Green Queen Foodie: Azure Restaurant Slash Bar Gets Its Veg On

Green Monday. If you haven’t heard of the vegetarian movement sweeping Hong Kong, where have you been? Stop hiding under that rock and get on the bandwagon…every restaurant in town is on board! And why not? Encouraging meat-free diets on Mondays helps the environment AND our health. Hong Kongers have always been discerning foodies but now an ecological and wellness approach to eating has taken off with fervor. From how to reduce our carbon footprint to supporting local producers to being mindful of what we put in our mouths, this trend ain’t going anywhere and a plethora of restaurants are listening. Azure Restaurant Slash Bar is one of them.

The restaurant itself is set on the 29^th and 30^th floor of Hotel LKF by Rhombus, and its interior design impresses with high ceilings and crazy sweeping 270° panoramic views of the city skyline, ready to rival that of any Peak views. Despite being famous as a late night stomping ground for clubbing and rooftop shenanigans, Azure regularly makes appearances on Hong Kong Best Restaurant lists. So when the opportunity to try their gourmet Green Monday fare presented itself, we jumped at the chance. 

We stuffed ourselves with the tasting menu that consists of five dishes, each available individually on their a la carte menu, not only on Mondays but every day of the week! Chef Joe wanted to create a fun and creative meatless Monday menu that counters any pre-conceived notion of boring vegetarian food and he more than succeeds. No stodgy bean stew anywhere in sight! Take the Carrot Madness, for example. It’s an innovative dish that is certain to WOW diners. It definitely had me reaching for my SLR (and iphone) to capture the dish emulating a perfect garden carrot, too pretty to be disturbed. The flavoured pastry dough using slow pressed organic carrot juice, baked in the shape of a carrot, could have been softer but the stuffing of silky ratatouille softened the blow. The ‘carrot’ sat on a bed of nutty, chocolate-flavored ‘soil’, an unusual mix of sweet and savory though surprisingly moorish. The accompanying cherry tomatoes are from an Australian organic farm, whilst the leafy hydroponic greens are from local eco-salad purveyors Farm Direct, personally sourced by Chef Joe himself.

 

Next came a dish that we weren’t shy about polishing off fast! The heady aroma of orzo lathered in a creamy wholesome sauce, generously covered in black truffle shavings capped with a crisp puff pastry was a whole new take on a veg’ pie- and it tasted as good as it looked and smelled! Crispy organic baked beetroot and pumpkin chips added colour while the tomatoes was warm, juicy and bursting with flavor. Three words – WE. WANT. MORE!

Perfectly al dente and piled high on our plate, the homemade linguini pasta in an organic lemon olive oil glaze with fresh organic cherry tomatoes and young asparagus piled high on my plate, finished off the delicious tasting at Azure, sending us home satiated and verging on food-coma high. Make a point of giving the Azure Green Monday menu a go- when it comes to gourmet vegetarian indulgence, they are the ideal choice!

The rest of Azure’s a-la-carte menu is carefully sourced with most ingredients hailing from Australia and Canada, where strict food quality and safety laws are practiced. Whilst Azure offers an a-la-carte menu, a semi-buffet is also on offer during the week.

As hunger and poverty is surprisingly prevalent in Hong Kong, Azure donates all its surplus food to Foodlink, a well know local non-profit hunger relief charity, which coordinates excess food from the hospitality industry and redistributes it to the city’s most needy. Along with Foodlink Foundation, Azure and its parent company Rhombus are part of a host of environmentally friendly and socially conscious initiatives such as:

• Origin Charity Fund: HK$1 and HK$5 is added to the dining bill and accommodation bill respectively then donated to the fund, providing financial support to aid the underprivileged in China, enabling the construction of a new school in Hunan.
• Soap Cycling: partially used soap from the hotel rooms is donated which is then sanitised, recycled and distributed to the less fortunate and underprivileged families in regions of Asia Pacific.
• Rhombus Hot Nourishing Meals Outreach Campaign: providing those in need with warm food, helped by customers participating in their weekday Happy Hour HKD 100 for four drinks and free-flow canapes from 5PM to 8PM.

Make a point of giving the Azure Green Monday menu a go- when it comes to gourmet vegetarian indulgence, they are the ideal (and ecologically conscious) choice!

Azure Restaurant Slash Bar: 29/F & 30/F, Hotel LKF, 33 Wyndham Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong. Open daily  from 7am until late. For reservations, call +852  3518 9330.