For part three of our Elite Dining Week coverage, we head to Japanese-French fusion restaurant Le Rêve (‘The Dream’) in the heart of Causeway Bay. Although it opened a year ago, diners have been slow to embrace its distinctive dishes.

At a recent media tasting to unveil the restaurant’s new fall menu, many of the tables were empty – and undeservedly so. While not everyone will love Le Rêve’s conceptual cuisine and interesting (if not unusual) flavour combinations, it’s the kind of food that starts a conversation. And as one of the featured restaurants for EDW 2017, it may finally be getting the attention it deserves – for better or worse.

The intrigue begins with the amuse-bouche, a sweet and creamy stracciatella di burrata (cheese!) presented in a glass, egg-shaped capsule. The raspberry gazpacho pudding pairs effortlessly with the burrata, offering a sweet taste of what’s to come.

Indeed, fruity flavours – some subtler than others – can be detected in most of the dishes on Le Rêve’s eight-course dinner menu (HK$1,150). The Japanese octopus is artfully plated and served alongside pomegranate jelly, abalone sauce and mayonnaise that has been blackened with squid ink. The snow crab is served in a warm, citrusy broth, and one of the main entrées – the 30-day dry-aged ‘master beef’ – is paired with cranberry mustard sauce.

The Sicily flying squid dish with coriander crumble and anchovy foam has been executed to perfection, and so has the cod filet. A coriander broth is poured over the flaky fish, served alongside a delightful beer meringue that melts on the tongue.

The venison, offered as alternative to the striploin, is perhaps the most divisive dish. This hunter’s cut is often disparaged for its gamey taste, but here it packs the tenderness and flavour of a nice, juicy steak. A Stornoway black pudding sauce and chewy dark chocolate ‘rock’ enrich the dish, but it all goes awry when spinach crumble is sprinkled into the mix. Both the texture (think matcha powder) and the flavour (in a word: overpowering) seem out of place. After one bite, the green stuff was relegated to the side of the plate.

However, a partial recovery is made with the arrival of dessert. Here, diners are treated to not one, but two sweet treats.  

The first is an inventive medley of disparate elements: hot flourless chocolate cake, thyme ice cream, pistachio crumble and turmeric sauce. Swap out any one of these ingredients and the dessert might well be a mess, but to the credit of the chef, they all pair impeccably.

The second dessert, however, makes it clear why the first one was needed. Taking a form over function approach, the dessert – dubbed ‘Ride On!”– is meant to be Instagrammed but not particularly enjoyed. A smattering of ingredients are plated to look like illicit drugs: a syringe filled with raspberry coulis, chocolatey buds, a spoon of jelly ‘pills’ and three lines of mystery powder (To pair with what? Who knows). The raspberry coulis is meant to be squirted directly into the mouth, but the plunger doesn’t plunge perfectly, making it awkward to operate and, frankly, a bit of a choking hazard. The dish is provocative, to be sure, but others might label it gimmicky.

While Le Rêve is certainly not the place for comfort food, daring diners looking for imaginative pairings might want to give it a try. If nothing else, it will challenge your perception of flavour profiles and proffer lots of food for thought.

Address: 10/F, ZING!, 38 Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay
Phone: 2866 1010
Hours: Mon-Sat 12pm-3am; Closed Sundays

Elite Dining Week reservations may be made via the DiningCity app and EDW website. Stay tuned for the final instalment of our EDW restaurant review series!

Text: Emily Petsko