The Stars Not To Be

A chance encounter in Tokyo a few months ago led to a meetup in Hong Kong with my Dutch friends M and J over lunch at Tang Court of The Langham Hong Kong. They were on a trip to travel around Asia for some nice restaurants and wines which brought them to Hong Kong and Macau this week as their first stop.

Given they have been to a few fine Chinese restaurants around both cities prior to our lunch at Tang Court, many of those given stars by the Michelin Guide, they have a good benchmark of what they should expect at this restaurant which has the highest rating of 3 stars 2 years in a row. And we worked out a menu featuring some classic dimsum and a la carte dishes, plus a few that they haven’t had elsewhere to keep this interesting. I always found the entrance of the restaurant weird hidden at a corner on the second floor up the stairs from the lobby, but inside it was spacious and well-decorated in classical Chinese style, with dining area split into two floors separated by a wooden staircase. It was pretty packed on the day we were there, splitting equally between locals and out-of-towners.

We began with a few dimsum dishes - which took surprisingly long to arrive. Har Gau (prawn dumplings) was always the one indicative of the overall quality of any restaurant’s dimsum menu and I thought they were pretty decent, served in generous portion with the thin wrapper outside. While the baked mini chicken pie was a far cry from the one at Lung King Heen across the harbor, it was nonetheless tasty with rich filling and the warm and crispy puff pastry shell (probably not a fair comparison I know). Finally for dimsum we had the pan-fried rice rolls with XO sauce – it was a simple dish but perfectly done with the crispy crust from the pan searing and well-seasoned.

Barbecued pork was another dish I looked at to see how good a Cantonese restaurant is, and I thought they were above average. M and J have just returned from Macau the previous day eating at The 8 with the best Charsiu/Barbecued Pork dishes in the world (at least in my opinion), I thought it’s a good idea to order the same dish so we can compare. The one at Tang Court was prepared using the shoulder cut as it’s the most typical part used for charsiu, and it was roasted with juicy meat and charred crust. I did like the maltose glaze which had the right sweetness and the tender texture, but probably not as delicate and balanced as the one at The 8.

The deep-fried crab claw with shrimp paste was one dish I quite enjoyed as well, with the crab claw came in decent size and the firm shrimp paste wrapped around, before it’s battered and deep-fried and served in individual dishes. I was surprised with the lack of garnishes on the plate as it’s brought to our table, but other than that it’s delicious, especially with a dash of white vinegar. We almost forgot about our vegetarian dish as it came as our last savory dish after another long pause in between the dishes. It was beautifully presented with sautéed macadamia nuts, mushrooms, asparagus and water chestnut served in a taro "nest" – always a crowd pleaser for the fancy appearance and it was delicious with the crunchy nest underneath.

Overall the meal was decent and well on par as a Chinese restaurant in a 5-star hotel, but to me it was not up to my standard when they considered themselves as one of the best in town with a few complaints here and there throughout the afternoon. First I wasn’t exactly happy that they didn’t serve the dishes in the right order with a few dishes appeared at the same time. Well I understand this is a casual lunch and it’s a norm that dishes were served as soon as they were ready with no particular order, but I did hold a Michelin 3-starred restaurant to a higher standard and since they decided to serve each dish in individual portion instead of placing them in the middle of our table, I did find it eery when one dish were brought in before we finished the previous course and with inconsistent pace.

The Hot and Sour Soup with White Asparagus was listed as one of the special seasonal dishes but it was a major let-down. It’s unlike the traditional Northern Chinese hot and sour soup served with fine julienned tofu and mushrooms, but instead I felt like it’s just superior broth mixed with (ready-made) chili sauce. The taste was just one-dimensional spicy without much to show forth and I felt it’s a waste of the seasonal white asparagus which came in good size and with crunchy texture (but I could hardly get any taste of it). Same with the few pieces of seafood inside – scallops, prawns and squid – they were like an after-thought which was thrown in at the end to justify what they were charging for that bowl of "soup". Too hot and spicy (and where's the sour part?) that I couldn't finish the small bowl that was served - so were my dining companions. To put it bluntly, that was bad choice of ingredients and bad execution.

We were quite stuffed at the end (plus we were nudged to order our dessert with call to "last order" – it’s only 2:30pm then but the staff seems to be all ready to leave for their shift - and to start with it's not our fault that the dimsum dishes took forever to come hence the lengthy meal) and so we ordered the simple egg tarts to finish our meal with. Well there’s nothing wrong with it but nothing particular to write home about either. Then it just begged the question of how the Michelin Guide inspectors justified their top rating on this for two consecutive years. I am okay with this being 1 star or even 2 if I am super generous (and count ourselves unlucky catching them on a rare off-day), but 3 was definitely far-fetched by a mile in my opinion. At least not from our experience this afternoon I am afraid.

When? April 24 2018
Where? Tang Court, 1/F The Langham Hong Kong, 8 Peking Road, Tsimshatsui
Menu Highlights? Golden-fried Stuffed Crab Claw with Shrimp Paste
Drinks? 2014 Pegasus Bay Riesling, Waipara Valley, New Zealand
Web: www.langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/hong-kong/dining/tang-court/