Scala sets the tone

Tonight, Scala spans the waters. From a restaurant seat overlooking the harbour, the Cultural Centre lies in the distance, where La Scala orchestra gives its first performance in Hong Kong.

Scala the restaurant is contradictory. With initial plans for a European restaurant, it was named Latour, but immediately changed to Scala, cashing in on the 1989 fad for Italian. When pasta-passion disappeared, the menu reverted back, though the name stuck.

The setting of this almost unknown restaurant is as charming - and baffling - as you can get.

The bafflement comes from the lobby and lifts of the Harbour View Hotel, where the signs and elevators seem to have been created by a dyslexic misanthrope. Getting in the wrong lift is inevitable, learning how to get to the 11th floor is like learning a new computer program.

But upon arrival, you could not have a more entrancing background. Tables are separated by glass partitions, the walls filled with lithographs and monochrome architectural drawings. The light balsa wood walls are soothing, the service impeccable and genuinely friendly.

In contrast to the raucous hotel lobby, Scala's atmosphere is hushed, except for the background music. Those selections would make even La Scala conductor Riccardo Muti applaud. Mozart horn concertos, Haydn string quartets, and Brahms concertos. Not everybody wants such heavy music with a meal, but one must admit the uniqueness of it all.

The menu is complicated and Continental.

Chef Ricky Cheung has created dishes found nowhere else. Pastas remain, but they are almost incidental. A mushroom cannelloni for the vegetable soup, asparagus risotto for the grilled chicken breast, Parma ham with the asparagus in sesame pastry wafers.

These are complicated recipes; some work very well but others are questionable.

There was no doubt about the cold mixture of cauliflower and lobster in a mousse. Cheung wanted a lobster mousse, but found the taste too mild, so he added the first vegetable he saw - cauliflower.

This was set on a salad of cress and cucumber with a slightly sharp jelly with caviar. Texture and taste were excellent.

A hot appetiser of steamed scallops and prawns was made even tastier with another salad of leeks, and spinach white butter with truffles.

Of two soups we tried, the mild garlic and parsley soup, freshly made with Italian parsley, was superb. An addition of duck liver in croquette form was not needed.

The seafood broth - which apparently takes hours to prepare - was meek in taste, and a little watery. The broth was mixed with meat and shells, but was rather thin, the best taste being the ravioli of smoked salmon.

Main courses vary. The sea bass on spinach, with a lovely sauce of black olives and capers, could have been superb. But retaining the skin of the fish, Chinese-style, affected the taste. Request it without the skin.

There was nothing wrong with the medallions of Dutch veal, which came with prawns on potatoes and a sauce of fennel and chevril. In fact, all the meat dishes looked substantial.

The dessert trolley is a mammoth affair, with fruit salad, strawberries and Black Forest cake.

The menu desserts, including orange souffle, crepes flambeed in Calvados and mousse looked just as tempting.

The cheeses are limited to about five, but each - including Brie, Brillat-Savarin and Chievre - are choice.

The wine list is, as expected, sumptuous.

Even without wine, though, our meal came to $1,600 for two. That is not cheap.

A far more practical suggestion is the $210 lunch which offers three choices for each course (and all those wonderful desserts).

The $410 dinner is a four-course affair, also a bargain.

The problem - and benefit - is that Scala gets little business. But it is worth at least one visit, sitting by what is left of the harbour and dreaming of music across the waters.

SCALA RESTAURANT 11/F, New World Harbour View Hotel, 1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai; Tel: 2802-8888. Hours: noon-3pm, 7-10.30pm (no lunches on weekends)