China Tang is a Chinese restaurant which resides in the basement of the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. We’ve been meaning to go for quite a while now and after a recent meal at A. Wong in Pimlico, we found ourselves craving a bit of dim sum so we popped down for lunch.
It was a pretty and quaint restaurant; the dining room felt like an upmarket version of my local Chinese. As we sank back into our sofa banquette, our mood matched the atmosphere; comfortable and relaxed. The adjacent bar was quite a thing of beauty – I shall be sure to pay that a visit on another occasion.
It’s not the cheapest of restaurants but they do offer a set lunch menu priced at £27.50. We were after a bit of variety however, so decided to order from the dim sum menu.
The turnip cake (£6) started things off and was a slightly greasy and rich delight. The prawn toast (£6) quickly followed, which was equally as delicious. They were clearly fresh from the fryer however, as the internal temperature was similar to that of molton lava. That was nothing though in comparison to the scalding my tongue received from the spring rolls (£5) but once left to cool, they were great; with a light crisp pastry.
The scallop dumplings (£6) were delicate, light and sticky – a little too sticky in fact as they stuck to the grease proof paper beneath them. Wonderful flavour though. We found the same sticky problem with the pork buns (£5) which lost a lot of their bottom to the paper below. They were sweet and the soft, white dumpling itself melted in my mouth – totally delightful.
The duck and pancakes (£14) were really good; the duck had been cut into thick chunks and was seriously tender and moist. Duck and pancakes never gets old, does it?
The only dud dish we ordered was the noodles with duck (£15) – and what a dud it was. Tiny morsels of dry, greasy duck were sparsely mixed with an humungous mound of tasteless, overcooked noodles which seemed horrendous value for money compared to the modest value of the dim sum.
Putting things firmly back on track and finishing our meal on a high were the chocolate dumplings (£7). Four tiny tortellini were filled with one of the gooiest, richest chocolate sauces I’ve ever encountered. It was quite unique as I’ve never had anything like it before.
China Tang didn’t provide us with the best dim sum we’ve ever eaten but it was all still very tasty. It’s a cute dining room too with sweet and friendly staff so I’d gladly go back. And I’ll definitely pay that bar a visit.
7/10
