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Designed by the world-famous botanist Patrick Blanc, GREEN is one of Asia’s largest vertical gardens, a unique winning feat at well-loved Hotel ICON. Shannon Dawson dropped by the lobby Brasserie on a cool afternoon to try the Seafood Brunch Tower, available every Monday and Tuesday night.
Image courtesy of Hotel ICON
Nestled inside the effortlessly cool Hotel ICON, you’ll find an equally chic new restaurant by the name of GREEN. Staying true to its namesake, the café-by-day, restaurant-by-night boasts an impressive vertical garden designed by a world-famous botanist Patrick Blanc. As I crane my neck to see the full extent of the verdant giant that snakes above two floors, I can’t help but wonder—how do they water this thing?
Seafood Tower Night
Mondays and Tuesdays are dedicated to their ‘Seafood Tower’ set dinner and as we arrive a little after 7pm on a Tuesday, the place is already buzzing with diners eager to get their seafood fix.
Image courtesy of Hotel ICON
We prepare our palettes with some sparkling wine—did I mention they also offer free flow with the set dinner? Cheers to that. We’re presented with the aforementioned seafood tower, which comes equipped with all the treasures of the sea including abalone, caviar, salmon roe, Hokkaido crab legs, prawns and French sea snails (I gave the latter a wide berth but my partner said they were divine).
The selection of seafood is rotated each week, and despite the tower not being as ‘towering’ as I’d have hoped, everything was very fresh and came with a selection of delicious homemade sauces including red wine vinegar, spicy Thai sauce and traditional cocktail sauce which were sufficiently lapped up.
Image courtesy of Hotel ICON
We sip our bubbly as I continue to eye up the vertical garden, trying to determine how they’ve kept an entire wall of plants alive when I can’t seem to keep a fern alive longer than a few weeks.
My reverie is interrupted by the arrival of mussels—South Australian Live Blue ones. Sautéed in a garlic and white wine sauce, we mopped up every last morsel with the complimentary homemade bread. It is around this time we realise, we haven’t even made it to appetisers yet. Perhaps tower is an apt description for amount of seafood here.
Image courtesy of Shannon Dawson
The empty mussel pot is exchanged for the clam chowder and fried Hiroshima oysters. At long last, we’ve made it to the appetisers. The oysters were decadently fried in a light batter and drizzled with a slither of mayo and soy; tasty, but any more than two would’ve been too much. The chowder however, could’ve gone on forever and still wouldn’t have been enough. With a rich tomatoey base stewed with the robust taste of the clams, I would’ve asked for seconds had I not 2 more courses to get through.
Image courtesy of Shannon Dawson
We opt for the seafood risotto and catch of the day for the mains; there were non-seafood options, but “start as you mean to go on” as they say…
The risotto had a lovely smokey flavour and offered generous portions of mixed seafood. The Red Mullet, served with mash and seasonal veg was a very no-nonsense dish. Fresh, simplistic but nothing to write home about.
We are shown to a selection of cakes, to which we stare at longingly, whilst our full bellies protest. The waiter suggests a much more sensible option of strawberry Häagen-Dazs ice cream which we gratefully accept.
Image courtesy of Hotel ICON
Vertical Garden: Revealed
No matter what day your seafood craving kicks in, GREEN offers a variety of specials in addition to the seafood tower, including the Crabilicious set dinner (Wednesday-Thursday) and the Boston Lobster set (Friday-Sunday).
And, in case you were wondering; the vertical garden has an inbuilt irrigation system that keeps the plants hydrated. Apparently, this is not available to small, stubborn houseplants. I’ve already checked Tao Bao.
The waiter informs me there is an internal irrigation system behind the wall that keeps the plants fed and watered. A part of me was secretly hoping they had vertical gardeners who they hooked into a harness.
The Seafood Tower Night is a four-course set dinner (with free-flow alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages) available every Monday and Tuesday night and is priced at HK$458 per person (minimum two persons).
GREEN, Hotel ICON, Lobby Floor, Hotel, 17 Science Museum Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, +852 3400 1300, hotel-icon.com
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