Monday 26 October 2015

A Wong - Restaurant review


DIM SUM EXPERIENCE

Before my visit to A Wong I had only tried Dim sum once before and on this occassion I wasn't impressed at all, to be fair my first experience took place in one of the most frightening restaurants I have ever set foot in, it was a massive restaurant in China town that looked like something straight out of Rush hour 2 , it was more mafia cover up than cheap and cheerful China town restaurant, and when I say it was frightening I'm not talking about the the mafia set up, I'm talking about the food borne bacteria that circled the room on serving trolleys, they were being pushed by people that looked like they indulged in the trolleys 'delights' and was about to peg it. I didn't want to go the same way. I gagged as put the one of the more scary looking pieces of Dim sum in my mouth - my stomach instantly sensed danger, it the worst texture imaginable and the taste was rancid, I was done and didn't need to experiment any further. 

A WONG  
('Three sauce crisped Canniloni')

Time passed and I figured it was only fair to give Dim Sum  another go outside of the human trafficking mafia den and what better place than the highly spoke of A Wong on Walton Street Victoria. Andrew Wong is a highly regarded chef who took over his fathers restaurant and is bringing Chinese cookery into the modern restaurant scene. All the top restaurant reviewers love this place so I must mention in comparison this review may seem bizarre and biased on a matter of my taste and feelings towards Dim Sum. (I'm saying this to protect myself from backlash)

I genuinely wanted to have my mind changed.

Me and a friend visited at lunch time to try the Dim Sum menu, I had read lots of glowing write ups about A Wong, lots stating its great 'value for money'. 

(Shanghai steamed bun)

We choose the following, Sweet and sour ribs, 63 degree 'tea egg, wild mushroom and truffled steamed bun, 'breakfast in a causeway bar', Fois gras bun, Shanghai steamed dumpling , three sauce cannelloni, clear shrimp dumpling and bean fritters. There may have been others that I can't actually remember.

Other than the Fois gras bun which tasted good but sadly had no more than a smudge inside its streamed bun , the other dim sum items all tasted the same, none of the fillings stood out, the more interesting sounding items were the more disappointing, the clear shrimp dumplings are just much to similar to testicles for my liking, that's of course no fault of A Wong, just my own personal issue.

Prices ranged between £1.50- £9.00 per piece and most items are sold as one piece. When using expensive ingredients high prices are completely warranted however I couldn't help but feel that (when spending your own hard earned cash, not getting invited for free) it all just felt a bit stingy. 
There is no denying the skill of the kitchen when making these delicate pieces, the presentation was great but the hit of flavour ,for me, just wasn't there, It speaks volumes when you're struggling to remember what you even had for lunch, if anything was that good I wouldn't have stopped thinking about it to this day.  



 I must mention that my dessert of Star anise poached strawberries with iced coconut and jelly was massively satisfying. The best thing I had all lunch. 
On a positive note the restaurant does have a cosy atmosphere and a pleasant service, the kitchen is open (always a good thing isn't it?) also the wine list is has a good selection with many fair priced bottles to choose from. We had a French sauvignon which was only £20.00 as tasted bloody lovely.

The 'value for money' lunch at A Wong came to just over £90.00 for two and I left the restaurant still feeling hungry.
 Could it be that we just made all the wrong choices? But then why would all this items even exist on the menu if they are so mediocre?
(I must mention A Wong does offer an A la carte menu and does not only offer Dim sum). 

A Wong and Dim sum lovers will probably think I'm a complete penis after reading this review.          I wanted to be another reviewer raving about it, I really did. So A penis I may be must I can whole heartily say I will never be putting another over priced bollock in my mouth ever again. Soz

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