Unpretentious, hearty ... and a bit pricey: Louise at PMQ – first impressions of Odette chef’s Hong Kong restaurant

If there’s a dish that best represents what French chef Julien Royer is trying to achieve at Louise, his new French restaurant in Hong Kong, it is his local roast yellow chicken (HK$858, and good for four to share).

Perfectly cooked, with crispy skin and tender meat, the whole bird was paraded at our table before being carved. Filling the table was a cast iron pot of Japanese rice seasoned with chicken fat and chicken skin, spring onions and chives, and topped with black truffle shavings, which was mixed before being served; a side salad; and sauteed potatoes with melted Cantal cheese. Together it made for a family-style meal that was unpretentious and hearty.

“As I evolve as a chef, I find myself reaching back to traditions and heritage,” Royer told me back in March when the opening of Louise was announced, and days before his Singapore restaurant Odette was named No 1 in Asia for 2019 by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

On Wednesday he was a bit more specific, describing the dishes on the restaurant’s menu as reinterpreted traditional French from his childhood. “Growing up on a farm in Cantal [in France’s Auvergne region], my most precious memories are of family meals,” he writes in the menu’s introduction. “This joy is what we want to invoke at Louise.”

The restaurant, for which he has teamed up with restaurateur Yenn Wong of Jia Group, has replaced Jason Atherton’s Aberdeen Street Social at PMQ in Central.

The interior has been completely revamped by architect Andre Fu, who did away with the masculine colonial-style furniture, dark wood and leather chairs (as well as the glaring barbershop lights!) and created a modern European look that is inviting and far from stuffy.

There are two floors; the ground floor is a comfortable lounge area open all day, serving drinks and small bites, such as savoury slices of charcuterie, homemade paté en croute, and sublime slices of salmon gravlax topped with dill cream and Kristal caviar on thin crackers. Pastries are available in the afternoons.

Meanwhile upstairs the dining area is bright and feminine, with a palette of cream, beige and gold. The room has a relaxed atmosphere, with wicker chairs, natural wooden floors and no tablecloths. But that doesn’t mean the a la carte menu items are at casual prices.

Of the starters we were invited to sample on the restaurant’s second day of opening, the heirloom tomato tart (HK$258) was light, and accompanied by creamy burrata and a scoop of basil sorbet bursting with flavour.

Next came a small portion of angel hair pasta seasoned with truffle oil, kombu and Kristal caviar, at a whopping HK$458. We liked the dish, but the pasta would have been better cold, not room temperature.

A dish not often found on menus in Western restaurants is sauteed local frog legs (HK$258); at Louise they are accompanied by dollops of garlic puree, garlic chips, and a parsley puree that was a bit overwhelming. The frog leg meat was tender and perfect to pick up with our fingers.

Another sharing dish, which we did not get to try, is Brittany Dover sole (HK$1,088).

Finally we made it to dessert and sampled two of them, a very light millefeuille (HK$128) with Madagascar vanilla, raspberry sorbet and raspberries, and “Maman Royer” yoghurt cake (HK$118) with a citrus syrup and ice cream, a family recipe.

The restaurant, Royer’s second in Asia after Odette, which opened in 2015 and has two Michelin stars, will be helmed by his friend, chef Frankelie Laloum, while Royer will be coming back periodically.

Louise is named after Royer’s paternal grandmother, Jeanne Louise, and grandfather, Louis.

“Louise is also a name I really like,” Royer told me in March. “It’s favoured for being seemingly simple but exudes regality and elegance, which perfectly encompasses my direction for the French bistronomy programme in the [Hong Kong] space.”

G/F, JPC Building, PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, tel: 2866 0300