and I adored the teppan spiny lobster main (I’m still thinking about it days later). I hope to visit the restaurant again and try the Wagyu set menu for dinner.
M/F, LKF Tower, 33 Wyndham Street, Central, 2111 8434, 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.
For more reviews like this, like Foodie on Facebook
