Delightful French luncheon buffet

The foie gras trio. [Photo: China Daily]

Roasted Rib Eye of Beef with Creamy Blue Cheese Sauce. [Photo: China Daily]

The weather is getting cooler in Hong Kong and it's now quite pleasant to walk around outside even though wearing a jacket. 'Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry, and 'tis also time to enjoy a glass or two of the Beaujolais Nouveau with a good French meal.

Some may recall the charming Chez Patrick restaurant at its former location on Peel Street in Central. The restaurant is now located in Wan Chai in the Garden East building on Queen's Road East and my dining companion and I were happy to be dining there on a lovely, sunny winter's day.

The restaurant is located on the second floor of the building and is blessed with lots of windows providing good natural light. The dining area is not large, but one doesn't feel cramped either. Founder and executive chef, Patrick Goubier, was on hand to welcome guests and to help them make their selections.

At lunchtime, a buffet is laid out on the bar with a varied and beautiful selection of small bites, salads and desserts. We were overwhelmed with the number of choices for lunch. There is the lunch buffet for HK$168 ($22), or HK$268 with a main course (includes the dessert buffet); the executive menu with two-courses for HK$250, or three-courses for HK$320; and a special Beaujolais Nouveau menu with two-courses for HK$240, or three-courses for HK$310. All menus include coffee or tea.

A few of the highlights from the buffet include the pork snout salad (Lyon), the braised beef with black truffle and Tete de Moine cheese, nachos (with homemade potato chips rather than tortilla chips), fresh goat's cheese in a glass, and egg mimosa. A surprise offering was the bitter melon salad which is just the right way to include this vegetable as part of a French meal. There was also a fresh and crunchy Vietnamese salad made with slivers of assorted fresh veggies tossed in a tangy, citrus and slightly spicy fish sauce, "because my wife is from Vietnam", says Patrick, who hails from Lyon.

On the menu, it states clearly that the kitchen is happy to accommodate any dietary restrictions. Perfect. I had recently learned that I needed to restrict my diet for no less than eight weeks and Patrick was happy to listen to my lengthy list of "cannots". In the end, I sampled a few items from the buffet table (the wheat-, corn-, spinach-, and red wine-free ones) and then chose a starter and main from the Beaujolais Nouveau menu.

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My dining companion selected one of the signature starters from the executive lunch menu, the foie gras trio (additional HK$50). Patrick says that he cannot "get rid" of it from the menu, but honestly, why would he?

This dish uses foie gras to produce three very different experiences. There is one that looks like a cream puff filled with what can only be called foie gras ice cream drizzled with a chocolate sauce. Another is a puff filled with pan-seared foie gras covered in the same sauce. Then there's the foie gras terrine with layers of fig paste. Each one was a different temperature and each one had its own interpretation of foie gras.

My own starter, Lyonnais chicken liver cake with wild mushroom sauce, which could be described as a warm savory mousse, was good but I think I will have the trio next time.

Our mains were pan-seared coalfish fillet with white wine sauce and chives for my companion, and roasted rib eye of beef with creamy blue cheese sauce for me. The beef was cooked to medium rare, as requested, and was a generous sized portion. I love blue cheese, so I enjoyed the sauce with my meat, but for some diners, this sauce may be a bit overpowering. My companion enjoyed her fish, but said it was a bit anti-climactic after the foie gras trio.

We declined dessert, but if I could have eaten more, I would have ordered the cheese from the Beaujolais Nouveau menu, which was warm Saint Marcellin tartine with quince paste. Sounds delicious.

If you go

Chez Patrick 2/F Garden East, 222 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. 852-2542-1401.

Cost per head: HK$168-370 (plus 10 percent service charge) for lunch.

Recommended: Lunch Buffet especially the Vietnamese Salad, Pork Snout Salad, Braised Beef with Black Truffle and Tete de Moine, and the Fresh Goat's Cheese; Foie Gras Trio, Roasted Rib Eye of Beef.