Review: Neptune’s Restaurant at Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Chinese fine dining at Hong Kong’s only aquarium restaurant

On a Tuesday evening, my friend and I headed to Ocean Park for dinner. Normally I wouldn’t venture out so far for dinner but to see a newly-renovated aquarium restaurant? Now that’s something I hadn’t tried in Hong Kong before!

Getting to Neptune’s Restaurant can be a little confusing so don’t try and enter Ocean Park. Instead look for a small table, before the turnstiles, with a large sign for the restaurant. A host will check you in and then walk you over to the aquarium building.

The restaurant has recently been renovated under the theme of coral conservation and it looks great. The curved lines and oceanic colours are very soothing.

But of course the main attraction is the aquarium. On the night we went there were lots of big groups with children dining beside us. We all enjoyed watching the various types of fish swim. glide and dive around. I wanted to be a good conversationalist and all but it was hard not to be entertained by all that was going on inside the tank!

Complementing the decor and the aquarium is a new Tasting Menu ($788) with sustainable seafood from Michelin-starred chef Chef Chan Kwok-keung. Here’s what we dug into.

Gourmet Platter

We started with some air-dried beef with honey, shredded guava with preserved plum flavours and abalone with wasabi. While the beef and guava were just OK, I really enjoyed the juicy hunks of abalone with sharp wasabi dressing.

Soup

This chicken consommé with Yunnan ham had a lovely flavour. The broth was rich and had a delicate sweetness thanks to the young coconut (highly recommend scooping up all the young coconut) and black wolfberries. Unfortunately the piece of ham was inedibly tough and the soup was served lukewarm … especially unfortunate given the restaurant is icy cold!

Stir-fried Lobster

We oohed and aahed when this dish came out. Who knew egg white could be turned into this cool crispy nest? It tasted a little plain on its own but was very nice with the Australian lobster tail and black truffle sauce.

Braised Pork Belly in Aged Vinegar

The braised pork belly was a classic dish done well.

Neptune’s Signature Fried Rice

We ended the savoury section of our menu with Neptune’s beautiful signature fried rice. We only wished there were more hunks of abalone, lobster and King crab in there…

Dessert

While I’m not a dessert person, this Kiwi Fruit Sweet Soup might have been my favourite dish of the night. The goldfish-shaped milk pudding was comforting and (though I know it says kiwi is in there…) the overall flavour of the soup reminded me of milk tea.

Verdict

Neptune’s Restaurant is a lovely space and it’s certainly a treat to dine beside an aquarium! Food-wise, I think it could use some tweaking given the fine dining price point. Most of our food arrived lukewarm and I left still feeling hungry. Service could have also used some refining and the tablecloths needed a good pressing. Around us, the large groups generally ordered a la carte and seemed happy tucking into classics like E-fu noodles and sweet and sour pork. So perhaps a la carte with a big group is the way to go at Neptune’s Restaurant.

180 Wong Chuk Hang Rd, Wong Chuk Hang, 3923 2323