Wooloomooloo Steakhouse, Swissotel The Stamford

focaccia with caramelised onions 

I've heard about this (2 Stamford Road, Level 3 Swissotel the Stamford, tel : +65 6338 0261) Australia-esque steakhouse from Hong Kong and decided to check them out. The setup of their menu reminded us of a mini-Morton's. Even the prices were a little more mini in comparison as well. But service from the restaurant was excellent and not miniaturised.

Dinner started by serving a freshly baked caramelised onion focaccia.

half portion of an excellent lobster bisque

The rendition of the cognac laced lobster bisque from Wooloomooloo was luxuriant. Natural sweetness from the crustacean was rich in the creamy broth backed with a trickle of prickling spice as it ran down the throat. Glad to find that the token piece of lobster that came with the bisque retained a great deal of its natural sweetness as well.

jumbo lump crab cake

Crab cakes were mixed with breadcrumbs. The result left a slightly floury texture but the crabs were tender and fresh tasting, spiced with little but salt and pepper. It also understandably didn't leave as much of an impression as the ones from Morton's.

beef wellington

For a country that's self proclaimed as a food paradise, beef wellingtons are somewhat a rarity. Wooloomooloo's tasted pretty good. 8oz tenderloin with mushroom duxelle, topped with foie gras and baked in a buttery crust. The inevitable comparison for me came between this and the filo pastry tenderloin from Etna which had actually more flavour in the seared meat. This one had foie gras and more buttery pastry. But then the latter had blue cheese sauce. Well, this came with a pretty good Maidera sauce which couldn't be discounted as well. And so forth.

ribeye (150-day grain fed, 2-3 weeks wet aged, Grainge Farms, Gippsland, Victoria)

The ribeye was in short, delicious. Their 12oz Australian Black Angus was a stellar representative of a properly done medium rib steak laced with a decent amount of fat and finished with a nice char on the surface with little to detract from the natural flavour of the meat but salt and pepper.

sauces and sides

Accompanying sides of sautéed spinach and mushrooms and the thin hash browns were nice. What I thought was outstanding was their creamy peppercorn sauce. In a wonderful, strange, sweet and peppery manner it got me.

As much as we would have wanted sweet ending, we had no more room for desserts.