[Hong Kong] 22 Ships

22 Ships | www.22ships.hk | OpenRice
Address: 灣仔船街22號地下 – 22 Ship Street (Wan Chai District)
Date visited: 2013.05
Total bill: HKD$550 (no service charge) + additional tip for two people
Will return: Definitely

22 Ships is a Spanish tapas restaurant named after its location at 22 Ship Street and is owned by Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton and hotelier and restaurateur Yenn Wong. The dishes tasted expectantly good and there’s not much more I can ask for when dishes taste exactly how I think they should taste.

This place filled up quickly during lunch and I chatted with a very friendly hostess while I waited for my friend and fellow Michigan alumni living in HK to arrive. Prime seats eventually opened up at the bar, which gave us a spectacular view of the chefs preparing all the food. The chef stationed in front of us hails from New Zealand and was a very charming guy who humored our instagramming antics. This was a good lunch.

Piri-piri Prawns (HKD$138)
Recommend: yes
This was the daily special. The prawns very succulent and the spices in the sauce gave them a bit of a kick. Very nicely done.

Baked bone marrow, onion jam and sourdough, gentleman’s relish butter (HKD$68)
Recommend: yes
I love bone marrow so this was a no brainer. The bone marrow, onion jam, and gentleman’s relish butter went so well together on the toast. The toast was a bit hard and I would have preferred softer bread but it is standard practice to give hard toast for dishes like this.

Ibérco pork and foie gras burger, avocado and kimchi (HKD$158)
Recommend: yes
The flavor of the patty was really good although my friend and I both said we couldn’t distinctly taste the foie gras. I would have liked it to be an individual piece of pork patty and an individual piece of foie gras instead of a foie gras infused pork patty but this was still very delicious.

“PBJ” – peanut butter ice cream, Pedro Ximenez infused grapes, caramelized banana (HKD$78)
Recommend: no
This was deconstructed peanut butter and jelly. I normally don’t like peanut butter but I was willing to try this. Nope, didn’t work out. I didn’t like any of the elements in this dish alone or combined. I thought the fruit was an especially odd addition.

Texturas de Chocolate (HKD$78)
Recommend: yes
I really liked this presentation. The mushroom looking thing is actually a meringue on top of a scoop of ice cream. The dirt looking things are chocolate in various textures. The taste of the elements was good but basic (nothing surprising).

Two dishes I did not try but looked very good as I watched the chef prepare them were the pressed pork belly and duck empanada with foie gras (which was a visible piece as opposed to the non-existent foie gras infused in the burger patty).

Chef putting together pressed pork belly, Chinese greens, quince aioli

Chef putting together spiced duck empanada, foie gras and fried caper onion jam

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