Festive Delights
Available throughout the month on private bookings and from December 24-26 on arrival, Delaney’s (G/F, 1 Capital Place, 18 Luard Road, Wanchai, 2804 2880) is offering a five-course traditional Christmas meal for $275. Get in the mood with a glass of homemade mulled wine to start, followed by your choice of appetizer from farmhouse lamb terrine en croute, Irish smoked salmon stuffed with plump Atlantic prawn or vol-au-vents with wild mushrooms and asparagus. Beef consommé, potato and leek or soup of the day are the soup choices and then the mains feature roast stuffed turkey and honey-glazed Limerick ham, grilled beef fillet medallions, roast loin of pork, Irish farmhouse vegetable cheese parcel and roast sea bass. Dessert comes as a selection from Christmas pudding, apple and rhubarb crumble, traditional cheesecake or Irish or Bailey’s coffee. Tea or coffee is included.

Bouchon (Basement, G/F, Podium Plaza, 5 Hanoi Road, TST, 3169 3362) is serving a deluxe a-la-carte dinner menu for Christmas Eve and New Year. At $368 per person it starts with your choice of soup from lobster bisque, wild mushroom with turkey and oriental vegetables. Move on to a salad of Norwegian salmon tartar, Bouchon special beef carpaccio with quail eggs, or turkey, apple and celery with oriental dressing. The mains come in five choices, among which are roasted French ham with smoked honey mustard sauce and buttered potato, grilled lamb loin with mint antipasto, and French winter duck breast with wild butter mustard. Desserts change daily and the meal comes with a complimentary glass of champagne, your choice of a Bouchon cocktail or red or white wine. Bouchon is open for dinner 6:30-10pm.

H One (Shop 4008, IFC, 8 Finance Street, Central, 2805 0638) is presenting a five-course Christmas Eve dinner for $988 that includes wood-smoked Balik salmon, warm pheasant and foie gras pastry and hand-created tagliatelle with Maine lobster in crab sauce. The main course can be chosen from traditional slow-cooked turkey with trimmings or charcoal-grilled super prime rib eye of beef. Christmas Day features a lunch buffet with the attendance of Santa at $468 for adults and $288 for children. Selections include freshly shucked oysters, hickory wood-smoked Scottish salmon, Australian tiger prawns, assorted Japanese-style sushi rolls, traditional turkey and trimmings, wood stone baked wild sea bass, and assorted kebabs and curries.

In the running for the award for Most Courses This Festive Season, Sergio’s (8 Causeway Road, Causeway Bay, 2577 5183) must be a favourite with a ten-course option. Five- and seven-courses are also available. The 10-course meal is $600 and includes Parma prosciutto riserva ham with Italian figs, smoked duck breast served with hot crostini and butter, prime octopus, baby cuttlefish, anchovies, mussels, focaccia bread and assorted pizzas, grilled prime Australian beef tenderloin fillet along with many other dishes. The seven-course option is $500 and the five, $400.

Le Rideau (1/F, Hilltop Plaza, 49 Hollywood Road, Soho, 2850 8833) isn’t all just show; there’s a strong menu as well. Their Christmas Eve menu is $328 for four courses starting with Caesar salad served on a crispy Parmesan basket or foie gras terrine with sangria sauce, white toast and a mixed salad. Salmon and barley soup follows before a main from a choice of three: roast turkey with traditional trimmings, grilled salmon steak with battered eggplant and pineapple lobster hollandaise, or charred tomato risotto with asparagus and zucchini. Dessert is either mixed berries cheesecake or Christmas pudding. The meal includes a glass of champagne and is available from 8:30pm-1am.

King Ludwig (Shop 202, Murray House, Stanley Plaza, Stanley, 2899 0122) is not serving turkey with their Christmas Eve dinner, though a delightful selection of alternative dishes to choose from includes a smoked fish platter with green asparagus as one starter option. The soup that comes next is a prawn and crayfish sherry bisque. The main course is a choice from roast rib eye of beef with roast potatoes, roast Christmas goose with chestnut filling and red cabbage or halibut steak with saffron sauce and rice pilaf. Dessert is a German sweet selection or iced stollen with forest berries. Included in the $420 dinner is coffee or tea, Christmas sweets and a Christmas gift. On holidays, King Ludwig is open midday-midnight.

For something apart from the traditional, Merhaba (G/F, Yiu Pont House, 12 Knutsford Terrace, TST, Kowloon, 2367 2263) brings a Turkish touch to Christmas. The three-course Christmas Eve dinner has many choices to keep the taste buds satisfied. For mezza, try pomegranate-glazed quail salad with orange vinaigrette, parcels of smoked salmon with yogurt cream sauce, chicken liver paste with Mediterranean green peppercorn or Turkish turkey puff pastry. Then for the main, your choice may be baked salmon fillet with herb crust, duck breast with honey and figs, stewed lamb shank with Turkish tomato sauce or marinated and grilled ostrich with red lentils and homemade mustard cream sauce. Dinner is $400, available on the night of Christmas Eve until late.

Complement your Christmas Eve dinner with the 270-degree view at Pearl on the Peak (1/F, Shop 2, The Peak Tower, The Peak, 2849 5123). The meal with the view is an eight-course feast that features clear tomato jelly salad, almond gazpacho soup with grilled king prawns, fig salad, and lobster bisque with oyster ‘pearl meat’ dumplings. Then your main course is a selection from rolled breast of turkey with truffle and chestnut, honey-glazed ham and US prime beef tenderloin.‑Altogether that comes to $1,288. Alternatively, Christmas lunch for $388 is a lighter four-course meal that includes flower crab and avocado gazpacho, Georges Bruck foie gras on toasted brioche as starters and rolled breast of turkey or honey-glazed ham as mains. And for those with a sweet tooth, dessert is the traditional Christmas pudding with Pearl chocolates.‑Lunch is available 11:30am-5pm, dinner 6pm-midnight.

