I felt like it's the kind of home I would love to have when I walked in to this new restaurant called Heimat on top of Lan Kwai Fong. With the name Heimat meaning "homeland" in German, I guess that means the designer did a good job in integrating the homestyle concept into its decor (well done, JJ).
The restaurant is the "baby" Chef Peter Find conceived since leaving his post in Ritz Carlton Hong Kong about a year ago, with focus on bringing the more refined side of the cuisine from his home country Germany to this city. Walking by the open kitchen and the bar area was the dining room completed with a contemporary design with a nice combination of wood and brass tones and the wall painted in blue, then there's a spacious private room at the back with one long table.
A 6-course tasting menu was offered in the evening, an attempt by Chef Peter to bring us to a road trip across Germany with regional cooking style featured in each of the dishes combined with chef's unique interpretation. We began our dinner with the mini pretzels served on a "tree" along with some freshly baked bread, all made in-house with sourdough.
The first course was inspired by the traditional boiled potato and egg dish, but of course, given a facelift and upgrade, with slices of poached potatoes, soft poached egg (in 58C sous vide) with chunks of Britanny lobster and finished with a creamy sauce prepared with seven different herbs and a hint of acidity. Reckon that made perfect breakfast dish or in this case, a perfect way to start our dinner with.
I love the simple plating of the green pea soup, with green peas, pea shoot and slices of smoked ocean trout served in a deep dish with the silky green soup poured in at the table. The texture was great, rich and smooth with no cream added, as Chef Peter explained. So it's all the flavor coming from the seasonal peas but somehow without the rough grassy taste. The smoked fish, done locally, added to the mineral touch. I also enjoyed the extra course of potato soup with sausage - love that smooth texture and hearty flavor.
"German Si Ji Tau" was what chef described his next course of Konigsberger Klopse as, referring to the classic Shanghainese "Si Ji Tau" (Lion's Head) dish. In a way both did share some resemblances, with the "fluffy" meatballs (described as pork dumplings on the menu) made with local heritage black pigs served in the center of the plate with a creamy sauce mixed with capers and gherkins. Similarly, one could draw comparison of the next course of cabbage rolls with something of Asian influence, this time with the pork served in a steamed cabbage roll and a clear consomme-like sauce. I like the hearty flavor.
Seabass was another dish served with cabbage on the side, with the fish seared skin-down for the crispiness, along with the cabbage rolls on the side and a goulash sauce, made with a reduction of scores of vegetables giving it a complex flavor. Chef Peter also sent us a off-menu dish to try before moving to the main course. The blutwurst (German blood pudding) was served in thick slices with apple done 3 ways - raw, sauteed and mousse - plus the creamy potato puree, balancing the rich rustic flavor with something sweet and tart.
The main course was beef served with spaetzle on the side. The beef came from German breed raised in a ranch in California with marbled texture and rich meaty flavor. I enjoyed the onions prepared in 3 different ways - sauteed, fried and mousse - with the subtle but complementary sweet caramelized onion flavor. Served on a separate bowl was the classic spaetzle with good eggy taste and a bouncy texture.
Not black forest cake for dessert, but rather it's a refined dish of jammy pears served with a quenelle of vanilla icecream and warm riesling sabayon poured in table-side. And then we were offered a choice of classic gummy bears as petit fours with many interesting flavor, presented in a fancy cart "guarded" by a Steiff plush bear. One I found the most interesting was the red hot chili pepper one - not the more usual candy flavor but with a nice salivating kick.
The wine menu included many off the beaten track choices - their Sommelier Wallace often surprised us with his choices of bottles in his previous restaurants and no exception this time. This evening we went from a German sparkling wine to a few others and finished with an off-dry riesling (and even with a local sparkling genmaicha and a bottle of mountain apple juice in between too). They all went very well with the dishes.
(Meal was by invitation)
When? July 4 2022
Where? Haimet by Peter Find, 8/F LKF Tower, 33 Wyndham St, Central
Menu Highlights? Frankfurter Grune Sauce - Brittany Lobster, 58 degree egg, Frankfurter Seven Herbs Sauce
Drinks?
2015 Sekthaus Raumland Cuvee Katharina Brut Nature, Rheinhessen Germany
2019 Loimer Gruner Veltliner, Kamptal Austria
2017 Weingut Rudolf Furst Burgstadter Hundsruck Spatburgunder Grosses Gewachs, Franken Germany
2017 Karl Erbes Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese, Mosel Germany
Web: heimat.hk
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