Occupying the seventh floor of Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the heart of Hong Kong, Amber is a two Michelin Stars restaurant, ranked 4th and 24th in S. Pellegrino Best Restaurants in Asia and in the world respectively. Amber has been raking in the trophies and #winning in the culinary world. Trained by world-renowned French chefs such as Alain Passard and Guy Savoy, Dutch Director Chef Richard Ekkebus creates innovative yet unconventional French dishes utilizing the highest quality of seasonal ingredients from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. For that reason, menus are also seasonal and change every three months.
Chef Ekkebus emphasizes that every dish is “product driven” conceptualized with the highlighted seasonal ingredient in mind. Another one of the chef’s fundamentals is ensuring that every ingredient has purpose creating a minimalist yet indulgent dish. With the advantage of Hong Kong’s accessibility to imported seasonal ingredients and fresh seafood, many of Ekkebus’s dishes are inspired by his upbringing by the sea. One of his strengths is finding ways to perfectly marry French cooking and Asia-pacific seafood as highlighted in a number of Amber’s signature dishes. The best example of this is Amber’s infamous the Hokkaido Sea Urchin dish with lobster jell-o with cauliflower puree and caviar served with crispy seaweed waffles.
Offering breakfast, lunch and dinner, we booked the Weekend Wine Lunch Menu which consists of six courses and wine pairing with each dish priced at $828 HKD or $107 USD. To be honest, we were completely hung over and wanted nothing to do with alcohol for a while so we opted for a non-alcoholic juice pairing. Our meal started with delicious fresh bread with a choice between salted and unsalted French butter. Shortly after, five bite-sized canapés and an amuse bouche arrived!
The first canapé we had were balls of pita bread filled pumpkin puree, black truffle coulis atop a bed of sunflower seeds. These bite-sized balls were crispy with a flavorful velvety pumpkin filling with just a hint of black truffle.
Next, refreshing wedges of sweet marinated plum with preserved plum paste topped with beads of olive oil jelly.
Third of the canapés, these delicate crispy rolls were filled with sweet and creamy crab meat, albeit, the filling was a tad salty.
The most memorable of the canapés was definitely Amber’s ridiculously good foie gras lollipops with a beetroot and raspberry jelly coating topped with a thin crunchy brioche disk. The lollipop was buttery and rich wrapped in a sweet yet tart jelly. SOOOO GOOD!
Our waiter had instructed us to save these jamón ibérico croquettes for last and to eat them in the same motion as downing shooters. These croquettes were amazeballs and exploded in my mouth as I sunk my teeth into the crunchy crust immediately filling my palate with a burst of intense iberico goodness.
An Easter-inspired amuse bouche was presented next – celery and morel mushrooms with a light frothy green pea sabayon served in a hollowed out golden egg shell.
The starters followed, Hokkaido sea urchin in a lobster jello with cauliflower mousse, caviar and crispy seaweed waffles (it was an additional $248 HKD or $32 USD).
The moment I’ve been waiting for, HELLO UNI! When at Amber, order the Hokkaido Sea Urchin. It’s effing unreal.
We wanted to switch it up a bit, so we ordered two different starters –the sea urchin and this amber jack marinated and served with crispy cereal, goose berry, green vegetables gazpacho and jalapeño chili. Word of advice – forget the rest of the starters, go all in on the sea urchin. YOU WON’T WANT TO SHARE. TRUST ME.
Subsequently, the middle courses arrived, duck foie gras ravioli in wild mushroom and black tea consommé served alongside flaky bread rolls topped with black truffle butter. The duck foie gras was another winner, small packets of creamy foie gras submerged in a pool of flavorful umami consommé.
The bread rolls had a similar texture to croissants paired with truffled butter wrapped in an edible rice paper candy wrapper.
Normandy diver scallops seared with lardo di bellota, caramelized celeriac root golden celery leaves and pata negra de bellota bouillon. The scallop was sweet and plump with infused with an incredible ibérico flavor. I personally prefer a harder sear on my scallops, but other than that, this dish was legit.
Compliments of the chef, we enjoyed a bonus middle course of Australian abalone served with a black pepper and vinegar seasoned tomato compote with braised oxtail and its jus.
On a pretty good roll, we were excited for our mains, wagyu beef skirt steak char-grilled with soufflé potatoes and puree of onions, and agen prunes (additional $98 HKD or $12.75 USD). The Wagyu beef was tender, flavorful and cooked perfectly. Unfortunately a few components of the dish were way too salty.
Braised and pulled lamb from the Pyrenees served with aubergine, black garlic and tomato. The braised and pulled lamb was prepared with “byaldi,” a mixture of vegetables similar to ratatouille and served like a crépinette which is a small flattened sausage resembling a sausage parcel.
For an additional $162 HKD or $22 USD, indulge in a selection of French unpasteurized cheeses! We tried the Camembert, Mimolette, Langress and Eppoisses.
Time for dessert! Starting with blueberry and lychee sorbet atop macarons with sugar coated violets. The sorbets were light, refreshing pairing perfectly with the airy yet chewy macaron.
This dessert was essentially a deconstructed rice pudding. I loved the bourbon vanilla rice pudding topped with a thin crispy tuille and mango passion fruit sorbet. The beads of coconut gel and mango scattered across the plate also added to the dessert.
My favorite the three desserts was the dulcey chocolate sphere coated in manjari 64% chocolate with salted caramelized macadamia nuts and cocoa sorbet.
I loved the play on textures with the velvety chocolate sphere with chocolate sponge cake and creamy cocoa sorbet.
Coffee and Petit Fours to end the meal!
15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
p: +852 2132 0066