Devil’s Advocate (G/F, 48-50 Lockhart Road, 2865 7271) offers up a four-course Christmas menu for $198 featuring a choice of appetizers including smoked salmon and asparagus tips served with rye toast and lemon zest, sour cream and rock melon and Parma ham parcels. The main course has traditional roast turkey, glazed ham and bacon-wrapped chipolatas with traditional trimmings and layered mushroom and cashew nut roast with red wine mushroom sauce among its options. Traditional Christmas pudding and chocolate truffle pie are among the dessert choices. This menu includes a glass of mulled wine or house wine and a Christmas cracker and is available December 9-25, midday-10pm. The Christmas Day meal requires reservations by December 20. Alternatively, avoid the cracker and wine and choose between the appetizer or dessert with the main for a lighter lunch for $108, served Monday-Friday, midday-3pm.

Lotus (37-43 Pottinger Street, Central, 2543 6290) serves modern Australian-Thai cuisine. The four-course dinner is $750 and opens with a lotus Bellini welcome drink served with smoked trout, betel leaf with dried shrimp galangal and ocean trout roe. Among the choice of starters is crispy pork hock with tamarind plum sauce
and nahm pla prik. The mains feature massaman curry of braised lamb shank with roasted shallot potatoes, peanuts and tamarind, and crispy fish with three-flavour sauce with wild ginger, chili and holy basil. A fusion of fresh citrus fruits and citrus vodka, smacked with lemon butter and Cointreau is a tasty and refreshing choice
for dessert.

French fusion cuisine can be found in Tin Hau at Savoye (Shop A, G/F, Hon Man Mansion, 9-11 Wing Hing Street, Tin Hau, Causeway Bay, 2503 3222). The Christmas menu is eight courses at $488 per person. Open with a glass of champagne, move on to Norway salmon tartare or goose liver terrine. Follow with red mullet or
wild mushroom soup, pigeon Valenciennes and flavoured sherbet. The main is a choice between Wellington baked beef fillet or St Germain seabass fillet. Fill up on the Savoye dessert platter and then coffee or tea. The menu is available for dinner from December 24-25, 6-10:30pm.

Al Petra’s (G/F, 96 Kimberley Road, TST, 6333 7911) 4-course Christmas menu is $400. Accompanied by a complimentary glass of red or white wine, open with your choice of hommos or motabal for starter. Soup follows in the form of tomato, lentil, salata Arabia or salatet tahine varieties. The main is deek roomi - roasted Christmas turkey. To finish with dessert is mohalabeea or hareesa.

Head to Hard Rock (G/F, 1/F, Silvercord, 30 Canton Road, TST, Kowloon, 2375 1323) for dinner and, of course, live music for your Christmas Eve and/or New Year’s dinner. The former is $330 and starts with four cheese and crabmeat quiche, followed by smoked ham and potato bean soup. The main is a choice of roasted capsicum and walnut stuffed turkey breast with mashed sweet potatoes and seasonal vegetables, or veal tenderloin with black truffle sauce and rosti potato. Dessert is rich toffee mocha cake and cappuccino ice cream. Tea or coffee is included. The New Year’s Eve 4-course dinner is $350 with a different menu. Choose grilled beef tenderloin with wild mushroom or baked stuffed cod fish for your main, then finish with baked ricotta pear amaretto biscuits with vanilla ice cream. There are two sittings on both nights, 6-8:15pm and 8:30pm-late.

Nouvelle Cuisine
Sagrantino (5/F, The Loop, 33 Wellington Street, Central, 2521 5188) is a new place open for just a month at The Loop. It takes one of the lesser explored styles – Japanese/Italian fusion. Head chef Takashi Yasuda worked at a restaurant in the Italian countryside for a year and a half, where he learned to cook a new style, and this is the result. Cold pasta, which is a seasonal favourite this time of year in Japan, is Sagrantino’s specialty; have a go at polpo e avocado – octopus and avocado pasta in wasabi sauce ($118) or cold pasta with salmon and salmon roe ($118). The pasta menu splits according to a variety of bases, such as tomato, olive oil and meat, the last of which includes handmade lamb sausage ($128) and pork shank and asparagus ($128). The Christmas dinner menu runs from Dec 20-25 and is four courses for $498. Sagrantino is open daily, Monday to Saturday, midday-3pm and dinner 6-11pm.

At Pierside (Upper Lobby, Towers Wing, Royal Pacific Hotel & Towers, 33 Canton Road, TST, 2738 2398) dine alfresco and indulge in a chicken kebab marinated with homemade sauce ($60) or slow-fried buttered brioche with vanilla sauce ($60) as a light snack. If you go for the full meal, starters include lobster medallion and papaya on seasonal salad ($180), wasabi mashed potatoes ($160) and caviar with poached quail egg and scrambled egg white on potato blini ($160). The mains menu is a selection of Japanese, Chinese and Western cuisines: try the pan-fried escalope of goose liver crossover with stir-fried yabbies sprinkled with Chinese spices sauce ($280) or chicken a la Kiev with chilli Sichuan served with potato wedges ($170). Or go classic from the charcoal grill with 8oz Wagyu fillet ($480), halibut ($220) or jumbo Gulf prawns ($250). Pierside is open for lunch Monday-Saturday, midday-3pm, dinner Sunday-Thursday, 4pm-1am.