Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - China Tang 唐人館

This restaurant was first opened in 2007 at the Dorchester Hotel in London, dedicated to offer a fine-dining experience for Chinese cuisine. Coming to HK in 2013 with an outlet in The Landmark, they opened another outlet at the Harbour City. Arriving early, even though we did not make a booking, we were able to sit at the table on the window side, with a wonderful harbour view to accompany our dinner.

The design and concept is developed by Sir David Tang, the restaurant tried to recreate the dining atmosphere at the turn of the century, with plush carpet and orange chairs, a table lamp which bring diners back in time. All the waiters are dressed with the traditional Chinese tunic suit, and even the music on the background is the oldies from the period.

We ordered two soups to start, with me going for the Signature Seafood Hot and Sour Soup ($128), while my wife had the Double-boiled Almond Soup with Fish Maw and Pig's Lung ($258). The soup is really tasty, with an intense spicy and sour taste which balanced each other very well. The finely shredded fish maw, bamboo and wood-ear provided a good bite. There is also a large prawn which is fresh, crunchy and full of flavors. It has been a while since I had a nice hot and sour soup and happily I have one today.

We then had the Barbecue Eel with Osmanthus Honey ($198). Grilled beautifully, the skin of the eel is crispy, showing an appealing brown color. The eel is thick and meaty, good in taste and pairing well with the osmanthus honey, which not only giving a light sweetness which nicely complement with the eel, the osmanthus has a delicate fragrance too. Another good dish.

Next we had the Crispy Prawn Casserole with White Pepper and Basil ($338). When the lid is opened there is a great peppery note jumping out, and the golden-color prawns are artfully arranged to sit on top of the white peppers. The prawns have been deep-fried briefly to make the shell crispy, while keeping the flesh moist and not drying out. With some of the peppers sticking to the flesh, eating the prawn there is a nice pepper note on top. My favorite in the evening.

The other dish was Grilled Abalone and Stewed Chicken and Scallions with Huadiao Wine and Abalone Sauce in Casserole ($568). Again when opening the lid the first impression was the nice huadiao wine aromas. The two abalone is large in size, grilled with salt, and the waiter took them out and served to us on a dish so we could enjoy it with knife and fork, wonderful in texture and with the abalone sauce and scallion. The chicken is tender and good in taste, but somehow I found the huadiao aroma surprisingly lacking. 

For desserts we have the Chilled Sago Cream with Pomelo and Mango ($42). Decent in taste, there are plenty of pomelo and mango, with the sago having an interesting poppy texture.

The other dessert is Steamed Dark Sugarcane Sponge Cake ($42). The cake is of light sweetness and giving us a sense of satisfaction without the guilt of over indulgence. The texture of the sponge cake is also good with a bit of chewiness.

Service is quite good, with the waiters attentive and coming over to pour tea whenever my cup is empty. I hope that they can explain each dish to us however, as that would in my opinion help significantly to improve the dining experience even further, knowing how the dishes are prepared.

With tea, two bowls of rice as well, the bill was $1881. Quite expensive, yes, but the dining experience overall is very nice, comfortable and relaxing. A good spot to come for special events.