Le Fauchon

45 Elgin St, SoHo, Central
Visited 4th November
We had a friend visiting for the night and after the obligatory glimpse at the pretty flashing lights and star ferry ride across the harbour we dragged him up to SoHo for a meal. We decided on Le Fauchon a French restaurant that always seems to pull the punters. Its Elgin St entrance is smothered in tacky fake red bricks, but don't let this put you off; inside it's a stylish and slick with white tablecloths, candles and all the clutter expected of a 'romantic' French restaurant.

Le Fauchon offers good value with three courses for $198 and this suckered me into ordering both an entree and dessert. I started with a grilled calamari and couscous salad, which though good was a bit basic; the few grains of couscous added only minimal interest to the boring mixed salad leaves that every restaurant in Hong Kong stupidly insists on using for every salad. My fillet steak with green peppercorn sauce was delicious. The meat was well cooked and flavoursome and the sauce extremely tasty. Naomi loved her entree of French onion soup, though
she found her main of lamb chops fatty and a little tough. All artistic stops were pulled out for the slick looking desserts. My blueberry soufflé was good and Naomi adored her molten chocolate cake. To accompany this we ordered dangerously and shared a surprisingly good bottle of South African Cabernet.

I like Le Fauchon; the food's good and great value when you get three courses for $198. In reflection the service was actually pretty poor; they initially brought Naomi the wrong soup, we waited for ages for our mains and they forgot our friend's dessert, yet surprisingly none of this bothered us. The staff were pleasant, the atmosphere relaxed and we were pretty happy chatting while they bungled our orders; mistakes like this shouldn't happen though and Le Fauchon needs to sort out it's ordering as such sloppy service will surely turn people off. If you're after a pleasant French meal - and don't mind waiting - Le Fauchon is definitely worth a look.