dbHK eats: The Drawing Room

dbHK goes off in search of fine Italian dining and discovers The Drawing Room which manages to combine excellent contemporary dishes with a fun side helping of old-fashioned doodling.

The concept: The Drawing Room’s name alone speaks to the aspirational side of ourselves who secretly would like an actual drawing room where we ‘entertain’. Occupying the site of former Spanish restaurant, Vasco, The Drawing Room (TDR) opened earlier this year in trendy PMQ with Vasco ex-chef, the gentle-mannered Gabriele Milani at the helm.  Offering contemporary Italian cuisine, the menu is divided into two tasting menus: Classic and Seasonal at HK$798 for four courses and HK$998 for five where the latter champions Milani’s homemade pasta dishes.

The décor: Cosily divided into individual dining booths and a private dining room, the Drawing Room exudes elegance. However the sumptuous interior and dazzling metal and glass fixtures were tempered with a carton of coloured pencils and a pad of drawing paper placed at every setting which transformed the Drawing Room into a place where you can actually do some drawing. (Caution: take someone with a sense of humour who won’t find this childish).

Time to unleash one’s creative side

Anyway, it was a fun, if gimmicky way to start the evening over a glass of Gavi Prima Volta Prosecco delivered to us as soon as we sat down. Psychologists say that a lot can be said from one’s doodles, but mine was pretty straightforward: I drew a tropical beach while my friend drew a bunch of Smurfs. (Perhaps the less said about that the better).

The food: We opted for the Classic tasting menu and both plumped for the scampi langoustine tartare with Amalfi lemon cream and cucumber mayonnaise. The langoustine held up well to being ‘tartare’d’ and the lemon cream and cucumber mayonnaise added textural fun, but I felt there needed to be a good dash of extra citrus – in the form of lime perhaps – in order to liven things up.

The next course: cozze mussels with fregola and green shellfish broth (cozze means mussels in Italian but maybe TDR adds it to dispel any confusion among the non-Italian monoglots among us). The mussels were excellent, fresh and meaty with the fregola pasta adding a much needed bite, and Milani had clearly carried over from Vasco his love of dowsing seafood in green liquid with an umami hit of seafood broth (before in Vasco there was an actual plankton menu).

The Italian red prawn linguine with fresh tomato and chilli was exactly that, which is all it needed to be, because the fewer ingredients used in this the better in my opinion. Meanwhile, my friend’s buffalo mozzarella ravioli with organic lamb ragout and smoked cheese was a rich, hearty affair which I imagine will become TDR’s standout dish come autumn when Hong Kong’s temperatures ‘plunge’ to 18C.

Instead of the two meat options – chargrilled pigeon or roasted Black Angus tenderloin provided on the Classic menu – we switched over to the Seasonal menu to try Milani’s signature roast veal rack with a basil crust, roasted baby carrots and black garlic. It’s meant for two people but I think four could have shared it equally well as we couldn’t finish it although it was wonderfully tender.

Dessert was the no-nonsense cheese option which to our delight, arrived wheeled out on a trolley so we could spend whole minutes with our noses practically pressed against the glass, asking what each cheese was numerous times to our ever-patient waiter.

The langoustine tartare

Drinks: A lively mix of Italian beauties and French gems with a good by-the-glass selection which in Hong Kong is always a pleasing sign because it shows the staff listen to what customers actually want (very few local Hong Kong diners actually power their way through whole bottles).

Aside from the excellent Prosecco, we tried the zesty, mineral Toc Bas Isonzo from Fruili which was a hit with the seafood starters and then the 2013 Costera Argiolas from Sardinia made with Cannonau (Grenache). Dark, rich and smoky, it was delicious – a little overpowering for our delicate veal perhaps – but a delight to drink in its own right and spot on with the cheese.

Verdict: Definitely somewhere to go when one is madly trying to impress (either in business, romantically or in an ingratiatingly social kind of way) because TDR is fairly painful on the wallet but the majority of dishes at least stand up to the price. Best reserved for visiting relatives, business clinchers or for when one is feeling lavishly generous.

The Drawing Room, 7/F Block B, PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central; 2156 0888