Time to take holiday, but nowhere to travel

After recently leaving my most recent role for pastures new, I found myself needing to use almost ten days of annual leave. I had made a few considerations of what to do with my time…

• Can I travel to Portugal? Yes…how much are flights?...what if I can’t get back?...Oh, it’s not on the Green List anymore…mission aborted.
• Faroe Islands? No direct flights unless you go via Amber List Denmark…
• Iceland? No vaccine…the closest I could get is the local Iceland supermarket.
• Jersey or the Channel Islands? A lot of faff with getting tests for a short trip.

Any chance to visit the so-called “Green List” countries or territories was not feasible so it was time for a rethink. Instead, I decided to just stay in my home city, do some cycling and treat us a little – it another celebration making it a perfect excuse for something excessive and a celebration! Cue Hutong at The Shard.

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Hutong is on the thirty third floor at London’s tallest building, The Shard, located near to London Bridge Station in SE1. The restaurant is part of a mid-sized group of premium restaurants that operate in London, Los Angeles, Miami, and Hong Kong under the Aqua and Hutong brands. Aqua generally tends to be closer to Bistro style foods like steak whilst Hutong focusses on Chinese cuisine. There are several entrances to The Shard that you will need to navigate correctly to reach the restaurant:

• Avoid the entrance for The Shard Viewing Deck – this is the paid entrance that takes you to the top of the building.
• Do not take the entrance for The Shangri-la Hotel, Gong, Ting and Bar 31 as this will take you to the wrong area.
• The final main entrance is that closest to the HCA medical centre on the easterly part of the building which has signs to Hutong, Aqua Shard and Oblix.

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To gain access to Hutong, you will need to go through a quick security check and take an elevator up to the thirty third floor, which is currently limited to a total of 6 passengers at a time. The restaurant advises arriving fifteen minutes prior to your booking to ensure you get to your table in time due to the reduced number of people the lift can currently take. Strangely nobody in the Elevator lobby checked whether we had a booking or not. The lift is swift and is over within moments. After stepping foot out of the lift, you will need to follow the hallway and then go up the stairs to the restaurant, going down the stairs takes you to Aqua Shard restaurant.

Ambience

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Hutong is a namesake to the slightly shabby but charming areas of Chinese cities, in particular Beijing, that have not been regenerated. Having experienced a hutong during a trip to Beijing in 2018, these are some of the most unique and charming neighbourhoods in the city which ooze culture far more than any slick skyscraper in the rest of the city or Shanghai ever would. Upon entering the restaurant, you can see the inspiration that Hutong harks back to in Chinese cities. Dark woods, red lanterns, a tree with “hong bao” or red packets (which are traditionally given with cash during Chinese New Year) hanging from it. The owners of this restaurant have painstakingly attempted to emulate the experience of being in a Chinese hutong without falling into the trappings of stereotypes or being tacky.

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The layout of the restaurant is somewhat awkward in that it is split. To the left of the reception is a bar with tables, where we were asked to sit for ten minutes whilst waiting for a table, as well as there being more private seating areas for large groups that are enclosed with an exclusive view. To the right of the reception is the primary dining room for consumption of food. On bookings, Hutong explicitly states that it is not possible to request a window table, which is likely at the top of everybody’s request. Luckily however, we were guided to our table for two with a fantastic view looking upon SE1 and beyond with views of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Eye and as far as the BT Tower in Fitzrovia. We were exceptionally lucky in getting this seat but even more lucky with the beautiful clear weather during our visit - with temperatures in the mid-twenties, little haze, and bright sunshine it was perfect to make the most of the vista.

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Food and drink

We sat down to dine at 14h15, fifteen minutes prior to our reservation, and we had the table until 16h30 – a far more relaxed pace than many other restaurants offer currently. I had originally intended to get an evening meal booking, however almost 6 weeks out this wasn’t possible, so my advice is to book at the earliest opportunity – with them opening up three months prior to the reservation at hutong.co.uk. Our booking fell within the lunch sitting and means that two menu options are offered:

• A la carte which offers a comprehensive selection of Northern Chinese cuisine at your leisure
• Or the Signature Lunch which offers five courses, including sides and dessert, of Hutong specialty dishes

We opted for the Signature Lunch primarily, however you are also able to order extra items from the a la carte menu additionally.

We ordered two cocktails with our meal from their signature list, including the Chinese Lantern, consisting of Aperol, mandarin cordial, yuzu juice, Ice Wine, vanilla syrup, peach bitter and muddled grapes, as well as a Fui Shi, which features twenty-three-year-old Zacapa rum, orange curaco, molasses, grenadine, lime and blue cornflower. Both had intense flavours however the Fui Shi was slightly stronger with a harder kick in it and was closer to the type of ice-cold cocktails I prefer, as opposed to serving the Chinese Lantern sans ice.

