Cocotte

Located on the pedestrian-only Shin Hing Street in Sheung Wan (near the soon-to-open Aberdeen Street Social (link) and Police Married Quarters), Cocotte’s black-framed windows, oak flooring and eclectic choice of five lavish wallpapers, courtesy of design firm Candace Campos, lend a ton of charm to the restaurant. The chairs, covered in tweeds, cottons and velvets, are notably comfortable and suit the Parisian ambience of the eatery. A banquette lines one wall of the restaurant, which is fitted with beautiful brass sconces, and the bar sits towards the back of the venue, complete with dark marble countertops and green velvet barstools. Overall, the restaurant flawlessly evokes a modern French feel and is a quaint setting for the delicious food.

Chef Patrick Dang runs the kitchen in this recently opened restaurant and whips up rustic, hearty French dishes with a bit of flair. We decided upon the sharing menu for dinner to get a real taste of everything that Cocotte had to offer. Most of the dishes were executed and seasoned with great care and attention. We began with a caprese salad “Cocotte” style, which arrived with a generous hunk of burrata mozzarella, sweet heirloom tomatoes, strawberries and a tangy aged balsamic. The dish was made different with the unusually pleasant addition of strawberries and the mozzarella was fresh and milky. We also had the steak tartare with truffle ‘egg yolk’ and rustic sourdough croute. It came nicely presented and the meat was lean, but the truffle ‘egg yolk’ atop the steak turned out to be just a quail’s egg and the truffle sauce came separately in a small jar. We recommend mixing all the components on the plate together for each bite, as otherwise the steak was a bit dry and bland. The highlight of the meal was the day boat Dover sole, which came pan-fried with lemon, capers and parsley and was deboned tableside. The meat of the fish was soft, moist and tender. The capers may have been a bit overpowering for the dish if it wasn’t for the lemon we squeezed over the top of the fish. For dessert, we were given the Valrhona chocolate with fresh raspberries and raspberry coulis paired with crème fraîche. The cake was quite brownie-like in texture, and had a quite a fudgy chocolate taste. It paired well with the raspberries, but would have been better off with a dollop of whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream rather than the crème fraîche. The food proved to be hearty and rustic just as the name of the restaurant suggests, but was a bit inconsistent with seasoning. 

The wine list at Cocotte is rather extraordinary for such a small restaurant and one can tell that prodigious attention has been paid to curating such a strong range of wine. Not only are there a variety of reds, whites to rosés and champagnes, but also the geographic choice is rather daunting. Many of the wines hail from France, but others on the list include origins of Spain, South America, Australia and California. The pricing also leaves you with quite the amount of choices, with glasses priced at around HK$80 and up, and bottles ranging anywhere from HK$400 to HK$2,000. We decided on a few glasses the Roux Père & Fils Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits Burgundy from France. The wine was light, fruity and rather exceptional when paired with our choice of food.

Service at the restaurant was pretty outstanding as servers were not intrusive, but were always polite and willing. They were well versed on what was available and what each item on the menu was, and they were able to recommend some of their favoured dishes. All dishes were served with great care and explanation and arrived at our table in a timely manner. The service was a real highlight to this well-oiled machine of a restaurant.

A very filling meal for two including a few glasses of wine comes to around HK$1,600. For true Parisian ambience with exquisitely presented French cooking, look no further than Cocotte.