Shop 8, 1/F, The Podium, J Senses, 60 Johnston Road, Wan Chai
Tel: 2527 2558
Open: noon-2.30pm (Saturday and Sunday 11am-2pm), 6pm-10.30pm
Cuisine: modern Australian
Price: about HK$500 for a three-course meal without drinks and the service charge.
Ambience: cheerfully buzzing, with groups and couples seeming to have a good time. The large space, with quirky, interesting decor, has a long bar near the entrance while the dining room has an open kitchen showing the cooks working quietly and efficiently.
Pros: the food is delicious, inventive and beautifully presented.
Cons: they're small quibbles, but the cherry pate de fruit (HK$80) was a bit too soft, and the chocolate financier (HK$80) had more the texture of pound cake, without the buttery nuttiness we expect from a good financier.
Recommended dishes: terrine of game birds (HK$110) was a thick slab of richly flavoured meat that included pigeon and quail, accompanied by a light, refreshing 'salad' of nectarine brunoise with baby herbs in a pastry tube. Lightly pickled baby vegetables (HK$100) - carrots, onions, turnips and beetroot - were an appetite-whetting starter that was perfect on a warm autumn night. A main course of 'a day in Persia' (HK$310) had an exciting mix of ingredients on one plate: fasenjan pigeon breast, cooked to a rich, deep rare; confit leg, covered in filo pastry before being fried; pigeon heart and liver wrapped in a vine leaf; walnut taboulleh and sheep's milk yogurt. My guest almost cleared his plate of the bonito mamitako ('our version of a classic fish stew from the Basque region', HK$290), which had seared bonito, mussels and chorizo. Dessert of honey parfait with salted caramel, honeycomb popcorn and white and dark chocolate mousse (HK$85) sounded as if it would be tooth-achingly sweet, but it wasn't, and the textural contrasts excited the palate.