Hugo's
Posted:
16 Mar 2010
It seems nowadays, to become a Hong Kong legend, a restaurant needs to shut down once it has become stale and reopen years later for a grand comeback. This is the case for Hugo’s, which went away for a two-year hiatus when the old Hyatt Regency was torn down to become the new iSquare. The old boys’ club was a place for business deals over whisky and marriage proposals over chocolate bonbons.
The menu, prepared by chef Richard Sawyer from The Wolseley and Mon Plaisir in London, is filled with the oldies but goodies such as prawn cocktail ($185), steak tartare prepared tableside ($230) and lobster bisque ($140) flamed in front of diners. And that’s the whole shtick here: table performances. Many of the dishes from pea soup to cherry jubilee to Irish coffee are theatre here. A team of chefs and servers make your dish in front of your very eyes, and that is what you pay for.
The Caesar salad ($135) is pretty much the same salad you’ll get in their all-day diner right next door for $120. But here, a chef makes fresh dressing and flips romaine leaves in the air for an extra thrills and dollars. The salad was just fine, lightly dressed, and included aged lardons, and happily can be tailored made to diners’ individual dietary needs.
The lobster bisque ($140) is a revival from the old, legendary menu. Tableside, minced onions are sautéed, a pre-cooked lobster base added to the pot along with pieces of lobster meat. Foamed cream and cognac finish the dish. The presentation was stellar, though the soup tasted a bit thin. Many restaurants stretch their dollars by using shrimp shells to make a base for lobster bisque, which you can always tell from the bitter aftertaste. Here it is sweet and smooth. Unfortunately, the lobster meat resembled frozen crayfish meat with a reconstituted texture and the strips were similar size to crayfish tails, but that is just a hunch.
The Wiener schnitzel ($385) and USDA prime rib eye (which was wheeled over in a grand copper carve station, $455) came with a tray of glossy-looking sides kept warm on a candle-lit server. The veal was a great piece of breaded meat that took up the entire length of a large platter. With schnitzel, the breadcrumbs are as important as the meat. Here it was uniform, too uniform if there is such a thing, in that there were no crispy bits. Technically a perfectly made schnitzel, but it was like eating fried chicken without the crunch.
The 150g USDA prime rib eye was a huge Flintstone size of chop. Evenly pink on the inside, the roast comes medium-rare. It was an industrial piece of meat and hadn’t been aged very long, so the flavours were subtle. Dare you to finish one portion.
No room for dessert, we opted for assorted cheese ($125). France is largely represented and the cheese was plated in front of us from another cart (though this time not so expertly; some practice needed here). The cheeses were common; pass and order a cherry jubilee instead.
What makes the dishes here so grand is the flamboyant presentation, but the quality is just standard hotel fare. The service is close to five stars, as Hyatt restaurants tend to be, though a few hiccups in food quality need to be ironed out. Angie Wong
Lobby, Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, 18 Hanoi Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, 3721 7733. Mon-Fri noon-2.30pm 6.30pm-10.30pm, Sat-Sun 6.30pm-10.30pm.
The bill
Lobster bisque $140
Caesar salad $135
Wiener schnitzel $385
150g USDA prime rib eye $455
Cheese platter $125
ten per cent service charge $124
Total $1,364
4 Comments Add your comment
Thanks for the honest review. This sounds like another boring restaurant that serves the same uninspiring food. Table side service is so outdated! The Hyatt has every chance to reinvent itself, not sure why it's brining back a so called "classic" restaurant that serves the same salads and steaks that can be found in every other restaurant in town. We need to see some new ideas in Hong Kong. By the way, what happened to Time Out's star rating system?
@J, Hugo's (like Amigo) has been around town for several decades, it is the classic elements (ie: what you call outdated table side service) that distinguish itself from other new resto such as Whisk, French Windows or even Caprice. It has been closed for 2 years due to relocation so I would consider it to be semi-new opening. Their food might not be extraordinary but it is the whole experience that counts in my opinion.
I've noticed that sometime Time Out is completely honest & accurate with their rating of resturants and other times it is very favorable average resturants. Then I look at your ads and I see the average places are part of the same resturant group you are reviewing. Does advertising in Time Out offer protection of bad reviews?
At Time Out, we do not offer a 'protection policy' to the restaurants that advertise with us in our review section. Here's our review policy: Time Out reviews anonymously and pays for meals.
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