Finally, Tsim Sha Tsui East is earning a deserved audience after years spent in the shadows of its larger, more mature, and busier brother (big boy Tsim Sha Tsui). Large Western-brand hotels dominate the East side of Kowloon’s peninsula, where restaurants operate to primarily serve guests staying at such residences, or those making the trip to dine.
Above & Beyond is a restaurant to travel to. Hotel ICON is not a Western hotel brand. It is run as a training hotel for Poly University hotelier students to train in Hong Kong service and F&B production.
As a high-flying, high-altitude restaurant, the view from Above & Beyond is incredible, capturing the tip of Tsim Sha Tsui and the background of towering Hong Kong Island. The menu stands talls too with great quality ingredients, most notably of the sea and land.
The mince spotted garoupa with fine-grained yam (HKD98) is a strong starter for a lunch at the restaurant, introducing a delicate starchy texture that fits with the salty chunks of garoupa.
Our multi-course meal heads off onto the stir-fried Australian M9 wagyu beef cubes with brown garlic (HKD648). I typically prefer my steak loaded with salt and dolloped with mustard, yet the quaint flavours of the beef is preferred in a Cantonese dining space. The shallow-fried garlic bites and garlic paste bring aroma to the bite, where the beef juices bring umami.
Whilst the summer weather brought us drastic conditions – arriving for the soup with sun and blue skies only to find a white-washed rainy day at the beef dish – my meal was made highly memorable with the steamed speckled blue garoupa with crushed salted soy bean (HKD488). It highlights the restaurants’ excellence in simple dishes.
The fish sees a light dusting of raw garlic puree to bring out the fragrance of the fish, matched with the sweet light soy sauce bed, where the garoupa rests. The fish is cooked with its skin to impart a gelatinous and collagen-rich texture.
If the garoupa was not enough, Above & Beyond’s signature crispy roasted chicken (HKD288) landed on the table and impressed me – wildly. The bird is prepared over hours in a lengthy recipe involving many oil washes to crisp up the skin of the chicken.
Each leg and breast chunk has a perfect fat-to-meat ratio, eaten best when lightly drenched in the provided lemon juice and salt. To pardon the overused metaphor, it is a literal explosion of flavours. Your mouth is coated in an addictive, savoury chicken juice.
Paired up with the mains was the wok-fried mushroom, gingo lily bulb, asparagus and black fungus (HKD238). The dish helped balance the fish and meat flavours with an assortment of garden-fresh vegetables to help cut the fat and cleanse the palate.
Our verdict of Above & Beyond
Hotel ICON’s Above & Beyond deserves more attention than what it is shown presently. The restaurant runs a confident food programme that serves traditional Cantonese dishes without the fuss and fancy ingredients. It is Cantonese food at its most raw nature. The view helps to elevate the fanciful experience dining here.
Above & Beyond, 28/F, Hotel Icon, 17 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 3400 1318
| Order this: wagyu beef cubes, steamed speckled blue garoupa, crispy roasted chicken Menu: a lá carte menu Price for two: HKD600-700 | Atmosphere: quiet and serene, a fine-casual restaurant that is still affordable Perfect for: once-in-a-while fancy weekend lunches with partners, be that business or romance |
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.
