MONO

There is a high-end French restaurant called MONO on On Lan Street in Central. The environment of this restaurant is really great, and knowing that it is our anniversary, they decorated it very carefully, which is very thoughtful.

“Delicious, fresh, and full of flavor!”“Perfectly cooked and worth every bite.”“Great taste, generous portions, and good value.”“Loved the presentation as much as the flavor.”“Simple, tasty, and satisfying.

🇭🇰One-Michelin-starred 🌟 restaurant 🍴South American Fusion cuisine Mono is Asia's first Latin American restaurant. Owner and chef Ricardo Chaneton is from 🇻🇪, so many of the ingredients and sauces on the menu are made from Latin American produce that don't even have Chinese names. 🌽 There are two lunch options. This time, I chose Journey, and the experience was fantastic. 👍🏻 First, the ingredients were very South American, with some unique fruits and vegetables 🍅 that I'd never seen before, especially potatoes. 👍🏻 Second, the small restaurant's bar was very casual and relaxed. Not only do they have amazing juices, 🧃 but even the taco sauce is made fresh. 👍🏻 👀Most memorable dishes: ✔️Grilled Beef Tongue Taco: I personally think it was the best of the bunch. The grilled tongue was so tender and tasted like steak, and the corn taco was delicious. ✔️🐦Highly acclaimed👍🏻, the texture is incredibly tender. I recommend medium rare, but if you don't mind, give it a try! It's also served with the same quinoa porridge with the 🐦 ingredient, adding an extra layer of flavor. ✔️Tonight was also unforgettable with MONO's signature black sesame yeast 🥖. The 🥖 yeast is fermented for 1960 days before being baked in the oven. Paired with the fragrant 🫒 olive oil from Barcelona, ​​it has a soft yet chewy texture that leaves a lasting impression. 🥂MONO 📍Address: 5/F, 18 On Lan Street, Central #HongKongMichelin #HongKongDatingRestaurant #HongKongBirthdayRestaurant #HongKongTravel #HongKongCheck-InRestaurant #Asia50BestRestaurants #CentralExplore #LatinAmericanRestaurants #HongKongWeekend #AtmosphereRestaurant

Mono, Hong Kong's premier South American restaurant, has long been a home for Latin Americans in the Greater Bay Area. My palate, adaptable to both white and yellow cuisines and enduring in various countries, has found a warm home here. Compared to the world-class Latin American restaurants I've eaten at in Peru, Hong Kong's average salt content is lower, making it more suitable for Asian palates (given its large South American population). I've met Chef Ricardo several times, but this was my first time truly getting to know him. Chef Hideaki Sato of Misan Ta vie in Hong Kong happened to be sitting next to me, and his remark about Ricardo's hard work moved me deeply: "Ricardo is my chocolate mentor. He buys cacao from South America and ferments, dries, and grinds it all in the kitchen." Cacao, a brown food, is to South Americans what soy sauce is to Southerners. Imagine a Southern chef making their own soy sauce. The chef's "Fabien D'eneour" Plounéour-Menez Pigeon is a timeless combination of aristocratic lady and the girl next door. The former, the main course of the set, boasts an unparalleled delicateness of the pigeon breast (compared to some restaurants I've tried). The Moroccan pigeon broiled "Merguez," made from seemingly recycled pigeon legs and paired with the chef's childhood favorite wasakaka sauce, instantly transported me from the comfort of a lavish table to a street corner. It's a perfect balance of importance. I can always order it again. This time, I fell in love with the chef's white sesame sourdough dipped in Ecuadorian deep-sea lobster cocoa sauce. Several Asian influencers around me simultaneously exclaimed, "It tastes like heaven." The mutual admiration of genius sometimes transcends conventional norms.

Mashua, found only in the high-altitude Andes Mountains, fresh cocoa from Ecuador, bread fermented with 1,567-day-old yeast, and most Latin American plants without Chinese names—Junjun's reservation at Hong Kong's one-Michelin-starred Latin American restaurant, MONO, was truly eye-opening. Before the meal began, I was given a botanical lesson. Then, the bread, fermented with yeast that had been nurtured in the kitchen for four years, was served. Latin American cuisine is nothing to be underestimated, occupying four of the top 10 spots on the World's 50 Best list. The confited Spanish red shrimp were a stunning debut, seasoned with garlic chives, herbs, and citrus. A corn salad filled the base, infused with Causa, a traditional Peruvian potato pie, and seasoned with traditional Peruvian yellow chilies. A white panna cotta was layered in the center, adorned with Amazonian blue algae, quinoa, and caviar. Topped with the world's finest white truffles, shaved from Piedmont, Italy, and dipped in a soulful sauce of cocoa, lobster, and chicken, this red shrimp and white truffle dish had so much to offer. The garnish consisted of three fresh Ecuadorian cacao pods. It was my first time tasting freshly opened cacao pods, and the texture was similar to mangosteen. Fermented and roasted cacao skins were added to tea for a refreshing and smooth taste. Squid rolled into pasta, mixed with Argentinian blood sausage and sprinkled with chimichurri, an Argentinian barbecue sauce, had a lingering herbaceous aroma. Celery crisps added a layer of depth, and ugli orange gel added a fishy, ​​greasy touch. Crush and mix everything together. Tacos, a traditional Mexican delicacy, feature a green wrapper infused with cilantro, wrapped with duck liver, corn, and onions. The essence of the dish comes from the rich, textured mole sauce, Mexico's national dish, which is made with chili peppers, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and chili peppers. The soup, seasoned with chicken and duck, and topped with cilantro and chili oil, adds a subtle spicy kick. A mouthful of taco, a sip of soup. It was my first time trying the Latin American version of shichichi. Drizzled with Peruvian nasturtium oil, it added a hint of pepper, bringing out the shichichi's deeper aroma. Slices of "potatoes," a spicy root unique to the Andes, were placed atop a slightly sweet potato gnocchi, accompanied by a coconut and rovan sauce. The perfect balance of Latin American milky and sweet and spicy flavors made the shichichi exceptionally tender. The duck was pan-seared and grilled, infusing it with a lightly smoky flavor. The vibrant green chimichurri sauce, garnished with triffid South American leaves, served as a complementary counterpoint to the duck's richness and dryness. The accompanying risotto, a blend of the confit duck legs, liver, and heart, was infused with a Venezuelan green and red pepper sauce and also garnished with chimichurri, complementing the duck. A refreshing dessert made with açaí berries, a fruit native to South American palm trees, was topped with a blood orange foam and infused with spices like cardamom and cinnamon. This white dessert transported me from scorching Hong Kong to the snow-capped Andes. It simulates a snowfall in the Andes, with a base of white chocolate mousse, a center mousse made with tonka beans from Brazil, Peru, and the Amazon, and a topped with a firm coconut meringue. The dessert flows effortlessly, ingeniously crafted, and brings a rich Latin American ambiance. #FoodieTales #FoodieOnTheRoad #Let'sExploreTheRestaurants #HongKongMichelin #WinterTravelGuide