M&C Duck (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I seldom write about Chinese restaurants on this blog but M&C Duck gave me every reason to be included. First and foremost, it's one of the hottest new restaurants in Tsim Sha Tsui right now. Thanks to its no reservation policy, the huge lineup in front of the restaurant starts to pile up every night at around 5:15-5:30pm. 



We arrived at approximately 5:20pm and 40 minutes later, we finally got ourselves a table with a view to the harbour.

M&C Duck is a new concept brought to us by the local catering giant, Maxim's. The restaurant blends the traditional Peking-Huaiyang cuisine with modern Cantonese cooking highlighted by an assortment of duck themed fusion dishes. 



Even the chopstick holder matches the theme!



We began dinner with a dish of sliced roasted duck with osmanthus pudding. Each slice of roasted duck was accompanied with a thin slice of cucumber, an osmanthus jelly and a crispy chip.

This was a fairly innovative dish but the jelly was very light on osmanthus flavor and did not turn out to be a good match with the Peking duck.



This is a very popular dish when it comes to traditional Chinese banquets - deep fried crab claw. The presentation was a bit "westernized" with a spoon although it's still served with the conventional vinegar sauce.

For $58, it's a very good buy.



Finally, we switched back to something more traditional firstly with the Shanghaiese style steamed buns (Xiao Long Bao). The nice thin wraps, perfectly portioned pork fillings and wonderful broth had us craving for more!



Next up for us was a warm bowl of sichuan-style hot and spicy noodle. The small portion ($30) left us enough room to sample more dishes.



Fast forward to dessert now, we had quite a debate over what to order before finally deciding on the "Osmanthus Red Apple".

By appearance, this looked almost exactly the same as Heston Blumenthal's famous appetizer, the "Meat Fruit" but it was in fact a poached apple stuffed with purple glutinous rice and finished with an osmanthus syrup. 

Another dish with osmanthus...the chef must be a huge fan of osmanthus!

 


M&C Duck doesn't have the best Peking Duck in Hong Kong but it's the innovative fusion dishes and reasonable prices that separate them from the rest of the competition.


Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 3319, 3/F, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2347-6898
Website: www.maximschinese.com.hk/eng/restaurant/outlet_facts.aspx?sId=80