We have been lucky enough to eat at some great restaurants but on Wednesday night, we ate the best meal we’ve ever had.

A French, three star Michelin chef prepared (or at least his staff did) an eight course degustation menu that tasted nothing short of divine. This place clearly prides itself on both taste and presentation which, in this country, is a definite stand out. On top of this, we received none of the snobby service that seems to be common in international restarants (Beppi’s being a good example of this).

We asked to miss the course containing foie gras and they replaced it with their signature dish, a lightly fried scampi with basil and pesto. This was unexepected.

Hong Kong is apparently known for its great food. We have had good food but this is definitely the first experience we’ve had in the ‘great’ category. The Western restaurants here tend to be fairly expensive by Australian standards and there is also an obligatory 10% service charge. The food is generally similar to what we could prepare at home and lacks Mr Shallot’s presentation such as ground pepper around the edge of a plate.

I had been talking about this at work and that is when the name Robuchon was mentioned in hushed tones. I received the warning then that this was a special occasion restaurant only.

This restaurant’s food was stunning. One dish was decorated with a rose petal held in place by a glass bead and paprika on the side. It was in a tall shot glass sitting on a simply decorated side plate. Another was our two serves of the petit fours – little biscuits that melted on the tongue in a similar way to meringue with caviar coated in chocolate and gold. It is the first time that I can describe dishes of food as beautiful.

The food was a great mix of flavours and textures. Nothing served could have been prepared by us. Each fork / spoonful was left in the mouth for slightly longer than normal before swallowing just to savour it for that bit longer. One of the more unusual dishes was a tomato jelly decorated in a spiral pattern with tiny drops of mozzarella cheese topped with either horseradish or a fish egg. Sounds bizarre but was fantastic.

As Mr Shallot says, the restaurant was “frightfully expensive but well worth it for a special occasion”. As our third wedding anniversary can only happen once, this was a great choice. I’ll be asking my team their recommendations for our next anniversary.

* Thanks to Marvin Gaye for the title to this post.