Octavium

Chef Umberto Bombana's Italian Laboratory in Hong Kong

I really try to have something positive to say about every restaurant I go to. With Octavium, I really struggled to find that positive spin.

I’ve been to Octavium before. In 2022, I took a date here and most memorably, she ended up accidentally setting herself on fire leaning over a candle. Self-immolation notwithstanding, I decided to go back to to the restaurant for another try a few years later.

Established in July 2017 by the celebrated Michelin-starred chef Umberto Bombana, Octavium serves as a creative "laboratory", embodying a blend of home-style Italian cooking with an elevated, contemporary twist.

Since its inception, Octavium has achieved significant acclaim, securing one Michelin star within 17 months of opening and advancing to two stars in 2022, a status it maintains as of the 2024 guide.

The current executive chef of Octavium is Chef Giuseppe De Vuono, who hails from Messina, a harbor city in northeast Sicily. De Vuono brings a wealth of experience to the role, having worked closely with Chef Umberto Bombana for two years at 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana. His culinary journey also includes stints at prestigious venues such as Tosca di Angelo in Hong Kong, as well as Michelin-starred restaurants and five-star hotels in London, including Locanda Locatelli and The Connaught Hotel, where he contributed to the opening of a concept by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Earlier in its history, Octavium was led by other talented chefs under Bombana’s guidance, such as Chef Silvio Armanni, who oversaw the kitchen during its initial Michelin-starred phase, and later Chef Roland Schuller and Chef Bjoern Alexander. However, Chef Giuseppe is the current resident executive chef shaping the restaurant’s current culinary direction, aligning with Bombana’s vision for innovative yet approachable Italian cuisine.

The restaurant is fairly small, having space for 11 or 12 tables and was stunningly quiet for a Saturday night. The minimalist decor on the wall reminded me a lot of the Unown from the Pokémon franchise.

Given a choice of a six course or eight course menu, we decided to go a bit lighter with the six course degustation menu.

The amuse bouche came quicky, consisting of a fresh green bean salad, a generous drizzling of nutty, almost herbal olive oil on a crispy tart and a corn cannoli filled with burrata and smoked anchovy. Rich, creamy, a slight bit of fishy from the anchovy and crunch from the cannoli. Not a bad start.

We moved on to the bread course, served with their olive oil packaged specifically for the restaurant - a pungent, peppery olive oil with a bit of a spicy aftertaste. We were presented with three breads made in house: a sesame sourdough that gave off middle eastern vibes, a classic focaccia with a generous brushing of olive oil, and a crisp flatbread, all warm out of the oven.

A final canape consisting of a pan fried scallop on top of a celeriac puree topped with a condensed beef jus. Well executed, and the condensed beef jus was so thick and flavourful that it reminded me a bit of Bovril, a thick, salty meat extract paste popular in many commonwealth countries.

The first course was a smoked amberjack with a sour fermented yuzu kosho topping, on a bed of diced artichokes topped with a parsley foam and Oscietra caviar. The acid from the yuzu kosho and brininess from the caviar helped cut through the oiliness of the fish.

Next up, came a spoonful of Italian beef tartare with an egg yolk confit, and strips of black truffle. Under seasoned - I think they forgot to add any salt. Could’ve used some capers, or just some seasoning in general.

My companion had certain dietary restrictions and had the beef tartare substituted with a scrambled egg dish topped with a mountain of black truffle. If it wasn’t for the fact that they probably put twice as much salt as needed, I’m pretty sure she got the better end of that deal!

Moving down the menu, the next dish was slow cooked monkfish wrapped with a layer of breading and deep-fried placed on top of a walnut and caper puree in a celery jus. Things kept going downhill here, a severe lack of seasoning, and rather bland. Have no idea what the celery soup was doing - it was a bit grassy and herbal, and didn’t add much to the dish.

In a slight turn for the better, Octavium’s famous Uni spaghetti was pretty good. Exactly what you expect Italian pasta to be. Perfect al dente and done in a Mollicata style - pan-fried tomato, onion and breadcrumbs in olive oil and left to cook down before adding the pasta and stir-frying with a bit of added seafood stock. A touch of Hokkaido uni on top to accent the dish. Well done and absolutely delicious.

The main was a Sicilian lamb coated in some sort of powder with a crisp tart filled with caponata , a classically Italian vegetable dish with cooked eggplant and Mediterranean vegetables in a sugar and vinegar reduction. While the dish itself was decent, but not exceptional, our server seemed to forget what he was presenting halfway through, and decided to nervously mumble through the rest of the explanation, leaving both my companion and I completely perplexed.

Moving on to dessert, whenever there is a souffle on the menu, I go with the souffle. On this menu, it was a chocolate souffle, served with a cocoa juice sorbet and cocoa nib leaf. This was pretty good, as souffles go - light and fluffy. The cocoa juice sorbet tasted a lot like pear. If it wasn’t stated on the menu, I would’ve guessed it was a pear sorbet.

My companion went with poached pear, with the pear slices skillfully arranged into a rose, and served with some diced pear, hazelnuts and shortbread croutons. Not bad at all. Points for presentation.

Finally, the petit fours - a salted caramel chocolate and a lemon curd cheese tart.

Overall, Octavium is a pass. This is Otto e Mezzo second string.

We saw that in the service, where the staff was generally extremely timid and it felt like they were afraid of us and didn’t want to interact with us at all. The description of each dish was recited from memory in a low voice as quickly as humanly possible. Every time we asked for an explanation of what was in a dish, or how it was prepared, they wouldn’t know and would have to go back to the kitchen to find out. Partway through the dinner, it felt like our server forgot what was on the menu, decided to drop his voice to an even quieter whisper and mumble so we couldn’t hear his explanation. Near the end, we just started feeling bad for the guy and stopped asking him questions. We also saw that in the food. The kitchen itself being quite inconsistent - forgetting the salt on some dishes, and over seasoning others. This was not a particularly enjoyable experience.

In doing the research into the restaurant after the meal, I was really surprised to learn the relationship to Chef Umberto Bombana. Without that knowledge, I spent the night comparing the Octavium to Otto e Mezzo where I had an amazing time not too long ago. Not sure what happened here, but this was not a good showing. My only recommendation is to just go upmarket and go to the flagship Otto e Mezzo.

Total Damage: 4600 HKD/2 people.