Hutong is a restaurant on the 33rd floor of The Shard which specialises in food from Northern China – your local Chinese this ain’t.
As you leave the lift and arrive at the mezzanine which overlooks Aqua Shard, you can’t help but be impressed by the sheer size of the place and that all important view. It’s even prettier in the dining room – even in the pissing rain and fog it was still wonderful.
We started with a selection of dim sum which included some baked wagyu beef puffs (£8) with the most beautiful buttery pastry and some Shanghai-style Xiao Long Bao which are dumplings filled with a pork broth. Both of which were divine.
The dim sum platter (£15) looked like it had been dropped in from a great height but tasted seriously good. The Rosé champagne shrimp and the scallop with pumpkin were particular highlights.
The wonton (£10) served with a seriously sweet and moreish garlic-chilli sauce were wet and sloppy delights – I could have eaten hundreds of the things.
Next up we ordered half a roasted Peking duck (£30) which was carved at the table by the chef which was a nice touch. It’s easily the best duck and pancakes I’ve ever eaten – the meat was tender and juicy but it was the fat that stole the show; it was worth every single impending calorie. Be careful though, if you want extra pancakes it’ll set you back four quid!
The rest of the duck was chopped into small chunks, mixed with plenty of red pepper and served with some lettuce which all worked together really well. Kung-Po style fried prawns (£27) were filled with dried chillies which made for a vibrant presentation and the plump prawns were just exquisite. Crispy de-boned lamb ribs (£31) were as good as they sound – the meat was covered with the crunchiest skin you could wish for. The spicy minced pork with string beans (£12) was possibly my favourite dish – they’re fried with chilli and scattered with salty dried petite shrimp – a must order if you go!
For dessert we went for the mini black sesame glutinous dumplings and the golden sesame dumplings filled with apple and cinnamon paste (both £5.80) which really hit my sweet spot yet they weren’t too sickly after all that food.
We went to Hutong for my Mum’s birthday (she’s 60 don’t you know) and it was the perfect place for such a celebration. Service was great, the food was divine (expensive but worth every penny) and the views really are impressive. I don’t doubt that I’ll be back to munch on more of that dim sum pretty soon.
5/5
