T’ang Court – impeccable Chinese meals at The Langham Hong Kong

With Chinese New Year coming up soon, I’m already preparing to be stuffed full of Chinese dinners for weeks on end! As a result, I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to add yet another Chinese meal at The Langham Hong Kong’s T’ang Court to my list of banquets – but lo and behold, the food was fantastic and the service absolutely impeccable!

Once you step into The Langham (not to be confused with Langham Place in Mong Kok!), you’re instantly transported into a grand European-style hotel haven. The luxury of the hotel is reflected in the traditional upscale décor of T’ang Court itself; the restaurant recently won back its second Michelin star, leaving us eager to see what all the fuss is about!

We began with a platter of special appetisers – a mix of four different bites to rev up our appetite. I first took a bite of the chilled fungus with cucumber in Chinkiang vinegar; the cucumber was perfectly crunchy and the rice vinegar kept each bite sharp and cool.

The smoked fillet with honey sauce was quickly gobbled up – the slightly sweet glaze on the fish was simply irresistible. Sadly, neither Rach nor I are fans of abalone (something about that rubbery texture puts us both off!), which was served here with fish maw – but I can vouch for the tart underneath it, which was a wonderfully rich and buttery shortcrust pastry. If only it were a custard filled egg tart, rather than the abalone!

The final appetiser on our platter were some fried rice rolls; I’m usually no big fan of rice rolls, especially the steamed ones you get at dim sum, but at T’ang Court, these were just the right amount of crispy on the outside, yet chewy in the middle… and they went flawlessly with T’ang Court’s addictive homemade XO sauce!

As for the mains – first up, we had T’ang Court’s award-winning stir-fried lobster with spring onion, red onion and shallots. This is a super popular dish here with regular diners; let’s face it, who doesn’t love their lobster?! However, despite the succulent texture and tender sweet meat of the lobster, the flavours of the spring onion and shallots just didn’t shine through as much as we’d hoped.

What did prove to be an A+ dish was the stir-fried diced rib eye with spring onion and wasabi. I know what you’re thinking – but wasabi’s Japanese! Why’s it here in a Chinese restaurant? But let me tell you, the rib eye, aside from being beautifully cooked, was delicious, and the wasabi added a subtle and unusual kick of flavour. Absolutely stunning!

No Chinese meal is complete without rice, so next up was fried rice with scallops, avocado and Yunnan ham. I know, I know… fried rice sounds boring – you can never really go wrong with fried rice, but when was the last time you had really spectacular fried rice either?! However, the rice here at T’ang Court was exactly that; the unlikely addition of avocado chunks gave a fantastic buttery texture to the rice, separating it from the standard fare you’d find at most other Chinese restaurants. But the star of the show was the finely diced Yunnan ham, which added a wonderfully salty and smoky flavour to the dish.

Having filled our stomachs with so much food, a light dessert was definitely welcomed (I know, totally a rare occasion for us Sassy girls!). Platters of fresh fruit and Chinese petit fours were ordered; the delicious little “dan taat” (egg tarts) were milky and sweet, whilst the almond cookie took me back to childhood days where I’d gobble down biscuits after school.

So if you want Chinese but are tired of your usual (and probably overly rowdy) standard hangouts, T’ang Court is a great option for elegant Chinese food with impeccable service. The restaurant is perfect for bringing out-of-towners or locals alike, and is perfectly situated near the TST harbour-front for a nice stroll after a big meal! So if you haven’t had all your Chinese New Year meals planned out just yet, definitely keep T’ang Court in mind for some Year of the Horse celebrations!

Tang Court  168 Nga Tsin Wai Road, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong