T'ang Court 唐閣 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

This “Work from home” thing is really starting to get on my nerve. With home cooking and delivery food a big part of my life (and everyone's) these days, the occasional dining out is like a needle in a haystack. I have been craving for some decent food all week; in fact to an extent that I decided to take half a day off to accomplish the feat. Since I haven't been out for lunch for a while, I thought I should treat myself to something nice and most importantly, something I haven't had for a long time; and that's Chinese dim sum.

I didn't expect three Michelin starred T'ang Court (唐閣) at Langham Hotel would have a table available for me when I rang them up last night. What a pleasant surprise that was.

It's the first lunch since the government reversed the day-time ban at restaurants. I can imagine restaurants getting scrambly to have their lunch service ready early this morning. But surprisingly, no customers!?

But as soon as I reached the upper level, the place was buzzing (well, sort of. In its compliance to social distancing, the restaurant is still only 50% full).

I was really looking forward to get my hands on their Executive set lunch ($400) (largely because of the double-boiled soup) but sadly, it wasn't available today. Not when the government has just suddenly announced the reversal of lunch ban. From what I've heard from my server, some of the fresh ingredients weren't ready for a number of signature dishes. And to add insult to injury, one fourth of the items from the dim sum menu was also unavailable.

Complimentary freshly squeezed orange juice to start off the meal.

Pan-fried rice flour roll with home made spicy sauce (XO 醬煎腸粉) ($88) - The rice flour rolls were pan-fried resulting with a nice, crispy coating flavored with their homemade spicy sauce. This was very tasty but I certainly won't mind a bit more spicy kick to it.

Steamed shrimp and bamboo shoot dumpling (筍尖鮮蝦餃) ($108) - Very lovely bouncy texture from the shrimps. Pretty nice.

Steamed shrimp, pork and black mushroom dumpling topped with Yunnan ham (金華滑燒賣) ($98) - Very delicate. Would love to have stronger flavors coming from the Yunnan ham though.

Baked pastries filled with wagyu beef, onion and sesame (燒汁和牛酥) ($108) - Not the best looking wagyu beef pastry I've seen in my life but it was perfectly crispy on the outside while moist and flavorful inside.

Very nice and addictive.

Baked pastries filled with fish maw and mushrooms, topped with whole abalone (原隻鮑魚花膠酥) ($100 each) - Really like the buttery tart and the braised abalone was wonderfully prepared while drizzled in the rich and fragrant abalone sauce.

But as a whole, this was one of the most disappointing dish of the afternoon. Why? Cuz the fish maw sitting right underneath the braised abalone hardly did anything to complement the flavors of the abalone. As a matter of fact, they were working individually rather than harmonizing each other. Once again, it proved that throwing premium ingredients together doesn't always work.

Fried rice noodle with Cantonese style barbecued pork, squid, celery, shredded duck and chicken (家鄉炒米粉) ($250) - The rice noodles were tossed with char siu, squid, celery, shredded duck and chicken. It's meant to be dry and obviously the chef doing a nice job keeping it that way.

Very nice dish to wrap up my meal (even when I had the leftover at home the next morning, it was still tasting good).

The way I've looked at today's lunch, the dishes certainly weren't bad (kind of in the same level as Spring Moon in my opinion) but I thought the overall dining experience hardly warrants more than a single star.

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 1/F & 2/F Langham Hotels, 8 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2132-7898 
Website: www.langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/hong-kong/dining/tang-court/

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 11:00pm (Mon - Fri), 11:00am - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 11:00pm (Sat - Sun)