Arbor - Hong Kong
Dining on the 25th floor
Rating: 16/20
Where: Hong Kong, Hong Kong
When: Dinner for 6 on 16 February 2025
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 1688-1888 HKD, Wine pairing 988-1800 HKD
Accolades: 2 Michelin Stars
Why: Cuisine that combines Japanese and Scandinavian influences
“Arbor” is a restaurant run by a Finnish chef cooking Japanese-influenced food in Hong Kong - it's hard to get much more international than that. The two-Michelin-starred restaurant is located on a 25th floor in the city's Central district, and its floor-to-ceiling windows look out on the surrounding skyscrapers. The subdued lighting in the dining room evokes a classy, big city feeling (the above photo makes it look brighter than it really is).
Foodwise, we had a choice between a six and a nine course tasting menu, with multiple options for the main courses and desserts. The extremely concise printed menu (one word per dish) made the main course choice of “fish or beef” sound a bit like the one offered on an airplane. Similarly, the three wine pairings were only distinguished by their length: four, five or seven glasses for 988, 1200 and 1800 HKD, respectively. For the shorter pairings, it was easy to adapt the poured wines, to, say, avoid sake or dessert wines. The wines (and two sakes) in the pairing were generally pretty good, and the pours so generous that I didn't finish most of them.
The first food to arrive at our table was a serving of bread. A brioche made with white miso and seaweed came with a butter containing crawfish roe and chili. The bread was slightly warm, and fine, but not overly exciting. The butter was spicy and had a very strong seafood flavor - at first, I was a bit shocked by its intensity, but it grew on me over time 14.
Our first real dish was a Karelian pie filled with sushi rice. If you don't know what a “Karelian pie” is, then you're in good company - it was a traditional filled pastry from Finland. Next to it were a bowl filled with butter, egg whites and caviar (meant to be used as a spread), as well as a cup filled with hot fish broth and a drop of dill oil. The pastry had an interesting consistency: more sticky rather than crunchy. The spread was quite heavy thanks to the butter, and the predominant taste of the dish came from the salty caviar. A bit underwhelming (maybe a 14). The soup was much better, with a pronounced fish flavor (around a 16). On average 15.
The second course was a monkfish liver (ankimo) from Hokkaido that had been steamed and marinated with red wine and port wine. Together with sticky beets and sticky melons it was served between two Japanese wafer cookies. Texture-wise, this dish was creamy and crunchy (thanks to the veggies), but it also dried up one's mouth due to the cookie. The ankimo taste wasn’t particularly strong, but there was definitely some umami in this dish 15.
A langoustine from Norway was topped with a dollop of wasabi and was served next to a Japanese tomato on top of a bonito vinegar jelly and a tomato consommé. The langoustine was cooked beautifully, and had a nicely smoky flavor. The spicy wasabi and fruity tomato were good complements 17.
Next, we got a warm, cooked filet of yellowtail (buri) that was served with a spicy turnip puree over a soy-sauce-marinated slice of steamed daikon. In a separate bowl were a cold daikon, a ponzu jelly and a pickled turnip. The yellowtail’s consistency was somewhat reminiscent of canned tuna - raw buri would have been more up my alley. It was still tasty though and had a Japanese flavor profile thanks to the spicy sauce on top. The crunchy pickles served with the cold daikon were pretty good as well, and had a nice yuzu flavor 17.
A scallop was served over potatoes and spinach with a sauce of shirako and béchamel, and topped with crispy potato chips and black truffles. This dish was served very hot, and the best part were the potatoes and the spinach. They reminded me of a cheesy gratin thanks to the creamy, buttery sauce. The scallop was a bit overwhelmed by all the other ingredients on its shell - a fate frequently befalling baked oysters. This dish that was much more Western rather than Japanese, and also more rustic than what had came before 16.
A South African abalone had been slow cooked and then grilled. It was topped with seaweed chips and okra, and sat on green tea ramen noodles that came in a sauce made of abalone butter and abalone liver. The abalone was nicely chewy with a grilled texture on top - the latter somewhat unusual, especially in Japanese cuisine. The noodles had a hint of bitterness from the green tea, and their sauce was ok, but it mostly tasted just of cream, with barely any seafood flavor and no umami 16.
We tried two out of the three possible main courses (a pigeon dish didn't make the cut). The first option, with a 220 HKD surcharge, was a sliced hanger steak that was topped with pickled bamboo shoots and was served with a variety of condiments: celtuce, broccoli, bell pepper/yuzu pickles, a hollandaise sauce topped with soy sauce powder and a black pepper/malabar sauce. The tender beef was of great quality, quite flavorful even by itself. But it became even better with the different toppings, all of them tasty, half of them spicy (particularly the yuzu pickles), some crunchy, some not. A bit all over the place, but definitely enjoyable 18.
The second main course that we tried was a fish filet seasoned with chives and horseradish. It was served with a cauliflower floret, a cauliflower puree and a lemon/butter sauce. I felt that the fish was slightly overcooked, but it went well with the slightly acidic sauce. The cauliflower floret was not particularly flavorful, however 16.
There were also two options for the main dessert. The standard choice was made from yogurt, honey ganache, a milk meringue and citrus jelly. Fresh, light, citrusy and creamy. Ostensibly simple, but quite tasty 17. The second dessert choice came with a 380 HKD additional charge. It featured a matcha/citrus ice cream, mochi, some kombu oil and caviar. There were lots of different textures here: a crunchy cookie, the chewy mochi, but I don't think that the caviar was really necessary, it merely added a bit of saltiness 16.
Chocolate and bananas were the theme of the second dessert. A milk chocolate tartlette was filled with a banana puree and topped with ginger candy and a white chocolate curl. Quite good for a banana dessert - the banana flavor was pretty light, so that this dish tasted more of chocolate than anything else. The tartlette had a light crunch 17.
The final serving of the evening mirrored the first one (the Finnish bread). This time, we got a blueberry financier with a separately-served topping of whipped cream and a cup of blueberry juice flavored with lemon verbena. The financier was warm and crunchy, the cream sweet - a very tasty combination. The juice was less exciting (kind of reverse of the first course in that regard) 17.
Overall: An idiosyncratic combination of Japanese and Western cuisines with some bolder flavors and an excellent main course. Definitely enjoyable, but some dishes were a bit unbalanced and it was hard to put a finger on what exactly defined this cuisine, since there were bits and pieces from many different places. The two Michelin stars felt a bit on the generous side 16.
