Roganic Shop 8, UG/F, Sino Plaza, 255 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay 2817 8383 | organic.com.hk

Roganic is the brain child of British celebrity chef Simon Rogan, and the Causeway Bay restaurant is the second with this title to open. Its older Michelinstarred sibling is in the UK (London), along with L’Enclume, the renowned chef’s two-Michelin-star restaurant in the Lakes District.

That link back to the UK is important because Rogan is a known locavore, and the Hong Kong restaurant has a very tangible link to this in the form of a vertical garden. The garden allows produce to be grown on site but managed via new technologies by the same team that manages Simon’s farms in the UK. Roganic is clearly a very cool experience in more ways than one!

You enter from the intensity of Causeway Bay into the peace of a space peppered with green potted plants and wooden detail. It’s pretty, but the wow factor is delivered through the food. To place our experience into context, this is the first and only time I’ve seen my husband switch plates and finish my food in a fine-dining environment. Normally, he has very nice manners, but the cheese ice cream, an additional course we were served on top of the ten-course Roganic Long Taster Menu (HK$980), was too tempting.

As the name suggests, this is a long meal, with plenty of peaks (and sometimes it’s so good you’ll be compelled to steal your partner’s food). We started with the pea, cod roe and caviar appetiser, one of the highlights of the whole meal for me; the light and “proper” fresh peas with a pop of cod roe in a crispy cradle were just heavenly. A later high point came in the form of a cube of truffled bread-andbutter pudding, while a special mention should also be made of the tender serving of codfish with broccoli and roast bone. The soda bread with cultured butter was another pure delight; the butter used in the dish is handmade by another UK chef and flown in to Hong Kong.

We transitioned to dessert through the seductive cheese ice cream. The dessert courses consisted of a medley of subtle earl grey and beetroot ice cream, then a dish of bittersweet stout, molasses and burnt milk, and finally two cakes – a cherry cake and a light-as-air doughnut. It was a sweet ending to an epic meal.

Roganic is an impressive and wellthought-out experience, executed by a team that timed the courses perfectly with a side-serve of darkly humoured wit.