Wellington’s iconic Lola Rouge Restaurant has announced the appointment of a new Executive Chef and a new menu.
Executive Chef Jason Ng’s new Lola Rouge menu has built on the chic, myriad of pan-Asian cuisine the restaurant is renowned for with a whole new range of dishes. The new menu is a la carte style, but a refreshed range of small plates are still, very much, on the table and an ideal way for groups to sample a wide range of dishes in the vibrant atmosphere of the restaurant.
Feature dishes on the new menu include Steamed Market Fish, which is nostalgically inspired by the Executive Chef’s childhood. Ng’s elevated dish is steeped in a bone broth with a ginger infusion that is delicately balanced with several different types of soy sauce, including one from Taiwan that he has imported especially for this dish. The fish is finished with cloudy bay clams, ginger, green onion relish and white radish.
A twice-cooked pork belly is another highlight, featuring a labour of love masterstock infused with warming spices and dried mandarin. This dish is finished with smoked tofu puree, grilled kimchi and toasted peanuts. Plant-based options also shine on the new menu from Kimchi Croquettes with creamy aged cheddar to ‘Mapu Tofu’ reinvented. This dish is a riff on Japanese egg custard with doubanjiang (chilli bean paste) and braised shiitake mushrooms. Korean rice cakes and straw potatoes add unique elements of texture to finish.
For dessert, the menu is intentionally playful, according to Ng.
“There’s a place for refinement and intricacy, and then there are relaxed, fun dishes that you want to tuck straight into”.
These include ‘Bicho Bicho’ a twisted Fillipo doughnut-inspired dish topped with a bespoke, locally made Zeladi coconut gelato. A Dark Chocolate Mousse with mandarin, crystallised chocolate and hazelnut is also on offer, alongside a Thai Tea Burnt Cheesecake with almond crunch and yuzu cream.
No trip to Lola Rouge would be complete without a signature cocktail from its famed bar where a whole new cocktail menu offers an eclectic and irreverent selection. The whimsically inspired ’Down the Rabbit Hole’, for example, features The Empress Gin, Butterfly Pea Tea Syrup and a disappearing rabbit.
The new menu is a taste of exciting things to come with Ng already in development on a cocktail led, Yum Cha inspired high tea, launching in the new year.
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