Brunch @ Le Salon Restaurant et Croissanterie

C visited Le Salon Restaurant et Croissanterie, a newly opened French restaurant in Hysan Place, with family for Mother's Day.  While it is known for its unique flavoured croissant, it's perhaps even more famous for its chef Mr. Tony Cheng, and for being the sister restaurant of another renowned fine dining restaurant the Drawing Room. 

We were seated near the window with a wonderful view of Causeway Bay. The chairs are comfortable and quite fancy too. Le Salon means "the living room" in French so it had a more casual atmosphere but the black and white colour scheme imparted a rather modern and clean charm to the restaurant; for a moment C thought they were eating in some five-star hotel. 

The restaurant was not too packed when we arrived, so we got to enjoy the peace and the attentive service from the staffs who were mostly fluent-English speaking and tall young men. 

(1) C found the Sauteed Prawn with French Chanterelle Mushroom, Spinach & Topped with Bayonne Ham a pleasant surprise. C was not a big fan of prawn, but the sauce was definitely delicious and felt like a perfect complement to the fresh prawn. 

(2) Mom ordered a French Chicken Salad with passion fruit and mustard dressing, and it was a good choice for a starter. The citrous taste of passion fruit mixed with the spicy mustard dressing really calmed your stomach and prepared it for what to come. The chicken was not too dry and still warm and tender.

(3) C's personal favourite was the Cream Mushroom Soup. The cream was not too thick and it was a great alternative if you like soup.

(4) Mom's Seafood Ravioli stuffed with Tiger Prawn, Scallop, Fish Fillet, Creamy Porcini & served with Spinach Puree turned out to be a fine, light choice for the ladies. It was not too heavy, but each ravioli was stuffed with rich flavours that melted adoringly in your mouth. The spinach puree was well done for adding extra flavours to the raviolis.

(5) Dad's Pan-fried Tenderloin and Braised Short Rib was decent. The short rib was amazingly braised with an alluring fatty taste which was better than most places.  

(6) The Pan-fried Leather Jacket Fish Fillet was both exciting and surprising- it was super crusty on the outside, but the middle was warm and tender. To dip it in the white sauce was sheer deliciousness.

(7) The French Choux Pastry with Praline Cream was rather disappointing. Although it was visually appealing, it was just to creamy and tasted so-so.

(8) I liked the Lemon Tart with Lemon & Lime Sorbet a lot. The warm tart with the chilly lime sorbet just worked superbly well together.

(9) I also ordered a Tiramisu Croissant just to see what the hype was about. The taste was unique but the result was very average and, sorry to say, I did not understand how people would line up for it.

VERDICT

Ambience: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Service: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Food: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Overall remarks: Le Salon Restaurant et Croissanterie is an acceptable place for French cuisine if you know what to expect. The food and ambience are above average, the view was impressive and the price was very reasonable for what it had to offer. The lunch was very enjoyable with C's family. 

INFO

Le Salon Restaurant et Croissanterie (website)

Shop 1302, 13/F, Hysan Place, 500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

Lunch Set $188 for main and dessert per person, $238 for starter and main per person, $268 for all 3 courses per person