The return of any restaurant in Hong Kong calls for a celebration and moments of nostalgic flashbacks. I never had the opportunity to enjoy dining during Hong Kong’s heyday of the 1990s financial boom, but I suspect it was all about luxury champagne, sports cars, company credit cards, and classic fine-dining.
The 1980s and 90s were a period of revival for the city and represented Hong Kong’s entrance on the world stage. Now, after a three-year hiatus, Brasserie on the Eighth inside the 33-year-old Conrad Hong Kong hotel is coming alive again, dressed in its classic 1990s style.
The lighting inside the brasserie exudes a mood not felt in this millennium. The wood is coloured in orange hues. There is a short-pile woolly grey carpet that does not exist in many other places in Hong Kong. The furniture is the same from its opening. Dining at this French restaurant is a real trip to the past.
From the price tag of the tasting menu – HKD688 per person for four courses – it seems the pricing dates back a few years or decades too. The menu begins with a bona fide French classic: pan-seared duck foie gras.
The plating of this duck dish is very 1990s. A toasted brioche sits below one of the foie gras pieces, with cherry compote decorating the meat and small touches of pickled beetroot sat beside. The rich, buttery-tart sweetness combination is excellent, yet a more liberal sharing of compote on the plate would bring even more welcome sweetness to the dish.
The second-course dish is soup, and whilst my friend enjoyed the signature lobster bisque, I was served a French onion soup. Each slurp and sip was both warm and rich with light wine and tannin flavours, an obvious tell that the onion is stewed in wine. The brasserie shows its traditional face with a topping of bread covered in melted Gruyère cheese.
The mains came next, and I enjoyed a pan-fried veal chop, which represents the true Parisian style of searing meat for a simple, honest meal. The meat is lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley to introduce a salty and charcoal-heavy exterior, whilst keeping the milky touch of the veal.
Paired with grain mustard and ever-so-creamy mashed potato, each bite was scrumptious and had me begging for more each time my fork fell back down to the plate. Now, this is real French dining!
After four glasses of wine and three courses of food, we adjusted ourselves to prepare our second stomach for dessert – the grand finale. We tucked into both the vanilla crème brûlée and soufflé.
Evident throughout the meal, especially with dessert, every dish at Brasserie on the Eighth is rich and shows that the chef’s craft was borne out of preparing everything from scratch. The textbook-perfect crème brûlée bears a strong vanilla aroma and tonka-bean flavour. The soufflé is also well crafted and represents a classic dish from the 1990s.
Our verdict of Brasserie on the Eighth
Quiet and sophisticated, dining at Brasserie on the Eighth puts us into a time machine and sends us out into the 1990s, when classic French restaurants in Hong Kong were in their heyday. Today, it is more than just delicious food that you can experience at this storied venue.
Brasserie on the Eighth, 8/F, Conrad Hong Kong, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, 2822 8803, book here
| Order this: degustation dinner menu Menu: Brasserie on the Eighth à-la-carte menu Price for two: around HKD1,400 | Atmosphere: classic, understated, and on the romantic side Perfect for: family dinners and lengthy date nights with champagne |
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.
