Hong Kong restaurant Salisterra revamps menu – expect Mediterranean cuisine and seasonal ingredients, new executive chef says

It’s only been a year since its opening but changes are already afoot at Salisterra, on the top floor of The Upper House hotel in Admiralty on Hong Kong Island.

The Andre Fu-designed restaurant has had a new menu since May 1 thanks to newly arrived executive chef Cary Docherty, who was most recently the executive sous-chef at the nearby Island Shangri-La hotel.

On the revamped menu are items like a cold seafood platter, stracciatella with minted peas and broad beans, bouillabaisse with red mullet, scallops and Gruyère, and seafood linguine in a cream sauce.

For hungry diners, there’s also a 1kg (2.2lb) pan-fried Dover sole that’s deboned tableside, with olive-oil-crushed potatoes, sautéed broccolini and salsa verde.

“It’s a loose interpretation of Mediterranean cuisine. What I tend to look at is the region as a whole,” explains the Canada-born Docherty of the menu featuring dishes inspired by the south of France, Italy and Spain.

“As we find our feet, we will be more adventurous and may feature dishes from North Africa and Greece.”

Docherty’s philosophy is to work with the seasons and source top-quality produce, and the Mediterranean theme means seafood plays a big role. The seafood platter, for instance, features marinated razor clams, crab, local clams, mussels and sea urchin on a bed of ice.

There will also be a large selection of fresh oysters from Ireland, France and Japan, tuna tartare using farmed yellowfin tuna, crab salad using the entire crustacean, and prawn crudo.

There are tempting items for meat-lovers too, such as rib-eye on the bone that comes with roasted bone marrow, sun-dried tomatoes and potato purée, grilled pork chop with courgettes and green apple, and braised spiced boneless lamb shoulder with couscous, almonds and apricots.

Save room for dessert – Salisterra’s rum baba (a yeast cake soaked in an alcoholic syrup) is large but light and fluffy and comes with Chantilly cream. Other options feature affogato, housemade gelato and sorbets, and a panna cotta with mandarin that Docherty describes as a refreshing treat that may remind some diners of Creamsicles, a US ice cream product.

Docherty worked in Vancouver in Canada and London in Britain, under top chefs Gordon Ramsay, Clare Smyth and Jason Atherton, before moving to Hong Kong almost four years ago. He cooked up Sunday roasts, gourmet fish burgers and banoffee pie when he was at The Lobster Bar at Island Shangri-La. Before that, he was at British restaurant Gough’s on Gough in Central. As such, he welcomes the “exciting challenge” of creating a Mediterranean menu.

“I’ve cooked British food since coming to Hong Kong, so it’s exciting to get out of that framework and do something new,” he says.

Salisterra opened in early April 2021 after Cafe Gray Deluxe closed in December 2020. Its Mediterranean concept was developed two years ago when the hotel worked with Japanese-British chef Jun Tanaka, whose London-based French Mediterranean restaurant The Ninth has a Michelin star.

Tanaka had planned on coming to Hong Kong to see Salisterra in person, but he has been unable to do so thanks to the ongoing pandemic and Covid-19 travel restrictions into the city. Tanaka and the hotel agreed to end the contract on April 30.

“The strategic decision is a result of the ongoing global pandemic, with border closures and quarantine restrictions remaining firmly in place,” says Kristina Snaith-Lense, the general manager of The Upper House and Pacific Place Apartments. “Jun has not been able to visit us in Hong Kong over the past two years, nor do we see this changing in the foreseeable future.”

The city has, since this statement was issued, allowed non-residents to fly into Hong Kong, but there is still a compulsory seven-day hotel quarantine in place.

Snaith-Lense also thanked Tanaka for “pulling off the impossible in launching Salisterra remotely”.

Salisterra, Level 49, The Upper House, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, tel: 3968 1106