Dinner at the top

A spread of dishes at China Grill include Canadian scallops wrapped in pancetta with roasted wild mushrooms, wax gourd soup and a variety of seafood. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China Grill is locally known for steak and seafood, and Diviki adds an international twist to the restaurant menu, providing diners a spread of creative salads, meats, seafood and desserts from its open kitchen.

Particularly impressive: fresh Canadian scallops wrapped in pancetta, with roasted wild mushrooms. The seafood and Italian bacon match well in texture and flavor, he says, noting that he quickly pan-fries them before roasting in an oven with garlic and butter.

Three varieties of wild mushrooms are also pan-fried, with olive oil, chives, shallots and a little touch of garlic, to make mushroom emulsion on the side with the scallops. Each delicately seasoned, wrapped scallop was as big as a small peach - tender enough to be easily cut into smaller pieces.

The pancetta adds a dash of saltiness to the aromatic, slightly sweet scallops, which had a silky, melt-in-your-mouth texture.

I also liked the Iberique pork chop with green peas mousseline. Iberique pork, or black Iberian pork, is one of the finest pork products in the world, and is among few that are safe to eat roasted medium-rare, according to Chen Yue, publicist for the hotel.

The pork is well marbled with a healthy amount of unsaturated fat, according to Diviki, and the chops had a crispy coating while the inside was juicy and very tender.

Diviki's creativity with sauces shines with the green-pea mousseline, which tasted minty and refreshing, while the sun-dried tomato chutney was a little spicy and provided an attractive contrast to the mousseline.