T'ang Court lives up to its three-Michelin-star rating and is a superb way to spend any special occasion in Hong Kong.
The restaurant is located in the Langham Hotel, easily accessible from the lobby, and reservations are strongly recommended. However, when I arrived for an early dinner, there seemed to be plenty of room for walk-ins. Decor in the restaurant is old-school, with carpeted floors, white linen tablecloths, recessed lighting in low ceilings, and a beautiful but eclectic selection of art on the walls. The interior is very quiet -- probably more quiet than you're used to even in other fine dining restaurants.
As you might expect at most very high-end establishments, the quality of service at T'ang Court is many notches above and beyond most restaurants. It seemed like the servers outnumbered the customers as they whirled around the floor in their striking red-and-black uniforms. Raise your hand and any one of them is at your table in seconds to attend to your needs. Your water glass never goes empty, and the timing between each course is precise enough to set your watch to. Red wine is served at a perfectly chilled 65 degrees, and there are dozens to choose from.
A quick note before you visit: the food at T'ang Court is traditional Cantonese and is uncompromisingly meant to be an Eastern fine dining experience. That means that some of the flavors and seasonings may take a little patience to acclimate to if you typically only eat North American or European cuisine. I would gently suggest that if you don't eat a lot of Asian food cooked with Asian ingredients, have patience and a little adventurousness in order to appreciate the quality and precision on exhibit here.
With that said, what food! I went with the 6-course "set menu for one," set off with an amuse bouche of a fried scallop with a delicate lace batter, with a small pickled cucumber and black fungus salad. The scallop pretty much melts in your mouth, while the textures of the cucumber and mushrooms are springy and crunchy at the same time, with a sweet acid finish.
1st course: several proteins, meant to be eaten in order from right to left: jellyfish, chilled scallop, honey bbq pork, and fried cod. Eaten in order, the dish was progressively cold to warm, soft to crunchy, and light to heavy in taste. Such an intelligent dish, and despite thinking at first that it was a little weird to have this combination of proteins on one plate, it all went together perfectly. Maybe my favorite course of the meal.
2nd course: Braised bird's nest soup with fish maw, conpoy, chicken, and black mushroom. This dish may be the most unfamiliar to the western palate, combining the strong familiar tastes of chicken and mushroom with the wholly Cantonese -- and far more delicate -- flavors of bird's nest, fish maw, and conpoy. But by the end you'll be wishing there were more in the bowl.
3rd course: abalone with sea cucumber. I am generally not the biggest fan of mollusks overall, with the exception of raw oysters, but have to admit that the abalone was perfectly cooked with a delicate sauce, the base of which remains a complete mystery to me. The sea cucumber was fantastic.
4th course: baked fresh lobster in chicken broth. With apologies, I am a North Atlantic/Maine lobster snob. This was not that: small and relatively tasteless lobster, I still thought that the chicken broth sauce was quite clever and delicious. But when the lobster isn't from Maine, there's still room for improvement. Don't get this a la carte.
5th course: fried rice with wagyu beef. Absolutely incredible cook on the rice. I cook rice myself at least 2-3 times per week and I've watched/read tons of master chefs' instructions on how to make it. And I'm still at a loss as to how T'ang Court's chefs managed to make this rice so perfectly al dente. Judicious with the egg, generous with the beef, this dish was the perfect cap to the entrees.
6th course: Egg tart and fruit jelly with fresh fruits. To be honest, by the time dessert arrived, I was so stuffed I barely could eat this. But suffice to say that the fruits were perfectly ripe, the egg tart was delicious, and the fruit jelly (gelatin, actually) was not too sweet, not too tart.
Overall, a fantastic experience at T'ang Court. If you're a fan of Eastern cuisine in general, and especially of Cantonese food in particular, T'ang Court is well worth going out of your way and splurging. Look forward to returning here someday. read more