Diner’s Diary | Zuma in The Landmark adds more zing to its menu under new executive chef
Farmed bluefin tuna a novel addition to Japanese restaurant’s offering, while crab in a ponzu butter sauce is decadent, chicken breast with smoked chilli has some kick and soufflé dessert is divine
Zuma in The Landmark was heaving on a Friday night, with diners still coming in at 10pm for dinner. The Japanese restaurant has a bar upstairs and dining room below, and is quite the place to see and be seen.
New Zealander Samuel Wilkes was brought in as executive chef recently and he’s fine-tuning the menu, having worked at Zuma in Dubai, and previously in Singapore and Macau. We were invited to try some of the new dishes he has created.
We started with the steak tartare (HK$185), which came with a poached quail egg and nori toast, but the beef was a bit lost in the sauce. Things got more interesting with the maki sushi with toro and yuzu pearls (HK$195). The textures of this roll were fantastic, mixing crunchy and soft, though the yuzu didn’t add much in terms of a top note.
Wilkes is also a fan of using seasonal ingredients, and informed us the coming few weeks was the time to eat Japanese pumpkin, which we had tempura style. The thin slices were deep-fried in a light batter that wasn’t too oily.