Restaurant review: Le Pan in Kowloon Bay – dishes mostly great, but the wine deal is overpriced
The food is beautifully presented, delicious and imaginative, but the atmosphere is stuffy and pretentious and the wine pairing was not good value to say the least
My meal at Le Pan made me realise that, however delicious food might be, at a restaurant of this calibre it’s not everything.
There was little I could fault with the dishes (although the wines were another matter), the servers were efficient and knowledgeable – but the ambience ...
It was so pretentious, uncomfortable and stiff that my guest and I found ourselves speaking in hushed voices – not that anyone could hear us, because for most of the meal, only one other couple was dining.
We’ve had meals at three-Michelin-star restaurants in France that were more relaxing than this.
Still, the food at Le Pan is very fine. The chef, Singaporean Edward Voon, has learned his craft well. We considered going à la carte, but the tasting menus offered better value. The most expensive (eight courses using ingredients such as oscietra caviar [although the menu didn’t list the producer] and Miyazaki beef) is HK$2,280; the cheapest is six courses for HK$1,280. We went for the mid-priced one – the menu decouverte (discovery) – eight courses for HK$1,480.