Sunday Lunch at Amber Restaurant, Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong

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Amber Restaurant is a two-starred Michelin restaurant located in the Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It is widely regarded as one of the best ‘Western’ restaurants in Hong Kong and so it was high on our to-do list during our recent visit to Hong Kong. Our regular readers will have noticed the recent surge in our Hong Kong eating adventures as we try to pen down all our experiences as soon as possible before we forget. Our regular Singapore food programming will resume once we have exhausted our Hong Kong eating stories.

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The Amber Restaurant is a classy restaurant situated within the beautiful Landmark shopping complex in Hong Kong Central. The 2015 Christmas decorations and atmosphere at Landmark were amazing (see picture below). Of all the restaurants we visited in Hong Kong, it turned out to be the most memorable and also demanding. It was memorable because of the eating experience which we will share in a moment. Demanding, because it was the only place we encountered which required credit card details to secure a reservation.

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Sunday lunch is probably the best time to visit Amber Restaurant because on weekends, they serve a HK$888 lunch with wine pairing. And on Sunday, we could take as much time as possible to go through the multiple course lunch. Here is a picture of the menu.

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The meal started off with a lovely selection of breads and two types of creatively presented amuse bouche.

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The first one was a crispy ball (the details of which I cannot remember) balanced on a pine cone and the second was mushroom-shaped meringue on artificial turf on a wooden block. The taste of both were so-so but we appreciated the creative and artistic skills involved in the making of these items. Champagne was also served, which is always a good way to start a meal.

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For starters we selected the oyster and the foie gras pate. The single oyster was encased in a scoop of foamy tomato espuma. The oyster taste was fresh and light. A delicate starter. The foie gras pate with pastry was a heavier dish. The duck liver taste was light and blended well with the pistachio flavours.

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Our chosen middle courses were the veal dish and the cuttlefish dish. The description of the former, “head and tongue with aromatic vegetables”, almost deterred us from selecting this item. But it turned out to be quite tame. There were some gooey springy bits in the dish that might have come from the somewhere in the head, but the entire combination was very harmoniously blended dish with no strange flavours.

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The cuttlefish was served in carbonara sauce. Very finely done with some distinctly chewy bits of the seafood in a creamy sauce. The glass saucer that it was served in made this a very delicious dish for the eyes as well as the palate.

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Our main courses were the lamb and the cod. The lamb was exquisite. The most tender and flavourful meat we have tasted in a while. The ribs had a good balance of fatty and lean meat. Really good.

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The cod was cooked with a lot of ingredients as you can see from the menu. The hint of yuzu was an unexpected taste that added a subtle touch of zest to the already complex plateful of tastes.

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Next came a selection of cheeses. If we were not already full by then, this generous cheese platter with an accompanying choice of breads made sure that we were well fed.

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For dessert, there were only two options and so we selected both of them. Generally good, but the outstanding item was the bar of dark chocolate. Very rich and robust chocolate flavour with a soft texture.

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Just when we thought we were done with eating, came a beautiful box of petit fours which together with coffee, brought our three-hour intoxicating lunch finally to an elegant end. Good food in a lovely setting, attentive service and more wine than we really needed – all for HK$888+ made the Sunday lunch at Amber Restaurant the most memorable meal of our trip to Hong Kong.

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