L'Atelier Vivanda & Nanxiang Steamed Bun

 I feel slightly guilty that after weeks of declining friends' dinners in order to get to bed by 9pm and gestate for the final time, the minute I get an invitation from Foodie & Food Panda to taste signature dishes in 3 Michelin guide restaurants one evening, a new found energy propels me off the sofa. I therefore donned my (not so little) black dress and kicked off the evening at Nanxiang Steamed Bun restaurant in Causeway Bay, awarded a "Bib Gourmand" (exceptional good food at moderate prices) by this year's Michelin inspectors, in particular for these beauteous xiao long bao pictured above...

Following this was the slow braised pork knuckle and a definite must to order. The meat fell away the bone and melted in the mouth given the long period of slow cooking. The sauce was rich and slightly sweet.

Nan Xian

489 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

3690  2088

We then moved onto L'Atelier Vivant, the slightly more casual sister and neighbour to  L'Akrame, the latter of whom was awarded 2 Michelin stars this year. We tried their signature beef, a piece of ribeye which  is air dried for 50 days then thinly sliced.

This is perfectly palatable alone but they choose to serve it with a small dipping bowl of their peppery house olive oil made from Italian olives. However the real show stopper in my opinion were these pommes noisettes. No ordinary fried  potato ball, these have a light pastry exterior, a little like choux, and should really be described as potato profiteroles. There were certainly no leftovers of these.  We finished on some madeleines, some of the lightest and fluffiest I have tasted. The rest of the menu is concise but "100% French" and I look forward to trying the burger and other potato variations in the near future.

L'Atelier Vivanda

9A Ship St, Causeway Bay

2109 1768

I would love to give you a report on the third final restaurant but we started to run a little late and despite the promise of HK's finest abalone at Fu Ho,  my carriage turned into a pumpkin a little before we arrived...