Elite Concepts' newest restaurant isn't its biggest but it does seem to be the company's most ambitious. Nanhai No1 has a 270-degree view from its perch on the top floor of iSquare, in Tsim Sha Tsui, barbecue grills and an 'eyebar' with indoor and outdoor seating. The menu features mostly contemporary Chinese dishes with a focus on updated Cantonese classics.
'Nanhai No1 is about a journey, like being on a boat,' says Paul Hsu of Elite Concepts, which operates restaurants such as Ye Shanghai, in Tsim Sha Tsui and Admiralty, and Cinecitta, in Wan Chai. 'Nanhai No1 was a merchant ship from the Song dynasty that was pulled out of the waters of the South China Sea a few years ago. Merchant ships were all about trading goods - things like silk and celadon - and food is also part of trade.
'The food at the restaurant incorporates ingredients - vegetables and spices - that are not usually thought of for use in Chinese cooking, but that's part of the 'merchant ship' experience. The food is primarily from the South China Sea [region].'
One of the focuses of Nanhai No1 is the grill, an unusual piece of equipment for a Chinese restaurant. It's used for fish and shellfish such as eel, pomfret, razor clams and male green crab.
'It's like you would see in Thailand or Malaysia or Bali,' says Hsu. 'We wanted to do some things differently and we feel that some seafood is better when barbecued - you can't steam everything. The grills give the outdoor element of cooking seafood.'
Chef Suen Kam-sing has created a menu that includes roast chicken with osmanthus sauce; braised garoupa fin with bamboo shoots; deep-fried flower crab with spring-onion oil; braised pigeon with mushrooms and bamboo shoots; and stir-fried Yunnan squash with crisp pork. There's also a list for wild vegetables, which are sourced from Hainan Island and made into dishes of sauteed Indian lettuce with bean sauce and simmered tomato with mixed mushrooms.
