I have died and gone to Hong Kong culinary heaven.
It has been so incredibly long since I have visited Hong Kong, without the pressure of time or family commitments. As I await the application of my Chinese visa, I see no other purpose for me aside from eating in this great metropolis that is HK. Barely in the country a week and already I have eaten yum cha 3 times. Twice at Lei Gardens (Shatin and IFC) and the third, a real treat at the T’ang Court @ The Langham.
Lucky for me, my brother spared me some time on his business trip to HK, and provided me with strict instruction to make a booking at T’ang Court for lunch. Who am I to disagree?
The restaurant is typical of what you would expect from a michelin starred hotel restaurant – dark wood, elegance, white table cloths. The dimsum menu is traditional yet concise with dishes ranging from about HKD40 a plate for a standard dish and up to HKD80 per piece for the more luxurious items. My brother quickly declared that he just wanted to eat these ‘luxurious items’ but I could order some ‘normal’ dishes if I liked. Again I obliged and followed my brothers lead.
Our meal started with an Abalone tart. BOOM.
The abalone was sweet, tender and braised in a rich, oyster style sauce. The pastry was a rich buttery, almost pâte sucrée in texture and was surprisingly sweet. Hands down the best item we ate.
A dried scallop and fish maw dumpling consumme followed. Great contrast of texture and richness from the tender dried scallop and fish maw. Bloody delicious soup base. Rich yet ‘clean’ in taste.
A few other dishes we tried are pictured together in the following pic (anticlockwise from bottom left):
- Yunnan ham puff – Rich buttery pastry, moist filling, served at a perfect temperature.
- Siew mai dumplings – nothing to scream and shout about but consistantly good
- Pork and vegetable dumplings – this was probably the one disappointment of the meal due to a too thick pastry (not glassy) and not enough filling. The pastry vs filling ratio was way off.
- Fried beancurd rolls – slightly oily, but nice texture and filling
- XO pan fried cheung fun – Great texture, nice spice to the sauce
Overall the meal was pretty outstanding and incredibly reasonable given what we ordered and the cost of other high end dim sum establishments. Of course its never going to compete with the likes of Tim Ho Wan or Dim Dim Sum in terms of value, but you are hardly going to see a braised abalone pastry at either of the above mentioned establishments.
Service was absolutely impeccable and I cannot even try and fault it. Plate changes, attentive tea service and polite knowledgeable staff.
Overall a very positive, delicious experience. Whilst I have not tried dinner here, I can safely highly recommend hitting up this place if you are after a high-end yet traditional dim sum experience in Hong Kong.
T’ang Court
The Langham, Hong Kong
Tsim Sha Tsui
food fight 