Hong Kong - Chez Patrick

Chez Patrick, a chef-owner restaurant with two branches in Hong Kong, is helmed by no one other than Chef Patrick, a French guy. I bumped into him at the Peel Street branch and found him to be a really earnest person who is passionate about food. He personally went around the tables to share on his menu and the daily items.

[Sidenote: Apparently he specialises in foie gras and there was an interesting foie gras ice cream that day.]

The concept is simple - one chooses either the 3- or 4-course (with cheese) set dinner, with several options for each category except for the cheese course. The prices were reasonable, well, relatively speaking - HK499 and HK599 respectively.

Starter - Goat's cheese roll-ups with grilled zucchini (cold), red bell pepper and anchovies mousse cake (warm).

I thought the goat's cheese mousse tasted slightly spicy and I was wondering if I was wrong until I overheard Chef Patrick explaining to the table next to ours that (of course!!) there was chorizo in the goat's cheese. Ah, so that explained the slight spiciness that I tasted. Once again, I was beaten by the pork. How could I have convinced myself I could avoid meat in HK?! That aside, the taste of the goat's cheese mousse was really good. Not too gamey (probably blended with cream cheese) and the warm mousse cake was also rather interesting in taste and texture. It somewhat tasted like otah mousse.

Main - Bouillabaisse with fresh king prawn, seabass and snapper (a bit fishy) and (turned) potatoes

Now, the broth was rich and comforting. We were served a platter of thin toasts that we left aside after a bite. Chef Patrick actually came by to enquire if anything was wrong with the bread. He was not looking too happy and I wished I could joke and tell him I was on low-carb diet but I thought he would definitely blow up. As it turned out, the bread was not crunchy because they were air-dried. That would allow the bread to soak up the broth without turning into a mess. Ah! I felt enlightened after his lecture.

Desset - Warm chestnut cake with dark chocolate sauce and burnt caramel ice cream

I really enjoyed dessert becaue there was a subtle hint of chestnuts in the chocolate cake plus it was not too sweet. The ice cream was also very good, smooth and thick.

Overall, I enjoyed the dinner very much. The food was decent and the atmosphere was just very homely ( I loved its old colonial style toilets with octagon marble tiles!).

Chez Patrick
G/F, 26 Peel Street
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 2541 1401