Private Kitchen Review: La Maison

17 Sep 2010 (photos to be inserted): I thought we would give this new restaurant a try while trying to decide on a venue for dinner with Jacqueline and Chris. The restaurant is in a multi-purpose building in a little cul-de-sac in Wanchai. The restaurant was completely full, with both private rooms taken, one sitting about 14 to 20 and the other about 8. I had read somewhere that the décor was French bistro-like. The menu might have read like a page taken from a French bistro menu but certainly not the décor, which if anything , resembled more that of a Swiss chalet, or at least the only wood-panelled wall, with a collection of pictures did take one’s memory to fondue and hot potatoes. The window sill that ran down the other side of the room was filled with an eclectic collection of artifacts and souvenirs from travels, including a framed picture of two teddy bears!

Service was very friendly and just about efficient. We had brought mainly wines from Burgundy for the evening and they did offer to go and “find” some burgundy glasses from a friendly neighbor….but we thought we would spare them the trouble given how busy they were. I would give an overall score of 2.5/5 for the food. Chris’s oysters arrived at least 15 minutes before the rest of our starters. Jacqueline and I both had the foie gras with flambéed peach slices and Richard had the bacon tart. I thought the foie gras was well cooked, and well portioned – It melted in the mouth and the softened and caramelized peach was a perfect accompaniment to the foie gras. Richard’s bacon tart was tasty.

Then we shared two portions of lobster bisque – I didn’t feel like trying it because by that time, I had already moved onto red wine and I was keen on tasting the wines. (We had finished our white wine before we even started our first course! It was a busy night for the restaurant!) Richard must have liked it – he was quite happy to finish it off. Jacqueline commented that that portion was too small, for the price they charged. Perhaps the restaurant could consider serving in a cup instead to improve the presentation. Then came a tiny scoop of sorbet, a delightful pink orange coloured ball, which I didn’t bother with – I am more in favour of a sip of champagne than a ball of sorbet which numbs your teeth (Do I begin to sound like an old lady??!!).

Rib eye steak

For the main course, Chris and Richard both had the rib eye – Richard had asked for rare and Chris, medium rare. Richard’s tip is that restaurants in HK tend to overdo the beef, so it’s better to ask for rare to get medium rare. The result was good: the meat was not too thick, juicy and full of flavours. Jacqueline and I both had the duck confit. It was as good a duck confit could be, but it was not overwhelming – the meat tasted good and authentic, the skin crispy, but perhaps parts of the meat were a little dry. I wasn’t too keen on the crisp green apple and beetroot salad that came with the dish – the cold salad would have been more suitable for a starter style dish with warm confit……. I would recommend the chef to consider serving the confit with braised red cabbage, a compote of something citusy, or an orange/grapefruit warm marmalade….



Duck confit



Probably the most disappointing dishes of all were the desserts. We had ordered 5 desserts, as we couldn’t decide which dish to drop. The best was probably my apple crumble: the apples had a good texture, not too sweet, well caramelized, retaining just a tiny touch of resistance as you were biting into them. The crumbly bit was perhaps a little dodgy but whatever the texture it was well-masked by the quickly melting ice-cream. The cherry clafoutis came served in a soup bowl – cherries were a little scarce, texture a little too dense, and a touch of cherry liqueur would have been quite helpful to lift the tasted. The French fudge cake was decidedly dense and we didn’t understand why it was called fudge cake when it tasted more like chocolate…..in any case, what would the French know about fudge anyway?? Richard ordered a panna cotta and he described it as indifferent (an understatement!) The most disastrous dessert was Chris’s choice of ice mountain (the chef’s version of Baked Alaska)…….we sent the first one back as the ice cream melted so fast underneath the meringue topping dribbled with caramel that it tasted like a sugary egg-white smoothie….(By the way, I think readers should know that the restaurant did not make a fuss when we asked for it to be changed and for this client-focused approach, I would give a very high mark!) The second attempt was only a small improvement on the first one….it still tasted too much like egg white in the meringue and the ice cream underneath was melting, albeit at a slower pace. I think the chef should look into improving the “mountain” to make it sweeter and taste less like raw egg white, but more like meringue!

Despite these criticisms, I thought the restaurant staff were extremely friendly and quite efficient about their jobs. The main dining room had a good buzz about it- it felt really cosy and not like one big canteen; the private rooms also looked very comfortable and well-sized. The chef came out to say hello – he apologized for the “traditionalness” of the menu and promised that he would be putting more interesting dishes onto the menu, after the restaurant got over the teething problems. He did say he had some limitations in the kitchen. The chef reminded me of a warm fuzzy teddy bear! The other thing I really quite liked about the restaurant was the fact that they didn’t rush out to remind us of the time even it went past midnight, nor did they suddenly turn on all the lights to signal “Time to Clear” as another popular private kitchen in HK has a habit of doing. So for this friendly service and great ambiance, I would definitely try it again when the menu has changed, and recommend it for private or corporate parties, when things like friendly service, client-focused attitude really matter! (Food: 2/5; Service 5/5; Ambiance 4/5; Price 3/5 – my guess of the bill, even though Chris refused to share the bill with me! Thank you, Chris and Jacqueline! Next time, it’s our shout.)

For the wines of the evening, we started with a 1996 Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles. It was a really classy wine, well-balanced, still showing a lot of freshness, underneath the gently creamy texture. An intense and complex nose, showing lemon curd, ripe apple, pear, cashew nuts, brioche, honey and tobacco, with a hint of spiciness. A lovely mature burgundy drinking extremely beautifully now, and over the next 6+ years. 17.5/20

The 1990 Marquis d’Angerville Volnay Champans was a bit of a disappointment. It had a very “bretty” band-aid nose and it tasted drying out on the finish. I’ll make it a point to try another bottle soon, perhaps a Clos des Ducs, to see how that would taste like.  Unfortunately, this wine is quite consistent with our experience of this domaine's 1990 wines: bretty, musty, prematurely oxidised and rather charmless.  A disappointing vintage for a great domaine!  Wonder if something went wrong in the cellar then.....

I liked the 1993 Robert Arnoux Romanée Saint Vivant a lot. Beautiful red fruit nose (red cherry, raspberry, strawberry), violet, wet leaves and mineral, with leather, tobacco and figs coming through after some aeration. Velvety texture, with very fine soft tannins. Finishes long and sweet. Perfect now with food, and will continue to develop further, over the next 8 – 10 years. 18/20

For dessert, we had a half bottle of Michele Chiarlo’s Nivole – a Moscato d’Asti named after his daughter. Delicately medium sweet, refreshing and fragrant - lovely notes of honey, grape and flowers. We probably shouldn’t have bothered with the desserts and just had this! 16/20