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The meal was extensive and for starter consisted of a selection of dumplings.

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I like to consider myself somewhat a dumpling, dim sum, sio mai connoisseur. They are easily one of my favourite Asian dishes because of their sheer simplicity, flexibility and tastiness. Hutong’s Dumplings were on another level, even when compared to my homemade ones. One can clearly taste the higher quality of the dumpling pastry which was rich in flavour, especially on the spinach one, and the contents were of high quality. This was especially apparent with the lobster dumpling which featured whole pieces of lobster meat, whereas most restaurants would use a combination of shrimp or prawn meat minced with pork mince. The dumplings went down a treat – quite frankly I could’ve just eaten them course after course, alas we moved onto Half Roasted Peking Duck.

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Peking, the former name of the People’s Republic of China capital Beijing, is famed for its method of cooking duck. Often you can see ducks hanging from shop windows when walking round London’s Chinatown with Hutong producing their Peking duck in a similar manner. Arriving on a traditional plate with Chinese decoration alongside handmade Mandarin pancakes, finely cut spring onion and cucumber alongside rich plum sauce – the combined taste was simply divine. The skin was oh so crispy and the duck meat still retaining some moistness to make your mouth salivate at the touch of a tongue. In the past, including when I tried Peking Duck in China, it was dry and disappointing, but this was on another level that was simply divine.

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For the main course we were served wok-tossed tiger prawns coated in breadcrumbs, pepper, and onion. These prawns were large and tasted like shellfish…as opposed to just watery like many places have – the coating gave it the real flavour though with a rich covering that intensified the aroma one hundred times and making it a delight to eat. The prawns were quickly followed in succession by wok-tossed beef tenderloin with green chilli, which was very tender and scrumptious as well as string beans with chilli that served as a fine accompaniment to balance out the rest of this meat heavy meal. The only let down in my view was the egg rice with seasonal vegetables. It was fine but felt that they could improve on it. It would be nice for them to give the option of steamed rice since you have a lot of flavour in the other dishes or to do something more special with the rice such as serving it in a pandan leaf or bamboo. It also felt slightly pointless that they served fried rice in a bamboo steamer…I know it is for effect and most people will not notice but I did.

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Now this is where we decided to go off-piste from the Signature Lunch but ordering additionally from the a la carte menu. As some of you may know, I am a complete av-geek but Callum, you ask, what does flying have to do with food… Hutong offer dan dan mian (noodles), a rich peanut based soup with noodles and a small serving of pork mince. I first tried dan dan mian at the Cathay Pacific Airways lounge in Hong Kong, which is their signature lounge dish and ever since I have struggled to get a similar rich taste and flavour noodle like this anywhere else. Hutong has solved this struggle. Their dan dan mian is excellent and exceeded my expectation, I loved them, and they topped off an already excellent meal – I would certainly love to try experimenting with Hutong’s recipe for dan dan mian.

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The dessert consisted of a chocolate tart with mandarin sorbet. Personally, the tart was a little rich for me since I am not the biggest fan of chocolate in desserts but the mandarin sorbet was perfect on a hot summers day and acted as a great palate cleanser to finish off the meal. If I were to advise Hutong of anything it would be to alter the dessert either give a couple of options, with or without chocolate, or to also offer a more Eastern option. It was slightly disappointing that this was a more European dessert and did not really fit in so closely with the rest of the Chinese courses.

We have heard the spiel, how much did it cost?

The Signature Lunch menu on its own costs GBP 55 per person – this is good value based on the amount of food you are receiving as well as the side dish of one of the best views in London. I would recommend anybody looking to have a special meal out to visit Hutong and to experience some authentic flavours. Our total bill came to around GBP 190 for two including the lunch menu, two dan dan mian (GBP 13 each), cocktails, one Diet Coke and a 12.5% service charge. If we had come for dinner, the Signature Dinner is GBP 95 per head – it is quite a steep increase but does offer a different variety of dishes. Although I am usually in favour of going to haunts that are smaller and less grand because they usually are better for a real authentic experience, Hutong has got it exactly right with exceptional taste and a great setting.

Hutong at the Shard can be found at Level 33, The Shard, 33 St Thomas St, London SE1 9RY. Reservations can be made three months in advance at hutong.co.uk.

What are you thoughts on Hutong at The Shard? Let us know in the comments.