Cocotte impresses with a brief menu, some tempting dishes, and attentive service
Cocotte is a pretty little jewel box of a restaurant, a nice little hideaway on one of the small lanes that run between Hollywood Road and Gough Street. It would be a romantic place to bring a date, except the tables are too close together, and the sweet nothings would be overheard by the neighbours.
We were warned when we booked that there are two dinner services, and we'd have to give up the table at 9pm (although that wasn't a problem because we arrived at 6.30pm).
We liked the well-composed, brief menu, which made every dish sound tempting. There are four starters, three salads, seven main courses and a few sides. There's also a five course "inspired by the season" tasting menu at HK$728 per person, and a sharing menu for four or more of five courses at HK$628 per person.
The "langoustine, barely touched" (HK$238) was excellent, even without the optional five grams of oscietra caviar (which costs an additional HK$258). The langoustines had been just briefly cooked, so had a slippery texture and sweet flavour. The diver scallops with caramelised sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke), morels, pea coulis and truffles (HK$198) was delicious too. The thick scallops were tender and sweet.
For our main course, we picked a dish from the "to share for two" portion of the menu: La Pintade — the grade A guinea fowl from Brittany — approximately 1.2kg, for HK$788 (the price on the menu, although their website says it's HK$888).
It was served in two courses, and to our great surprise, we found the first course — the roasted breast with sautéed peas and romaine — to be much better than the fricassée legs with morels and linguine. The breast was moist, light and flavourful, while the legs were tough and dry, although the morels and linguine were good.
Service was friendly and attentive, but we'd suggest that if the barman wants to do a large burp, he should do it out of guests' earshot.
