Megabites: Goût de / Good France – 21 March

good france logo

After a successful first event in 2015 the Alain Ducasse inspired Goût de France / Good France returns to tease and tantalise tastebuds globally. Organized by the French government with the intent to showcase the French way of life, regional produce, and France as a tourist destination. From Bangladesh to Fiji, Syria to Lettonia over 1,000 chefs on 5 continents are creating a menu to celebrate French gastronomy and joie de vivre on the 21 March.

Locally 22 restaurants are participating at a wide range of price points, with some menu offerings only available on the 21 March, while others are on offer all week. Some of the menu’s are online at www.goodfrance.com – although sadly the French government no longer seem to recognise Hong Kong as we’re lumped in with China.

Restaurant Akrame
G/F, 9B Ship Street, Wanchai
Tel: 2528 5068 http://akrame.com.hk/

Bibo
163 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan
Tel: 2956 3188 www.bibo.hk

Brasserie on the Eighth
Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Hong Kong
Tel: 2822 8803 http://www.conraddining.com/en/brasserie.html

Caprice
Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, 8 Finance Street, Central
Tel: 3196 8860 http://www.fourseasons.com/hongkong/dining/restaurants/caprice/#

La Cabane Wine Bistro
62, Hollywood Road, Central
Tel: 2776 6070 http://lacabane.hk/

Chez Raymond de Paris
G/f, 183D, Po Tung Road, Sai Kung, N.T.
Tel: 6484 1400 www.chezraymonddeparis.com

Cococabana
Shek O Beach Bldg., Shek O
Tel: 2812 1826 http://toptables.com.hk/coco/

Epure
Shop 403, Level 4, Ocean Centre, Harbour City,Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: 3185 8338 www.epure.hk

Fleur de Sel
Shop 2J, Po Foo Building, Foo Ming Street, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2805 6678 http://frenchcrepes.com.hk/fleur-de-sel/

Jules Bistro
King-Inn Mansion, 13-15 Yik Yam Street, Happy Valley
Tel: 2838 1115www.bistrojules.com

Metropolitain
G/F 46 High Street, Sai Ying Pun
Tel: 6271 6102 www.french-creations.com/metropolitain

Otto Restaurant & Bar
16-17/F, L’hart, 487-489 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2893 8617 www.facebook.com/OttoRestaurantAndBar

Petrus
Island Shangri-La, Pacific Place, Supreme Court Road, Central
Tel: 2820 8590 www.shangri-la.com/hongkong/islandshangrila/dining/restaurants/restaurant-petrus/

Pierre
5 Connaught Road, Central
Tel: 2825 4001 www.mandarinoriental.com/hongkong/fine-dining/pierre

Privé
Rua dos Viscondes de Paco de Arcos, Macau
Tel: +853 8861 7241 www.sofitelmacau.com/en/prive

Rive and the Deck
310 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2839 3327 www.parklane.com.hk/riva-and-the-deck

La Saison by Jacques Barnachon
2/F, The Cameron, 33 Cameron Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon
Tel: 2789 8000 www.lasaisonbyjb.com

Serge et Le Phoque
G/F, Shop B2, 3 Wanchai Road, Wanchai
Tel: 5465 2000 www.facebook.com/Serge-et-le-phoque

Spoon by Alain Ducasse
InterContinental Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Kowloon
Tel: 2313 2256
https://hongkong-ic.intercontinental.com/dining/spoon.php

Stan Café
Shop 505, 5/F, Camel Road, Stanley
Tel: 2324 9008 www.stancafe.hk

La Table de Patrick
6/F Cheung Hing Commercial Building, 37-43 Cochrane Street, Central
Tel: 2541 1401 www.chezpatrick.hk

Le bistro Winebeast
G/F & 1/F Tai Yip Building, 141 Thomson Road, Wanchai
Tel: 2782 6689 www.wine-beast.com/le-bistro

Taste Festival FAIL!

taste-festival-hk-fail

For those thinking of attending Taste at the Central Harbourfront, then sadly I suggest you think again if you haven’t already bought a ticket. Especially if you’re imagining something like last year’s enjoyable and diverse Wine & Dine Festival.

At Taste there are just 12 restaurants: Aberdeen Street Social, Amber, Arcane (Sunday), Bibo, Café Gray Deluxe, Chino (Thursday & Friday), Duddell’s, Serge et Le Phoque, The Ocean, Tin Lung Heen, Tosca, Yardbird and Ronin and visiting UK restaurant Duck & Waffle (Saturday). The organisers IMG are hoping to attract 3,000 people per four hour session. If you are keen to try all 12 outlets then you’ll be hoping to get served every 20 minutes as will the other 250+ customers at each booth. Even the most efficient McDonalds in Hong Kong would be struggling to serve 750 people every hour for four hours straight; and they’re a restaurant specifically designed to serve fast food. The 12 outlets at Taste are restaurants used to serving 100 or so people in an evening, with care taken in the cooking and presentation of the food. And with rents for a booth at over $20,000, the dishes aren’t cheap ranging from $50 to $380 for mini-portions on a paper plate…

Each restaurant is offering 3 dishes and one signature dish, as the organisers IMG didn’t ask the participants to prepare any dishes for the media to taste it’s impossible for bc to comment on the individual offerings. On the opening night an outlet ran out of its signature dish within just over an hour having prepared less than 30 portions. Others ran out of their ‘main’ dishes before 8pm. One outlet spoke of preparing 300 of each main dish per session – so only 1 in 10 of IMG’s projected session visitors might be able to taste it…

Arrive early and expect to queue and queue… Even the Event Director Simon Wilson thinks you’ll only be able to taste dishes from 5 or 6 outlets per 4 hour session. Thursday was the first night, and the weather meant only a couple of hundred visitors yet there were long lines all around. Service at all the restaurants was friendly but disorganised with ordering and food arrival taking several minutes per customer. Late in any session I expect the food choices to be extremely limited if non-existent.

The place feels very sterile, there’s no area to sit and congregate and share food stories. There are no tables on the event ‘lawn’ (more like a squishy puddle in the rain) so the few standing only tables inside the booths were crammed and with staff working flat-out to serve food; clearing the tables of piling rubbish was an oft forgotten afterthought.

The restaurants are spaced around the exterior, while the ‘spine’ of Taste features various wine, craft beer and food produce outlets. Drinks are at bar prices and nothing that you can’t find easily around town. Although La Boucherie and Golden Pig are offering some tasty sausages while Eclair! has some interesting savoury eclairs and chocolates.

The lack of restaurant booths is Taste’s main problem. 20 or 30 outlets (there’s no shortage of ‘high end’ outlets locally) would have allowed diners to spend less time queueing and more time tasting – which after all is supposedly the idea behind the event.

This is not IMG’s first Taste event, they have organised many around the world, but Taste HK feels like a rort, designed to fleece it’s visitors of as many dollars as possible… Looking to cash in on the premium names and reputations of outlets with dishes that are expensive for what’s on offer. $280 for a lobster roll eaten standing in a puddle under an umbrella… Maybe it’s different overseas but here it’s definitely an event for those with money to burn. For the rest of us, save your money and go enjoy the dishes as the chef imagined you would eat them, sitting down with time to appreciate all their subtleties and complexities of flavour, texture and taste.