China Tang

Traditional Cantonese feast

Ginger and spring onions stir fry lobster with noodles

UK restaurants are facing a crisis with the short of skilled staff, and that is especially even more true for the Chinese restaurants, with older generation of chefs retiring and lack of chefs coming to the UK due to visa challenge. It is fair to say, there are less decent Chinese restaurants left, especially in the high end Cantonese cuisine sector, but fortunately, one venue still does it at a high level is China Tang, located within the Dorchester hotel. It has been around for more than 20 years and is still holding strong, highly regarded by the locals and guests of the hotel. Pre Covid, it is normal to see it packed out even on a Monday night. For my lucky 13th visit, I tried out a selection of new seasonal specials as well as some all time classics.

Crab claw with sweet and sour sauce

Peking duck

Black truffle and mushrooms tofu

Tofu with diced mushrooms and black truffle is one of the new dishes from head chef Fong, the tofu was silky smooth on the inside and the earthy flavours of the truffle somehow worked really well with the tofu which was somewhat unexpected. Classic stir fry lobster was done expertly as expected, the native Scottish lobster was fresh, tender and had a great depth of natural sweetness and savoy aroma thanks to the spring onions and ginger. The noodles under the lobster absorbed all the lovely shellfish essence, and the sauce was just perfect as it doesn't contain too much cornstarch as you would find in most Chinese restaurants, it was top class. Another classic dish was the steamed wild seabass, deboned perfectly and the flesh was so smooth. The soy sauce seasoning was finely blended with hot oil to enhance the umami profile of the fish, it was classic Cantonese cooking done in such a refined manner.

Stir fry squid in xo sauce

Cantonese style steamed seabass

Custard and lemon bao

There is a reason why I have been to China Tang for so many times, and that is because they always turned out old school Cantonese in such a high standard. No gimmicks, no fancy garnishes, just solid Cantonese cooking done by a a team of very experience chefs. I have eaten pretty much the whole menu and I am yet to get bored as I always have time for high quality Chinese cooking, just a shame there isn't many restaurants left that does it well in the UK. 

Food 4/5


Average cost without drinks and services:
£50

53 Park Ln, Mayfair, London W1K 1QA

https://www.chinatanglondon.co.uk/