Soon to be celebrating its 30th birthday, three-Michelin-starred T’ang Court serves classic, highly accomplished Cantonese dishes. The restaurant is filled with plush carpeting, gold and burgundy accents and lavish drapes, with the traditional, white-clothed tables set with pristine china.
The highly praised Cantonese institution in TST’s Langham hotel is participating in the Hong Kong Tourism Board’s Great November Feast, presenting a thematic tasting menu ($1,350/person) containing the restaurant’s signature dishes. It’s a true gourmet celebration for foodies this autumn!
Focusing on lobster, Chef Kwong Wai Keung and his team have elevated this luxurious ingredient with an array of cooking techniques. In particular, T’ang Court is famed for its fried lobster with spring onion, red onion and shallot.
Beginning this exciting dinner, we started with an amuse-bouche – a one-bite deep-fried prawn with a small cluster of traditional pickled Chinese fungus and cucumber. T’ang Court’s beloved XO sauce was served on the side, containing micro dried prawns and seasoned traditionally with Chinese herbs and oils. You can buy this sauce to use at home to amp up your rice, vegetables or noodles with a mild kick, adding deep savoury flavours.
T’ang Court’s iconic appetiser platter of jellyfish, chilled South African abalone, fried diced cod with honey syrup and char siu rolled out next. We were advised to start eating from the right of the dish, working our way to the left. The delicate jellyfish was soft and crunchy, while the sauce-dressed abalone was slightly chewy and smooth. Heading to the heavier bites, the char siu was juicy, sweet and tender, while the fried diced cod was crunchy and flaky. This was one of my favourites of the evening.
The golden-fried stuffed bean curd with egg, vegetables and thinly sliced Japanese cep mushroom in pumpkin soup was the ultimate seasonal dish. The bean curd was nutty and fluffy, while the soup was slightly sweet, bright with an orange hue and had the perfect puréed texture.
The sautéed fried lobster with sliced conch began our mains. As one of T’ang Courts signatures, I was truly in awe of this dish. The glossy lobster had a melt-in-the-mouth effect with a very subtle crunch. This dish was purely focused on enhancing the flavour of the lobster. The thinly sliced conch was akin to the texture of abalone.
The stir-fried Japanese Wagyu with traditional greens, Chinese celery, coriander and spring onion was served with deep-fried garlic. The lightly seasoned Wagyu was soft and delicate on the palate, while the vegetables provided some fresh, crunchy textures.
Just when we thought it was the end of dinner, the best dish of the night – fried noodles with lobster in chicken broth – was placed on our table, awing us all. The clustered fried noodles were served separately and later cut into wedges and placed beside the huge mound of lobster meat that we couldn’t wait to dive into. Simply divine!
Chinese petits fours were individually served to finish the meal: sliced melon and strawberry, sweet, ripe mango, a Cantonese-style egg tart and a heart-shaped tea jelly containing goji berries.
Verdict
T’ang Court truly lives up to its Golden Age name, serving impeccable traditional Cantonese dishes. I came out of dinner feeling flustered, being unable to put my words together – it was that good. For the Great November Feast menu, they did an outstanding job focusing on lobster. I’d love to try the restaurant’s tasting menu with wine pairings and also dim sum at the weekend!
1/F and 2/F, The Langham, Hong Kong, 8 Peking Road, TST, 2132 789, book online
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