ATUM desserant

ATUM attracted a lot of eyeballs when it first opened.  The concept is fun, and the creations are colorful and appeasing to the eyes.  I don't think there is any other place like it in Hong Kong, yet.  I definitely "liked" a lot of posts on my Instagram feed before coming here myself.  Yet, I have been warned it's one of those places where once is enough.

The "Improvisation" reminds me a lot of Pollock's paintings.  Because we were seated in the corner and there were a few machines in between us and our server, we were "invited" to participate in our creation.  We were a little disappointed the managers did not handle our order but our server is sweet and fun so it was alright. 

The whole "drawing" process took almost an hour.  We were given a handful of dried fruit to nibble along the way, which tasted just like space food I got from NASA.  Because of the lack of counter space, we were only provided with our teas after the dessert was completed.  The ingredients are actually very simple:  a few dallops of syrup, a handful of dried and fresh fruits, a few cubes of mocha and jello, a few spoonful of chocolate pudding, and a few broken pieces of crackers and a big piece of sorbet made with liquid nitrogen - walla~ "Thank you very much, your order came out to be HK$4xx.". 

Starting off with a clean canvas...

We were offer a choice of white, grey, and black.
White seems to be the most popular choice but we chose black.
We think it stands out more in pictures.

a variety of sauces and matcha powder...
... splashed randomly on the canvas

fresh fruits, dried fruits, jello, and pudding, etc. strategically (?) placed

Colorful crackers / wafers added to the mix

Finally, nitrogen ice cream in the making

With the sorbet set in place, the dessert is finally done.

and our tea is brought to us... finally...

I guess it's not too bad for 3 people if you look at it as if you just went to a relaxing drawing class.  I'd admit I had a lot of fun taking pictures of our creation but honestly, would I return for the food?  The answer is unfortunately a "hell no".  This is a place to impress and have fun but the food left a lot to be desired.  This old Chinese saying just looped in my mind: 見面不如聞名.

ATUM desserant
16/F, The L. Square, No. 459-461 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay
銅鑼灣駱克道459-461號The L. Square 16樓
Tel: +852 2956 1411
Hours: Mon: 18:00-00:00; Tue-Sun: 13:00-00:00

Reservations are essential if you want to sit at the counter (to order Improvisation) and I think they no longer open on Mondays.