Delicious Caprice

Caprice is one of the seven restaurants in Hong Kong to receive two prestigious Michelin stars. Actually, before the Michelin award, I have been dreaming of visiting this beautiful French restaurant at Four Seasons led by Chef Vincent Thierry who comes from the Four Seasons in Paris. Today I am so excited to finally try out their ultra-fine delicacy.

The place is beautifully designed, and of course the view is awesome as it is right next to the Central pier. Over the harbour you can see the West Kowloon side, though it is still a piece of undeveloped land (I hope they can really do some nice architecture there). I love all the details in the restaurants, from the little chair for your bags to the tidy marks on the utensils. All of them are very carefully designed and set up.

Right at the moment when we sat down, we got the menus and the little starter bread.

And the bread came too, which was very crispy on the outside and soft inside. It was served warm too.

They had complimentary wine for any lunch set these days, but both of us got some fresh juice instead because we didn't feel like alcoholic today. Mine was a mango juice.

And I love that salt dish (instead of a little salt bottle). Everything looks so beautiful that you just love to be in this place even for only a little meal.

The appetizers came quickly after we finished the bread. I got the Alaskan king crab salad with vegetable macédoine in tarragon sauce, while my lady got a Charolais beef Carpaccio served with ratatouille with arugula leaves and Parmesan cheese. Just plain awesome food!

And the main courses followed. She got herself a simple but tasteful grouper fillet on citrus emulsion with watermelon and honeydew melon, while mine was Australian lamb rack with green asparagus and quinoa in nut brown jus.

I have never tried quinoa (藜麥) before but I found that it had really interesting texture, and made a good companion with the lamb. The menu said it was a nut-brown jus, but turned out it was pumpkin purée. Both dishes were very well done. The lamb was so good that even its fatty part, which I usually throw away, was delicious.

We didn't plan to have the dessert at the beginning but since we were here, we decided to have a try especially after seeing their pretty dessert cart! The cart came and there were six kinds of dessert for us to choose. Each of us was allowed to choose three out of six and that means we could try all of them in the end. And we did, haha!

That was my lady's choice, which were a small jar of chocolate cream, strawberry macaroon and poached pear Napoleon with cream. Mine included a passion fruit tart, a brownie with caramel mousse on top, and a Speculos biscuit with lemon and chocolate custard on top.

The coffee was served as the finale of this great meal. There shouldn't be any surprises but I found one: the milk for the coffee was warm! I have never been to a place where the milk for coffee was warmed up for serving. I appreciate that so much because they took care of such a tiny detail. If the milk is not warm or hot, your coffee will be cooled when you pour the milk into it.

Even the sugar cup was very pretty. The sugar blocks inside were like rocks, really, rocks.

This is of course very fine dining experience, but the price is not exorbitantly expensive. The food in general was very good and beautifully crafted, but the dessert is still a bit behind that in Mandarin Oriental. It is not easy to find good French food that fits the taste of Hong Kong people, because some of them will need a little fusion from Chinese cuisine in order to enjoy the food completely. This restaurant does not offer any fusion food but all the dishes are light and refreshing while maintaining their original flavours and special textures, and so I believe everyone will find the food here enjoyable.

I must agree with the two stars awarded to this restaurant by Michelin, and I would definitely recommend Caprice to anyone who wants to enjoy innovative contemporary French food in comfortable ambiance with superb views over the harbour. I am sure you would love it.