Caprice - Hong Kong
View of the open kitchen
Rating: 17/20
Where: Hong Kong, Hong Kong
When: Dinner for 2 on 13 February 2025
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 3128-5888 HKD, Wine pairing 1680-2480 HKD
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, #32 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants (2024)
Why: French cuisine with a great wine pairing, service and amazing view
“Caprice” is a three-Michelin-starred French restaurant in Hong Kong's Four Seasons hotel. Its sixth-floor dining room has panoramic windows overlooking the Hong Kong harbor and Kowloon. Definitely a dramatic view, and luckily one that's available from all tables. There is a large open kitchen as well, but most guests will probably sit with their backs to it, enjoying the water views instead.
This was my second visit to Caprice, the first time being in 2011. Back then, I didn’t take any notes, and - more uncharacteristically - no photos either, so when the opportunity presented itself, I was more than happy to return. Since my last visit, the restaurant had for some reason lost its third star but managed to regain it in 2019 - a highly unusual feat, and definitely another reason to have a second look.
For our dinner, we got to choose among a total of four (!) tasting menus. There was a six-course menu centering on the restaurant's classic dishes (3128 HKD), a seven course menu that was a bit more seafood-heavy (4128 HKD), a seven-course seasonal menu that used black truffles in every dish (5888 HKD), and a four-course “business dinner” for guests for whom food might only be of secondary concern. We went for the 4128 HKD “regular” seven course menu, with an optional 500 HKD upgrade of the main course from French duck to Japanese beef. Dietary restrictions were accommodated by swapping in dishes from the other tasting menus. There were two wine pairings as well, priced at 1680 and 2480 HKD, respectively. Both featured pretty good wines that were changed when dishes replaced due to dietary restrictions - not always a given in these situations. Enjoyment-wise, the two pairings were pretty similar, but the 2010 Chateau d'Yquem in the pricier pairing was definitely a standout. Worth the 800 HKD price difference by itself, though? Maybe not.
Before the tasting menu and the wine pairing started, we received three small bites. A mushroom jelly was served on a Parmesan cracker and was topped with a small slice of Comté cheese. The cracker was more sandy than crunchy and the mushroom flavor on the lighter side 16. Smoked salmon and caviar featured in the second bite. The flavor of the smoked salmon was pretty strong, relegating the caviar to mostly providing saltiness 17. Finally, a cracker ring was filled with an onion cream and topped with silver anchovies. The flavors here were also light: hints of onion and some traces of fish 17.
We were offered a selection of breads, all of them served warm. I tried a baguette and a sesame pastry that had a consistency similar to a croissant. The baguette had a nice crunch, and the sesame roll was lightly flaky, but its taste reminded me a bit of a Wasa sesame crispbread. Both went really well with the provided salted butter (and less so with the unsalted one) 17.
The first course was one of the restaurants signature dishes. Alaska king crab meat sat on top of a shellfish jelly and was topped with a big dollop of caviar. Sampling the individual components of the dish, we were stunned by how salty the caviar was - essentially it worked as a condiment, a somewhat expensive way to season the dish without using a salt shaker. The jelly flavor wasn't as strong, but it added some umami. All of this had the welcome effect of making the lovely, fresh king crab the star of the dish. None of the other ingredients distracted from the crab flavor, and remained in the background. Very nice 18.
Course two was a “duck pie”, a pastry topped with foie gras, duck meat mixed with pistachios and a jelly made of duck consommé. On the side was a pear marmalade seasoned with vanilla and yellow wine. By itself, the tarte was a bit dry, but that was much improved by the marmalade. The whole dish only had a hint of sweetness, which I always appreciate in a foie gras preparation 17.
The pescatarian replacement for the duck pie was a haddock panna cotta with three Amany potatoes that were filled with a dill cream and topped with crystal caviar. The seafood flavor in the panna cotta was pretty light, but the potatoes, dill and caviar made for an ostensibly simple, but very tasty combination 18.
A butter-roasted langoustine was served with a mushroom tarte that contained chanterelles and trumpet mushrooms. They were surrounded by a sauce based on coconut milk and lemongrass. The weakest part of this dish was the mushroom tarte - usually I love mushrooms, but this preparation was a bit of a letdown. Its light cracker shell was fine, but it was filled with unseasoned sautéed and sliced mushrooms that ironically didn't have a particularly strong mushroom flavor. Maybe some kind of seasoning would have helped? (Maybe a 13 for the tarte.) The langoustine was cooked wonderfully, though. The creamy sauce had very light Thai flavors and a hint of sweetness. Mostly for the excellent langoustine then a 17.
A blue lobster had been cooked in lobster butter. It was served with glazed beets topped with cocoa nibs and a lobster claw mousse covered with chopped red beets. The presentation came with a ruby sauce that was made with a lobster bisque, raspberries and chocolate. According to our waiter, this dish was conceived to match a Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wine. Given the price of our wine pairing, it was no big surprise that we had to settle for a “lesser” red Burgundy to come with this course, but it still would have cost $480 a bottle according to Vivino. The lobster was very nicely cooked and the lobster mousse was lovely as well. The whole combination though? I honestly didn't know what to make of it. Pairing raspberries, chocolate and lobster is clearly an audacious choice. I wasn't blown away, but it definitely worked way better than one might have feared. The pairing was good, but not revelatory. Maybe we needed that DRC after all 17.
That brought us to the main course, in my case a Japanese A4 Saga beef (a kind of wagyu) that had been pan-seared and served with celeriac and black truffles that had been cooked in garlic butter, as well as a beef jus. The beef was decent, but not very marbled. At this point of the dinner I would have preferred a slightly smaller cut - this ended up being a lot of food. The sides were less exciting than the beef - I couldn't taste the black truffle, only the celeriac 16. I preferred the pescatarian replacement, a “catch of the day” dish using a red mullet from Hokkaido. It was served with a prawn mousse, peppers, ginger, coriander and a prawn head consommé. The fish was very tender, and there was a lightly gingery flavor throughout the dish - lovely 17.
Caprice's cheese cart had a decent variety of pretty good cheeses (only the Époisses tasted a bit off). Our server told us that Hong Kong places hardly any limits on which cheeses can be imported into the country. One wishes that that were the case everywhere.
Our palate cleanser was a coconut mousse topped with pistachios, a green apple sorbet and a crispy meringue. A light, appley and sweet dish 17.
The main dessert was a chocolate soufflé served with a vanilla/mint ice cream. The soufflé was nicely chocolaty, with an eggy pudding texture inside and crunchy sugar on the outside. The mint flavor was pretty strong in the ice cream. A good, but not outstanding dessert 17.
Several petit fours concluded our dinner. A milk chocolate hazelnut praline had pretty big nut pieces and a light milk chocolate flavor 15. A mango-raspberry-passion fruit confection was light on fruit flavor and had a sandy crunch 15. A choux pastry puff had a coffee-flavored filling 15. Two chocolate pralines were slightly better, one with a strong earl gray tea flavor 16 and another with the classic raspberry-chocolate combination 17.
Overall: Solid French cuisine, with arguably fewer nods to Asian cuisine than one might encounter at a modern three-star in France. While there were a couple of excellent dishes, the majority was very good, but not mind-blowing. Still, with a great service, very good wine pairings and a wonderful view, we definitely had a great time 17.
