Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic
Anne-Sophie Pic's cooks at Cristal Room make pasta from buckwheat tea, shape it like the French berlingot sweet and fill each pyramid with liquid 24-month Comté.
Why go
Anne-Sophie Pic runs Maison Pic in Valence, her family's restaurant, whose third MICHELIN star she won back in 2007. World's 50 Best named her the World's Best Female Chef in 2011.1 She studied in Hong Kong three decades ago.3 Cristal Room, her first restaurant in the city, opened in November 2023 on the 44th floor of Gloucester Tower, built with the crystal house Baccarat and the Hong Kong group Leading Nation.4 Pic does not cook here every night. Marc Mantovani runs the kitchen. He comes from Romans-sur-Isère near Valence, has worked under Pic for more than ten years, and ran La Dame de Pic at the Four Seasons in London before Hong Kong.1 The room won a MICHELIN star within five months of opening and a second in the 2026 guide.914
Pic calls her method impregnation: Lauren Ho of Wallpaper described it in 2024 as the way flavours and aromas intertwine through techniques like smoking, steeping, marination and infusion.
3 Janice Leung Hayes, Eater's Hong Kong writer, found in 2025 that Mantovani's team cooks faithfully in Pic's style, which often leans into the delicacy of floral and vegetal notes in everything from teas to cheese.
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The Berlingots show that method best. Epicurus, who writes the Hong Kong restaurant blog Epicurus's List, paid for an express lunch for three in May 2026 and added them to the order. The Comté parcels came in a mushroom consommé with smoked oolong and vanilla. Epicurus called them the clearest Pic dish of the meal: aromatic, technical, and strange in a way that made sense.
Of the rest of the lunch, Epicurus wrote: Most of it felt correct rather than exciting.
The Hong Kong Three Yellow chicken, crusted with tonka, showed good technique, but the dish did not leave much behind.
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The food blogger Gary S had the seasonal tasting menu in 2024 and liked more of it. His Brittany blue lobster came perfectly done, slow-cooked over fir and rosemary infused embers.
The Challans duck, marinated in coffee and eucalyptus, arrived tender and perfectly done with nice crisped skin.
2 The South China Morning Post's 100 Top Tables judged in 2026 that the opening buzz surrounding Cristal Room may have subsided but the experience remains as just good as on day one.
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Order this / avoid
- Order: Les Berlingots ASP. Epicurus in 2026:
The Berlingots were the dish to order.
1 - Order: the Brittany blue lobster cooked over embers, if it is on. Gary S ate it in 2024.2
- Order: the Challans duck with coffee and eucalyptus, if it is on. Gary S in 2024 liked
the smoky flavor of the duck
against the sweet goji chutney.2 - Avoid: Le Millefeuille Blanc, the vanilla and jasmine dessert. Gary S in 2024:
beautifully presented but I was looking for a more complex flavor profile.
2 - Drink: the alcohol-free pairing built by Paz Levinson, Pic's chief sommelier. Lauren Ho, visiting weeks after the opening, wrote in 2024 that its Clear Tonka, milk-washed oolong with tonka beans,
pairs excellently with the seabass caviar.
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What locals & experts say
- MICHELIN Guide (2025):
The six- or eight-course tasting menu, consists of chef's signature dishes, is deeply rooted in French traditions, with subtle Japanese twists in terms of produce and condiments – delicate and exciting at the same time.
8 - Epicurus's List (2026):
Cristal Room is a good luxury French restaurant. It is not one I feel much need to rush back to.
1 - Award: MICHELIN two stars, 2026.4
Good to know
- Price: HK$680 to HK$2,280 a head (SCMP, 2026). Epicurus paid 3,900 Hong Kong dollars for three at the express lunch with the Berlingots added, in May 2026. Corkage is HK$800 a bottle and HK$1,600 a magnum.615
- Timing: lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday, shut Sunday.5
- Booking: by phone on +852 3501 8580 or WhatsApp on +852 9099 9609.5
- Dress: formal or smart casual, with no sportswear, sandals or flip-flops.5
- The room: the cooks work in full view at two stations in the dining room. Epicurus found the harbour view
amazing, though partly interrupted by the iconic round windows of Jardine House.
1 - Where: 44/F, Forty-Five, Gloucester Tower, The Landmark, Central.43
Verdict
should-visit — Go for Anne-Sophie Pic's infused, floral French cooking as her executive chef Marc Mantovani runs it, and order the Comté-filled pasta pyramids in their smoked, tea-scented broth. Expect HK$680 to HK$2,280 a head at a room that won its second MICHELIN star in 2026, and know that a May 2026 lunch struck its eater as more correct than exciting.