Dine: Bistro1979 at Hotel ICON (Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong)

I dined at Bistro1979 at the Hotel ICON as part of a corporate event. Bistro 1979 is a student operated restaurant of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). I was told that only guests of the hotel, as well as members of the PolyU community, may dine at Bistro1979, but the website indicates that anyone may make a reservation when the service is available, as with any restaurant affiliated with a culinary school. I highly recommend dining there if you get the opportunity.

We were served a fragrant slice of warm pumpkin bread with butter to start, followed by a tasty, if not particularly memorable, bowl of cream of cauliflower and celeriac soup. The soup apparently came with a sweet corn purée and buttered popcorn, but obviously I didn't really notice it. If I wasn't trying to control my intake of bread, I would've tried to filch another slice of the pumpkin bread - it was that good.

Grilled seabass fillet with beetroot purée, honey beans, brussels sprouts, and blue cheese crumble

I found the fish excellent - the fish itself I thought was almost Chinese in flavor, although all of the accompaniments were Western. While I didn't care for the blue cheese crumble, which was the dollop of sauce pictured on top of the fish, that was easily shoved to the side. What was called "honey beans" on the menu is what I'd call sugar snap peas. The vegetables were great.

Dulce de leche with pan-fried vanilla egg brioche and sweet potato sorbet

Dessert was my favorite - I'm not sure what was the dulce de leche part (perhaps the sauce on the sorbet?) but the brioche, in combination with the berries, fruit coulis, and sorbet, was awesome. This was the most memorable dish I had while I was in Hong Kong.