Andō

Argentine roots, Japanese discipline

Andō is the first solo restaurant of Agustin Ferrando Balbi, an Argentine chef who cooked in Buenos Aires, New Orleans and Tokyo before arriving in Hong Kong and working at Haku. It opened in 2020 on the first floor of a commercial building on Wellington Street and earned a Michelin star about six months later.

The cooking looks east to Japan while keeping Balbi’s Spanish and Argentine ancestry in view. At its first review, dishes included abalone slow-cooked for six hours in mirin, dashi and soy, a cold almond soup with razor clams and sea grapes, amberjack sashimi, seaweed sourdough with red miso whipped butter, and a caldoso rice with scallop and cured Spanish beef. A5 Kumamoto wagyu was grilled over charcoal. The room is muted charcoal, with earthenware tableware that the reviewer singled out.

Menus are six or eight courses with a minimal-intervention wine list. They change, so the dishes above show the approach rather than the current line-up.

Sources: Andō (Time Out Hong Kong); Restaurant review: Andō (A Foodie World). Check the official websites for current information.