Having visited Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas 2 years ago, I can’t help but wanting a revisit. Since I was visiting Hong Kong anyway, the only logical thing to do is to pay a visit to both his 3 Michelin starred L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Hong Kong and, in particular, Robuchon Au Dôme at the Grand Lisboa in Macau.
Nightshot of the Grand Lisboa taken with my crappy phone.
There’s an elevator in the casino that takes you up to the 39th floor. Once you’re there, the hostess of the restaurant will greet you and direct you to their private elevator that takes you directly to the restaurant on the 43rd floor. Immediately, you’re struck with the view of an exceptionally elegant dining room and this gorgeous looking vintage grand piano catches your eye.
When you look up…breathtaking!
A beautiful chandelier made with over 135,000 pieces of Swarovski crystals hanging down from the middle of the ceiling!
Table for 1 again…
The glow from this pretty lamp really messes with my pictures so I asked my server to turn it off.
Not too much of a view and there’s the lamp again!
Hello wine list!
Only 16,800 labels…
At this point, my server rolled out famous bread cart.
I’m an unsalted butter kinda guy. This French butter hails from JR’s hometown of Poitiers(?). It’s unctuous, creamy, with mild sweetness…Interestingly, no olive oil is provided here unlike the Las Vegas outpost.
The fantastic bread basket is nicely presented here with 9 kinds of bread. It’s certainly very impressive but pales in comparison to Las Vegas’ 20 kinds. Perhaps diners here aren’t bread monsters like I am?
Mini-Croissant
Airy. Buttery. Flaky.
Rosemary Tomato Focaccia
It’s soft with a hint of rosemary. The peeled tomato is incredibly juicy and brings in lots of acidity and brightness.
Amuse Bouches: Parsley and white truffle gondole with Comte cheese
Laying on a thin crispy wafer is a creamy and savory Comte cheese sauce which acted as the perfect vehicle for the intoxicating earthy white truffle aroma. Finally, the herbaceous notes from the parsley and chopped chives rounded out these few delicious bites.
Cheese Roll
Sharp toasted cheesy flavor. Impossible to lose!
Brioche
Intensely fragrant and buttery while being light as a cloud as you can probably tell.
Course #1: Imperial caviar and king crab caviar served in a crustacean gelée dotted with cauliflower puree and basil dots
This combination of flavors complement each other oh-so-well. There’s the savory caviar flavoring the sweet king crab while the briny crustacean gelee reinforcing its flavor. Let’s not forget the perfectly dotted creamy cauliflower puree and basil dots introducing nutty and bright notes to the dish. This is still one of my favorite caviar course!
Bacon Epi Bread
Can anything go wrong with bacon?
Olive Bread
Flavorful with a chewy crust but a bit tough on the inside.
Course #2: Comte cheese ravioli with white truffle
The flavor and fragrance combination of the prized white truffle and what seems to be a white wine cream sauce is stupendous. It’s rich and deeply savory with just the enough sweetness and acidty to round out the sauce. Then there are these raviolis filled with liquid Comte cheese, nutty and earthy, ready to burst out of their perfectly al dente enclosures. Finally, the little crispy strips of bacon further enhances the dish by offering texture variations and just the right amount of smokiness and depth.
Plain Baugette
A fine rendition but the center could be more fluffy.
Course #3: Spinach and Brittany lobster with civet sauce
This is essentially a lobster duo of steamed claw and spinach wrapped tail showcasing texture contrasts. While the tail is tender yet supple, the claw showcases a much firmer chew. These perfect specimens are complemented with a red wine lobster sauce that shows real restraint. It’s intensely perfumed with lobster essence while the reduced red wine imparted depth and acidity. There’s also just enough kick to bring more complexity to the dish.
Apricot Bread
It’s fine piece of soft bread filled with chopped apricot.
Nice touch for the next course.
Is it just me or is her knife grip off?
They really should’ve given me the whole piece rather than a slice
Course #4: Châteaubriand and foie gras “Rossini” style with vintage Port wine
Typically, a beef Rossini is a filet mignon steak served with a crouton topped with a seared piece of foie, freshly shave truffles, and finished with demi-glace. However, this rendition at the restaurant ditched the crouton and truffles while elevating its presentation by “gluing” (hello transglutaminase) a piece of foie with the filet.
It’s easily the best beef “Rossini” I’ve ever had with just the right “fat” to meat ratio. The creamy foie beautifully flavors and “oils” the lean but most tender filet ever. Moreover, this slow-cooked steak is unusually beefy in flavor given its cut. The accompanying jus and vintage Port reduction brought another layer of complexity to the dish by imparting a combination of acidity, sweetness, and savory notes. Finally, the side of greens act as a palate cleanser with bitterness and more notes of acidity.
Side A: Souffle Potatoes
Goodbye French fries and enter potato puffs! This is the first time I tried these and they’re crispy on the outside and completely empty on the inside! Apparently, they’re pretty annoying to make too.
Side B: Pommes Purée
Decadently rich and creamy, this famous JR mashed potato is supposedly made with 2:1 ratio of potato and butter.
Side C: Vegetable Consomé
This is a light but savory palate cleanser that you sip like a tea.
Course #5: Sugar sphere with passion fruit and banana cream, old rum ice cream and light coconut foam
This is a “mango” duo with a fresh piece of sweet mango brushed with a passion fruit(?) glaze and an exceptionally thin sugar sphere in the shape of a mango. With a simple tap of the spoon, the sphere easily shatters into a “million” pieces that acts as the crunchy element of the dish. Once broken, a combination of light but complementing flavors between passion fruit, banana cream, and hints of coconut are waiting to be discovered with each spoonful of goodness. On occasions, bursts of rum flavor is detected which adds further complexity to the wonderful dessert that carries the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity.
Dessert Trolley
Ice Cream Trolley
Course #6:
From Top Left to Right: Passion Fruit, Pistachio, Chestnut Ice Cream
From Bottom Left to Right: Mille-Feuille, Opera Cake, Slow-Cooked Red Wine Tangerine
This Mille-Feuille has 3 layers of shatteringly crispy puff pastries that are intensely buttery while sandwiching 2 layers of mildly sweet and light vanilla pastry cream. Fantastic stuff.
Alternating layers of almond sponge cake, coffee buttercream, and ganache with a crunchy bottom to break up the monotony in texture.
This has great bursts of acidity to counteract the richness of the opera cake. The deeply aromatic red wine reduction has notes of star anise and perhaps cloves and mace with the perfect sweetness to counter tangerine’s inherent tartness. As far as the texture goes, the slow cook process has softened up the walls and pulp of the tangerine so every bite is especially fleshy.
Green tea
Confections Trolley
One of each please! Or at least that’s what I asked for…
Freebies in the restroom
@PorkyBelly
Possessing a captivating dining room and near flawless execution course after course, Robuchon Au Dôme outdid the fabulous experience I had at the Las Vegas Robuchon outpost with the exception of the bread basket. Heck, I’m still dreaming of this meal weeks after…
Robuchon Au Dôme
43/F, Grand Lisboa
My own Googling seems to suggest that it’s basically a braising liquid that’s thicken with blood. That sauce is certainly a quick “stew” of sort with all the fine bruinoise of sesaonal veggie, but I’m not sure if it’s thicken with blood since there isn’t really any “blood” in lobster.