Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Hutong

This contemporary Chinese restaurant is located on the 28/F of One Peking Road, TST, overlooking the Victoria Harbour and the skyline of HK Island. With good weather like this evening the view is truly amazing.

Part of the Aqua Restaurants Group, Hutong is inspired by traditional Chinese dining customs, with round wooden tables and intricately designed wooden chairs, lots of elements of northern China. The dim lighting helped to create a feeling of chic, but I thought it probably was a bit too dark for the diners.

We ordered the Signature Menu ($1,098 each). There are two appetizers including Seared Hokkaido Scallops with Sesame Sauce, as well as Green Asparagus Dressed with White Sesame. The scallops are tender and sweet to the taste, just lightly seared so that the surface turns harder. The sesame sauce also created a wonderful complement in flavors to the scallops.

The other appetizer was rather simple in looking, with the asparagus dipped in a sauce and then coated with white sesame. The asparagus were tender and without fiber, and the sesame provided a nice touch of flavors too. The two appetizers were great in complementing each other though, with the sesame linking that journey. A nice idea and execution.

Then there were two dim sums served. First was Crispy Minced Duck Spring Rolls. The spring rolls were beautifully golden brown in color, deep-fried to great crispiness, with the fillings a nice difference than the traditional Cantonese style, not just using duck meat but also adding a spicy note. An interesting idea.

The other dim sum was also originated from Cantonese cuisine: Steamed Pork Siu Mai Topped with Cod Fillet. The main difference was the piece of cod that was put on top, along with some finely chopped ginger. This one might not be as special as the spring rolls but was still decent in taste.

Moving to the different main courses, the first one was Tiger King Prawn Braised with Lemongrass and Soy Sauce. The size of the prawn was really huge, but as they were frozen (I believe) in terms of taste it was not as good as smaller but fresh ones, and was rather bland to me. The addition of lemongrass provided a nice twist to the common soy sauce style but could not compensate for the lack of flavor in the prawn itself.

The next main course was Grouper Fillet Stir-Fried with Salty Fish, Chili and Broad Bean Sauce. After the slight disappointment of the prawn, this one helped to rescue some of the lost points. The fillet was tender and had a good Sichuan pepper spicy and numbness, certainly appetizing. The interesting use of the small salty fish and pan-fried to resemble a biscuit is a bright idea. Even the green bell pepper was nice and matched well.

The third main course was Braised Chicken with Chinese Wine Sauce in a Clay Pot. This dish was cooked in front of us, with the staff pouring the chicken into the seething clay pot and then adding the Chinese wine, getting it to flames and burning the alcohol while retaining the flavors. The chicken was tender, with lots of garlic and shallot to create a burst of flavors to add to the aroma. Another nice one on the night.

Then we were served the Sauteed Beef Tenderloin with Onion and Soy Sauce. This was the traditional Peking cuisine, with the restaurant changing the thin slices of beef to tenderloin strips. The quality of the meat and the taste was good, but the dish was not steaming hot and seems to have been left for a while before serving to us. It affected our overall enjoyment as I was especially demanding on the right temperature of the dishes when served.

Next was Seasonal Vegetable Poached in Superior Broth. A common dish in all restaurants, I had written many times that this could easily tell customers the attitude and attention to details of the chef. In this respect the restaurant did a good job, with the vegetable young and fresh, prepared well with the ginger wine before poaching to remove any of the 'green' note in taste, and then absorbing the flavors of the broth without tasting too salty or abundance of MSG.

The Black Truffle Fried Rice with Egg White, Minced Prawn and Scallops followed. The fried rice was nicely done, with each individual rice clearly separated, of good bite in texture, with plenty of minced prawn and scallops. The black truffle added the premium but sometimes I found that it was overly used in a lot of dishes and its strong aromas might overshadow other more delicate ingredients. This might be an example.

The dessert was a combination of three, including Crispy Dumpling Filled with Chocolate, Green Tea and Red Bean Mochi, as well as Dark Sesame Ice-cream. A nice mix of different styles, the dumpling had a deep-fried, crispy exterior and a nice chocolate filling. The mochi was also special in that the dough was prepared with green tea powder and the red bean filling not too sweet. The ice-cream was rich and good in taste too. A nice treat and good wrap up for the meal.

The restaurant was certainly a tourist and business dinner hot-spot as we saw most of the customers were foreigners. Service was decent, without much surprises but also lacking a bit of the warmth I would hope to see. But still overall this is one good spot to bring your guest or special ones to enjoy the wonderful view while enjoying some interesting culinary concepts put into practice.