Appellation Australia

Lunch at the Cantonese restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Central, Hong Kong. This restaurant was highly recommended on various forums/blogs and it was indeed very good, but also relatively expensive. We arrived slightly early and were invited to wait at the bar outside. The bar has a great view of the harbour from the 25th floor and I was happy to find they were serving Krug by the glass. After our drinks we were escorted to the restaurant and everything went smoothly afterwards. The dining room itself is wonderfully opulent. Overall I was impressed and would be happy to go back, but I probably just preferred Lung King Heen.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Service: Formal and very professional.
Food:
Tiger prawn, bamboo shoot dumpling – These were excellent. Translucent and delicate wrapping with good flavour and texture.
Conpoy and summer spinach dumplings – Really liked these too. The summer spinach was full of flavour and the conpoy was only a background note adding complexity rather than being the focus.
Shanghainese soup dumpling, minced pork and hairy crab mousse – Liked the presentation of this with its own basket and tray. I liked the richness of the soup component, though I couldn’t really taste the crab over the pork with the rest.
Chicken spring rolls – Crispy pastry and the filling was good, but not especially memorable.
Barbecued pork belly – Delicious. The bite sized pieces of sweet pork were wonderful and the skin was perfectly crispy.
Deepfried crab claw, minced shrimp – This was one of the weaker dishes, it was okay but I’d order something else next time.
Crispy Ka Mei chicken – Carved table side and with bones removed, this was excellent with extremely crispy skin and great chicken.
Toffee apple – These were great bites also. Had that crunchy-chewy outer from the glaze and batter, with some freshness from the apple inside.
Double boiled pear, chun bei, tangerine tea – The pear was great, offering little resistance when cut but not being mushy. The tangerine tea was an interesting combination that I think worked very well. I’m still not entirely sure what chun bei is, but they didn’t have much flavour, another textural element I assume.
Cost: Excluding the pre-lunch drinks it was AUD$160 for two.
Score: 16/20

Appetiser

Tiger prawn, bamboo shoot dumpling

Conpoy and summer spinach dumplings

Shanghainese soup dumpling, minced pork and hairy crab mousse

Chicken spring rolls

Barbecued pork belly

Deep-fried crab claw, minced shrimp

Crispy Ka Mei chicken

Toffee apple

Double boiled pear, chun bei, tangerine tea