Delish Eats: The Steak Room, Fine Steaks in a Historic Hong Kong Landmark

Restaurant history: The Steak Room has thrived in its colonial home, the 1881 Heritage building, known as the Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound until 1996, since its opening in July 2020. The gourmet steakhouse is masterminded by chef Calvin Choi, formerly of The Intercontinental Hong Kong.

What’s the vibe and venue like: Housed in the original colonial structure dating the early 19th century, it is a delight to dine in this venue. White brick walls hold oil landscape paintings of distant British locales, emphasising the steak’s maturity and bravado of the restaurant.

How much does it cost: We enjoyed the dinner tasting menu, taking in five courses from multiple starters, one main course grill of steak or seafood, and dessert for HK$1118 each. 

What’s the menu about: Expect fresh starters to temper your palate, before moving onto charred USDA and Australian premium steak cuts, or Pacific-caught seafood, sweet on the tongue. Dessert leaves you with only three options but ends the meal on a pleasant note.

What did we order: USDA Prime Beef Steak Tartare, New Orleans Style Crab Cake, Traditional Baked Onion Soup, USDA Ribeye Cap, USDA Prime Tenderloin, Apple Crumble Pie

USDA Prime Beef Steak Tartare: Starting the meal with the tartare is a treat, trading the umami touch of the beef chunks with mango to infuse fruitiness in the peachy tenderloin. The size of the starter satisfies the number of chips provided, but sadly, not our hunger for more!

New Orleans Style Crab Cake: Served on a small bed of salad was not impressive, offering little for taste, just a low-key presentation. However, the crab cake itself holds up well, with a hard-shell holding moisture and a sea-fresh flavour of the stringy crab.

Traditional Baked Onion Soup: I wish the onion soup held a greater flavour typical with traditional consommés with onion: heavy notes of mushroom, pepper, beef, and allicin. This onion soup was flavoured well, but I would expect a greater beef- and lamb-like flavour.

USDA Ribeye Cap: The star of the show. Served with eight choices of salt and eight dollops of mustard, I was impressed with the Chef’s ability to coat the ribeye cut with a charred exterior holding great honey-salt flavours, whilst preserving its fruity interior. You won’t regret dipping each cut in the black garlic salt and garlic mustard.

Apple Crumble Pie: I liked this ending to a meal. A light fruity bite with palate-cleansing vanilla ice cream and custard to leave you satisfied, full, and removed of any fat coating your tongue. Good job from the culinary team to plate a pastry creation like this.

What we liked: The ribeye cap was a supreme cut of meat, blending in a suitable portion of melting, salty fat and light steak meat that melts on the tongue. I also liked the tartare, which brought in more fruity flavours than other tartare starters in Hong Kong.

What we didn’t like: The onion soup needs tweaking to reach a satisfactory level, balancing the raw sour flavour of the melted onion with an umami-rich beef flavour. For starters, I wish there were more options for vegetable-loving diners.

What you should order: USDA Beef Steak Tartare, USDA Ribeye Cap, Boston Lobster, Cow & Goat Cheese, USDA Prime Beef Striploin

Location: The Steak Room, G/F, FWD House 1881 Main Building, 2A Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

Contact details: +852 3988 0288

This food review is based on a complimentary media tasting provided by The Steak Room in exchange for a truthful review and no compensation. The opinions expressed within represent the views of the author.

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