Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Mott 32

This contemporary Chinese restaurant is located inside the basement of the Standard Chartered Bank building in Central, and after walking through a flight of stairs led by the receptionist, we were greeted by a relatively dark environment, reminiscent more of a western chic ambiance, with plenty of interesting interior design elements, showcasing a lot of the old Chinese and Hong Kong elements, as well as western industrial decor. A pretty amazing design indeed.

Seated at a small table, I have to say it was not particularly comfortable. While I can imagine the rent would be sky-high in this prime location, so the owner would try to put as many tables as possible, the space afforded was simply too packed for me. Maybe looking at the perspective of this not exactly is a restaurant but more a bar/restaurant would make you more forgiving.

We ordered two soups to start, for me it was the Hot & Sour Soup with Assorted Seafood ($165) while my wife went for the Fish Maw, Conpoy, Garoupa Soup ($180). The hot & sour soup was quite good, with the soup served steaming hot, with a good spiciness and the right level of sourness in balance. There were many ingredients in the soup, such as shrimp, pork, shiitake mushroom, bamboo shoot, conpoy and fish maw, all shredded nicely. I also like that they added some spring onion to enhance the aromas and flavors even further.

I also sampled a spoon of the garoupa soup. It was very thick and intense of taste. There were also some Chinese style crackers provided to add to the soup to provide a nice contrast in texture. It was again a nice soup.

We had the signature Barbecue Pluma Iberico Pork with Yellow Mountain Honey ($325). The BBQ pork was certainly roasted well, with some chars which I would say is a good sign of a great one. The meat had a tender texture, much softer than you would experience in the traditional ones probably because of the choice of using Iberico Pork. The honey was not overly sweet and provided a nice glaze and taste to the meat. A dish worthy of its signature status.

Then we had Alaskan King Crab Casserole with Crab Roe and Vermicelli ($480). With a beautiful orange on top from the crab roe, the vermicelli had absorbed all the flavors making it very tasty, with the sweetness of the crab meat permeating throughout. It was also not very oily and served in a nice, dry texture.

The other main dish was a seasonal one, Wok Fried Shredded Venison with Bamboo Shoot and Chrysanthemum ($450). This one was my favorite in the evening, with the dish served still showing the steaming wok fried effect. The venison was seasoned nicely and tender, with the bamboo shoot, carrot and shiitake mushroom shredded well and giving different bite while highly complementary in taste without any one stealing the limelight of the other. The chrysanthemum and lemon leaves reminded me of the snake soup and serving to remove any unpleasant wild animal note. Even though it might not look fancy, it was a wonderful dish in my opinion.

For dessert I tried the interesting Soy Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberries ($120), while my wife had the Double Boiled Papaya Sweet Soup with Snow Fungus, Sea Coconut and Almond ($80). The soy ice cream was really the first time I tried such, and this one unfortunately was simply too salty. Even the sweetness of the white chocolate and mousse on the side could not help to balance. The strawberries were nothing special also. The traditional Chinese dessert was decent.

The service was a bit lacking the warmth and attention as I would expect, and considering the high price tag ($2101) for the meal I was quite disappointed in that aspect. Also, on the way out we kind of lost our way as it was pretty dark and there was no one to show us the way. And wandering to a section of the restaurant I asked the staff the way out and he responded in a rather rude manner, and leaving a very bitter feeling. Having good food is a pre-requisite for a good restaurant, a nice decor certainly also is important, but equally critical is the customer service. We might not be the frequent customers or big spenders but even spending more than $1000 per person in our meal tonight I think the restaurant simply doesn't care our small business anyway.