Hutong 胡同 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

My best friend St Paul is back for a two-week vacation in Hong Kong, his first since 2018. I got his memo a few months ago and when he was asked where he would like to meet for our catch-up lunch, he said something about Chinese food with ancient/traditional Chinese décor. That sounds a lot like Hutong (胡同).

It's been more than a decade since I last visited Hutong. Last year, I read about them finally moving out of their iconic location at One Peking to their new digs, H Zentre which presumably boasts an equally impressive harbour view.

Their new premise features pretty much the same quirky decoration which has been associated with Hutong for almost two decades.

At 12pm, I was a little surprised that the restaurant was already half full.

When I was making my reservation last month, I have requested distinctively that I wanted this table with panoramic view of the harbour. At one point, I was asked to put down a $20,000 deposit which I immediately declined but at the end, the table was offered to us free of charge. 

While we have arguably the best seat in the house, the weather couldn't get any worse for our enjoyment of the view.

The dismal weather was obviously not getting to this guy's mood at all.

Chilled thinly-cut pork belly with cucumber (蒜泥白肉) – The paper-thin pork belly, marinated in chili and garlic sauce came with some serious heat. There was of course the numbing effect to my tongue which wasn't going away for a while. Perhaps, not the best dish to kick things off with.

Steamed cod with black olive dumpling (欖角鱈魚餃) – I wasn't a huge fan of black olive but this combination of cod fish and black olive was a pretty good match.

Crystal har gau (水晶蝦餃) – The restaurant offers two types of steamed shrimp dumplings, one with pickled chili which we didn't pick because of little nugget. This was pretty tasty with the thin wrapper. No bamboo shoot in this one.

Pork siu mai topped with caviar (魚子燒賣) – I thought the pork was a little rubbery.

Wagyu beef puff with black pepper (黑椒和牛酥) – The puff pastry was really soft and fluffy with delicate filling of diced wagyu beef and what I thought was mushroom. One of the better dim sum this afternoon for sure.

Crispy roll with prawns and scallops (海皇脆筒) – The spring rolls weren't crispy enough on the outside. The chewiness made it a little hard to taste the prawns and scallops inside.

Crispy lobster and scallop toast (龍蝦帶子脆多士) – This looks promising on paper.

The crispy toast was topped with a layer of lobster mousse and sesame, but the flavors of scallops didn't really register. 

Aromatic Peking duck (胡同片皮鴨) – We were all waiting for this one since we sat down.

We ordered half of the duck only to preserve some room for dessert.

As usual, this was served with cucumber, scallion, duck sauce and pancake. I thought it was OK. The duck skin was crispy enough and the flesh were pretty tender and juicy but something was missing, perhaps some extra smokiness from the use of applewood among other ingredients. I was telling St Paul that the pancake also tasted too "plastic" for my liking.  

Lava sea salt and caramel chocolate mochi (焦糖海鹽朱古力糯米糍) – We had to switch to another gear for our desserts. The mochi oozing with salted caramel and chocolate, was pretty nice. 

Longjing panna cotta (龍井奶凍) – Less successful was the longjing tea panna cotta. I thought it tasted more like matcha than longjing to me.

Mashed taro pancake (芋蓉窩餅) – A twist to the Shanghainese red bean paste pancake (豆沙鍋餅). This was alright. The mashed taro was less sweet than red bean paste but more filling to the stomach.

Overall, dishes are hit-or-miss at the new Hutong but that's not really news to us considering that the upscale Chinese restaurant has been one of the city's most popular destination for entertaining out-of-town guests for years (less known for its food). Like some of my previous dining experience at Aqua establishments, we had a few adventures with the waiting staff over the course of the meal. One involved a certain expensive dish that was ordered but never came (it was partially my mistake that I overlooked it when I settled the bill). At the end, I had to go back to have it all settled again.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: H Zentre, 18/F, 15 Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui / East Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 3428-8342

Website: www.hutong.com.hk

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 12:00am (Mon - Fri), 11:30am - 12:00am (Sat - Sun)