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Uncorking Fusion Bouquets
by Elizabeth Painter
on Friday, September 03, 2010 12:00 AM
With a new restaurant seeming to open every other day, it's hard to lure in the lunchtime crowd, particularly in an area packed with cheap Chinese and Western-style restaurants. Y Cork, arising just a month ago, is still on the slow ascent to amassing regular patrons looking for a midday escape.
The chef at Y Cork is Cantonese, though the restaurant sits decidedly on the Italian-French end of the Western restaurant spectrum. The décor is sedate, stylish and overwhelmingly black, with high-backed "pleather" chairs, silver cushions and painted photos of famous international landmarks. At its busiest, the restaurant seats 40, bringing in the punters with its extensive list of wines from across the world. DJs are often invited to entertain party seekers.
Y Cork's à la carte menu is arranged into several sections of three to four dishes each, all designed to meld with a delightful bouquet. Lunch visitors, however, also have the choice of two set menus for RMB58 or RMB68, with a choice of a soup or salad to start, followed by the main and a pudding.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but it's not storms and showers either. The lobster bisque is an incredibly rich and quite sweet soup that savors very mildly of lobster, though the pieces found lurking at the bottom of the bowl look pleased to have escaped the blender, rewarding the explorer with tender crustacean. The smoked duck salad is a mixed bag of impenetrably crisp bacon, a mountain of lettuce, cooked apple and tomato, and some of the most divine duck: pink, moist and delightfully smoked. An equally tasty centerpiece is the cod, which is cooked to perfection but comes with an incredibly sweet bright orange mango sauce, reminiscent of the classic 1970s' British-style duck à l'orange.
Despite some Chinese-influences that pander to local tastes more than to authenticity, the set meals are a definite bargain and the starter portions are huge. For a relaxed business lunch that can be pared with some delicious vintages, it's certainly nothing to complain about.
The Bottom Line: Well-priced Italian and French-style cooking with some well-sourced ingredients that will do for a luncheon break.
