A part of eclectic The Mira Hong Kong – a design-driven hotel and a dining hot spot in Tsim Sha Tsui – WHISK restaurant’s chef Oliver Li has just revamped his acclaimed eight-course dinner tasting menu to celebrate premium ingredients prepared according to an artful form of Japanese haute cuisine. Ideal for corporate entertaining, WHISK serves innovative Western cuisine infused with the highest pedigree, seasonal ingredients primarily from Japan.

Curated by chef Oliver Li, original dishes are prepared daily in highly limited quantities and cooked to order with the utmost respect for the produce. All fish, delivered live or chilled, never frozen, is prepared using the highly-regarded ikejime technique to ensure superior quality of taste while a glossy cabinet at WHISK’s entrance proudly displays top quality beef dry-aged in-house for up to 90 days.

The latest seasonal menu by chef Oliver Li, featuring Enshui Murasaki sea urchin, gentle eel, tender duck, Okinawa’s agu pork, and the delicate meat of Queensland spanner crab, reveals some of the most sought-after ingredients hand-picked to create a symphony of flavours that progresses with every small plate.

 Thoughtfully created to pair flawlessly with the Wine Spectator-awarded wine list, the menu opens with visual eye-candy in a form of chef Oliver’s interpretation of uni, a pure expression of umami. Bright orange pockets of iodine-rich sea urchin served in its spiky shell are submerged under lustrous lobster jelly and topped with an elegantly sculpted dollop of French farmed caviar with a touch of gold.

Among the highlights of the new menu is flaky, melt-in-your-mouth Amadai fish, which Japanese chefs love to serve as tempura dish, sans batter, to show off the colour and crispy golden skin; and highly sought-after Miyazaki Wagyu beef from the farm of Mr Ozaki, which is available in just a handful of restaurants in Hong Kong.

Beautifully marbled A4 grade Miyazaki Wagyu beef from Mr Ozaki’s farm is fed on a mix of grass and grains for up to 36 months when the meat reaches sublime mature flavour with distinctive texture and sweetness without being overwhelming. Served with burnt onion puree, charred shishito, bamboo shoot and decorated with a single dill flower, it is a true connoisseur’s delight and one of the definitive show-stoppers of this tasting set, available as an upgrade choice (+HK$280). The more premium version of the final savoury course comes as a replacement of otherwise served tenderly pan-seared Sichuan pepper and honey-crusted duck breast, accompanied by earthy beetroot and yoghurt dip.

The sommelier’s selections trace Europe’s finest wine-growing regions. From fresh, intense yet delicate white wine from Collio of Friuli made with 100 percent hand-picked Pinot Grigio grapes in an Italian estate founded by innovative winemaker Mario Schiopetto, the mineral, straw-pale wine prepares the palate for the gentle yet rich slow-cooked abalone.

Complex 2016 Ürziger Würzgarten Kabinett Riesling from the German house of Markus Molitor, where ungrafted vines, some more than 100 years old, grown on impossibly steep slopes are meticulously cultivated by hand, form the basis for incomparable, fine Mosel Rieslings, is an excellent interlude between the pure fillet of amadai fried to golden hue, and Okinawa’s  coveted Agu Pork, which comes covered with shavings of summer black truffles.

Full-bodied, well-structured Rioja Reserva 2014 from Bodegas Muga, a famous family-owned winery located in the historic wine district of Haro in Rioja Alta, Spain, is the selected accompaniment to beef or duck, which comes right on the heels of a plate of creamy eel topped with pan seared duck foie gras.

For the final course, chef Li turns seasonal white asparagus into delicious scoops of veggie ice-cream.

The new menu is available nightly, Mon – Sat, 6:30pm – 10pm, until mid-September, from HK$890 (US$113) for 8 courses (HK$1,170/US$149 with Wagyu Beef). Add HK$380 (US$48) for 4 glasses of Sommelier’s Selection.

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