If you’re looking for the restaurant, seek out the greyscale mosaic across the shopfront—a sign with the restaurant’s name ’12,000 Francs’ is conspicuously missing. Instead, seek out the simple hexagonal sign with a single ‘F’ at the center. Guests are greeted at the communal Sommelier’s Tables, a bar area where they can relax and enjoy wine before or after dinner. The interior, designed by Australian designer Emma Maxwell, features warm lighting spread throughout the dining space, giving the room an urban elegance, where turquoise green walls are matched with vintage tile patterns.

Staying true to its food preservation theme, 12,000 Francs’ food offerings introduce guests to dishes divided into sections such as “Pickled and Potted”, and “Smoked and Salted”, set among larger meat-based main courses and desserts. Boasting quality produce sourced from Tuen Mun’s Hong Kong Seed Bank, the Soho restaurant incorporates different means of food preservation, such as pickling, curing, potting, smoking, into elements of each dish.

We began our dinner with house-made malted sourdough bread with cultured butter. The bread, cut in thick, mealy slices, was soft and rich, with a delightful crunch on the crust and a pleasant contrast of soft, almost cottony interior that yields slightly to a spread of cold butter.

The stracciatella, or pulled cheese, is creamy and refreshing, adding sundried tomatoes adds depth of sweetness and tartness to the starter, while the foie gras parfait is made with the creamy liver and chicken livers. The texture is fluffy, even though it’s packed inside the glass jar it’s served in. The jalapeno adds a vibrantly hot aftertaste to the mix. The coral trout and prawns, despite labelled a ‘smoked rillette’, felt more like a tuna bake with Thai herbs, a nice addition but somehow we missed the connection between the slightly runny and partly chunky warm fish spread with the hot pickles. All three of these above dishes are served with the same malted bread, some toasted and some not. We suggest ordering these dishes before getting an order of the bread, which can be rather filling to start with.

Four mains are on offer and we are rather surprised they were all meats, but were satisfied with the restaurant’s signature short rib pastrami, served with the rib bone. The half portion generously served two. The short rib, after 36 hours of slow cooking, is served with a generous helping of spicy sauerkraut, and a helping of creamy barley and pea shoots. The rib meat is tender and juicy, and great with a beautifully charred crust, offering both smoky aroma and crunchy texture to the tender meat.

Chef Beach’s sweet offerings are reliable, The Better Than Nutella fits the title, as the rich puddle of chocolate hazelnut pudding is lightened by a milk sorbet flavoured with heather honey. The dessert titled K.A. pastry, or kouign amann, is a buttery pastry from Breton. Traditionally the pastry is made with a yeasted dough that is laminated into layers of flaky pastry with a sugary crunch between layers. Here, the restaurant’s version is slightly different, if not easier, with a croissant dough turned into a swirl pattern after rolling and folding with a layer of maple butter. The pastry is set atop a light maple gel, served with pumpkin kumquat puree, offering a seasonal touch with a citrus zing.

Wines come highly recommended by the staff at 12,000 Francs, but it is the cocktail menu that won our hearts. The barrel-aged Manhattan is rich and flavours are well-proportioned, and a sweet finish from the vermouth. 

The Gin and Tonic on Tap is light and refreshing, thanks to the addition of kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass in the infusion, and a light touch of cucumber slices, served in a wine glass. The G&T is cool and served best alongside meaty mains and weighty starters such as the foie gras parfait, cleansing the palate before the next course.

The staff at 12,000 Francs are friendly, with an inviting attitude that welcomes guests and introduces more of the restaurant from concept to offerings. The service team is knowledgeable in most food dishes, although deeper understanding on various food preservation techniques may be useful for further inquiries on some dishes. Beverage pairing and portion control suggestions are sound.

A dinner for two with one cocktail per person rounds up to HK$1,050, an amount that fits the Elgin Street restaurant district for a full three-course meal, although guests are encouraged to visit in larger parties to sample more mains as they tend to come in larger portions.