Eating Well in Hong Kong - Petrus

Located on the 56th floor of the Island Shangri-La commanding harbour views, Petrus offers a 3 to 5-course French menu, albeit served at Hong Kong-style speed. It has been awarded one Michelin star and I tried the Spanish red prawn, brandt beef calotte, souffle, and artisanal cheese. The amuse bouche consisted of 3 dishes from light to strong. Start with the peas, continue with the snail, and finish with the mushroom sushi. The Spanish prawn was huge. Starting from the tail, the body was partially cooked and had a great texture. Upon reaching the head, which is fully-cooked, squeeze the juices out and use it as dip for the bread. The black prawn paste goes well with anything. Although the beef didn't have a very strong flavour like wagyu or a dry-aged steak, it was very tender and perfectly cooked with the right amount of rawness. I wasn't very full up until this point, but the French are famous for desserts, and the subsequent courses and petit-fours were more than enough to fill me up. These cheese platter had 5 types although I had to stop at the goat and blue cheeses. Hoi King Heen at the Intercontinental Grand Stanford serves a special chef's recommendation menu for a fairly great value of under $700 a person. We started with 4 small dishes with roasted pig, cha siu, cha kwo, and abalone. The papaya soup is quite interesting as it is not a common dish. A large crab claw was buried inside the steamed egg. The spicy and sour fish soup had a good combination of flavours. These wintermelon balls had olives marinated inside. The roasted pigeon was quite tasty and well done. The sliced abalone with noodle was a lighter carb dish and I was starting to get full. The almond dessert with bird's nest was not too sweet and just right to finish the meal. It was paired with the hawthorn roll, whose sour taste would be a good offset to a heavy stomach.