Blue Bar, Four Seasons Hong Kong

Have been told by quite many business friends visiting Hong Kong that they enjoyed quite much staying at Four Seasons Hong Kong. Besides, they told me to try their restaurants. So out of curiosity, I suggested my local business friends try this one. At the moment of entering into this hotel, I had been escorted all the way to Blue Bar after I just asked "can you tell where the Blue Bar is?". So this noon I feel like I was in Mandarin Oriental Bangkok. Then as I arrived at Blue Bar, a journey of professional service begins to impress me for a re-visit next week. Why next week, it's simply because Blue Bar has been fully booked for a whole week and further fully booked for several weekends until end of November. In fact, the reservation called me back 2 days ago when a table was cancelled after I called them up for a booking originally made this Friday but 2nd option was on today. See how good they care for each of their customers. Most of their staff speak articulate Cantonese and English (when they left voice messages on my cell. phone). I haven't heard such articulate Cantonese and English for a very long time. I think the staff must have been well trained in every way including their speaking manner. My 2 local business friends were so happy to try Blue Bar and we have decided to try the other restaurants at Four Seasons HK.

1. Summer sparkling - mango, peach and cucumber mix with mint. HK$85. Very nice mix and so good to sparkle your appetite! I also noticed on their drink menu there are some other interesting drinks. 2. First their wheat multi-grain bun is superb! Nice aroma of the wheat flour! No need to put butter. Their house made caesar salad is good too - no dressing left on the tossing bowl and very crispy. Then the other green is very fresh too. I am much much impressed with their balsamic vinegar - so fragrant and slightly sweet and not too acidic! Then that crouton slice is very crispy. The parma ham is so "aromatic fatty" but not too fatty. The string bean is very sweet and crunchy but not too hard! The tuna sandwich is awesome! Nice french bread!

3. After we took the first plate of cold dish, the waiter was very discerning and suggested us get a bowl of lentil soup and even helped us to deliver them to the table, as he said the soup is quite hot. When he was suggesting, I was about to turn him down since I actually don't like bean soup. Wow, this one impressed me so much that I got another bowl! I think the chef must have pan fried the beans first and so making the whole soup a lot different. This is also the way I made my tomato/onion/potato with spare rib soup. Pan fry all the ingredients and put those into the boiling water. That's the key to making good soup! 4. One more plate of cold food and the good thing about the lunch buffet of Blue Bar is that they serve more cold dishes than hot ones. I cleaned the plate! Sun dried beef on toast with a slight touch of olive oil - so good! This is the way to use olive oil. No need to put much as it would overwhelm the other foods' taste! Another food impressing me is somtom on the bottom right! Wow - what a nice mix and they even put some carrot slices to make it sweet instead of putting the sugar paste. The quiche is excellent and I actually don't like quiche. My 2 local business fellows noticed I took something I didn't like as they both travelled with me to Cannes quite several times and knew that I don't like quiche and bean soup. I simply told them this is the way to see how good the cooking skill of the chef, by trying the food which I hate the most.

5. You know what impressed me in this plate? It's the mashed potato which I don't like either! Very nice texture and I can't really tell what they put inside. I can taste some sweet milk and I believe they use some very nice milk. Then the steamed rice - so good! The honey ham is ok and maybe as compared to all the other good food, it's a bit not too good. Then the asparagus is very selected! By the way, all the food were not salty at all. That told how skillful the chef is! The curry chicken is nice too. At least they used the whole chicken and cut in pieces, not just the frozen chicken thighs. 6. The dessert is "100 marks"! First, it's not too sweet and really to my preferred sweet level. When I first looked at the muddy like tiramisu, I wondered if I should try it. It turned out the coffee aroma is so good and moist but not too wet. Then next to it on the left is the chestnut pan cake with vanilla sauce. Must try! Very nice and good texture of chestnut paste. The vanilla sauce is slightly sweetened and that is the best way to let it be tasted! The marble cheese cake is wonderful! Very nice cheese and perfect mixture of not too soft nor too hard. The warm choco. in the cup - I cleaned that up like it's washed already! I think they ground the chocolate beans by themselves rather than using some already choco. bar. It's because I can taste the bean aroma. Coffee and choco. beans would release kind of aromatic oil right after they are ground. If you keep those ground beans or already made powder/bar for some time, such bean oil aroma would go away.
7. fruit salad - see, remember I talked about making fruit salad in fresh orange juice. I am so happy to see my most favourite way of making fruit salad. Besides, they used more than 7-8 kinds of fresh fruits. Bravo! So how much do you think this lunch buffet is? HK$250(+10%)! What can I say? So that's why I already made another booking for a weekday lunch next week.

9. Of course, I took this photo after all the guests were gone. 10. the entrance.

11. the table. 12/13. the left building. the right one. Not sure which one is the serviced apt. I was told the monthly fee is around HK$300k.