Ritz at Home

We took up the generous offer from the team at Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong to check out their new home delivery menu. As much as I love cooking at home, it’s good for a change every now and then when someone did the work for me, and with their meal set said to be enough for 4, we asked two of our friends to join us at our place on a Friday evening, something we haven’t done in ages.

The food arrived right on time just as scheduled, and I immediately realized how generous the portion is. The set came with appetizers (salad and soup), main and sides plus dessert. It’s nicely packed in paper boxes and containers and still warm by the time it arrived – an impressive feat given the distance they had to travel to get here. But wanting my food piping hot like it came out from the kitchen, I did reheat the dishes and plated them nicely like they were cooked at home.

To start, it’s the mixed garden greens served with balsamic vinaigrette on the side – just as what one would expect but it’s nice and crisp. The lobster bisque was rich and flavorful – I served with one of the deep soup dish we got, and it’s up to almost the rim, just to show how generous the portion was. Would be even better if there were more bits of lobster meat in there but it was very enjoyable.

Main was certainly the highlight – it came with a choice and I picked the US Prime Ribeye. Came perfectly cooked and packed in an aluminum tray on top of the grilled vegetable sides – so all I need was to reheat in the 200C oven for 10 minutes, give it a rest and carve to serve. Man, that was tender and juicy – firm crust on the outside and pinkish meat inside, with black pepper jus served on the side. It came with a variety of sides too – grilled vegetables and portabella mushrooms, plus a bowl of black truffle mashed potatoes, with the unmistakable fragrance the moment I opened the box. Love the smooth texture – and the four of us barely finished half of the potatoes and sides, which became our leftover lunch for the next 2 days.

For dessert, we went with the blueberry cheesecake and it arrived in a fancy box in the form of a whole 6-inch cake. I wouldn’t expect anything less from one of the top hotel patisserie teams in town. Again, we could only manage half after all the savory dishes we had. With the beef as main course, I reached out to a Pinotage from our wine cabinet – been wanting South African wines lately and that’s not because April was supposedly South African Wine Month. Those naysayers about Pinotage not aging well should give this a serious sip from one of the top Pinotage producer in South Africa. Deep purple color, and loaded with ripe red fruits – almost jammy with a lots of plums and cherries – and ended with smooth tannins. And a bottle of Pink Moscato to finish up a nice evening in at the comfort of our own home.

(Meal was based on the Takeaway Menu available at the hotel for a limited time only)

When? April 24 2020
Where? Kitchen at 17A, but food was delivered from the kitchen of The Ritz Carlton Hong Kong
Menu Highlights? Grilled US Prime Ribeye with Side Vegetables
Drinks?
2008 Kanonkop Estate Pinotage, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2018 Stella Bella Pink Moscato, Margaret River, Australia
Web: www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/china/hong-kong