Dark Side Tang

Last chance for a meal with my friend C. who was leaving town tonight, and we figured a bit of local food would be appropriate. For once, I wanted to pick a place I had not reviewed before, so I chose to take her to Tang Court (The Langham Hong Kong, 8 Peking Road, TST). I had been introduced to this restaurant during a dim sum lunch with my fellow foodie Peech and was curious to try their dinner menu - it did not disappoint, despite the fact that some of my foodie friends have reported so fairly unpleasant experiences with the service at this place, and at times found the food "so-so". We enjoyed the food a lot, and found the service to be attentive and very friendly.We were (I would say surprisingly, given that this is a hotel restaurant) pretty much the only foreigners in the restaurant that night, and found our waiter to be very knowledgeable about the food and eager to advise on what to order (even if we ended up not following his recommendations). I will definitely return to this place to sample more dishes.

Appetizer: deep-fried tofu cubes in warm chicken broth

Very tasty.

The Chef's home-made vegetarian XO sauce. I could not resist trying it (despite the fact that none of our dishes required this to be added) and found it very good.

The Chef's home-made chilli sauce

Excellent - sticky, a bit sweet and hot. I wish we had ordered something to dip into this...

Char siu

Just about ok for me (my friend, who is not as picky, enjoyed it a lot). The honey flavour was good, but there was way to much jus in the plate. Tasty meat, but it came with pieces of fat between the meat rather than the meat being marbled, as is the case in other places. Assuming Island Tang's char siu is 9/10, I would give this a 6.

Double-boiled Chinese cabbage with bamboo fungus and yunnan ham soup

I have always been a huge fan of these clear, double-boiled soups found in Cantonese cuisine, and this one was right up my alley. The broth was packed with flavours from the ham. Delicious, warming and light.

Stir-fried pea shoots with garlic

The garlic had been roasted before being added to the veggie, giving a much milder and sweeter flavour. Excellent.

Crispy salty chicken

One of the Chef's recommendations according to the menu. Our waiter suggested the kitchen could debone the half-chicken for us, which we found was a good idea. Cut bones are one of my pet peeves, and I have to admit that even after a few years in my beloved Honkie, I still find it difficult to suck on chopped up poultry bones (even though whole bones have never been an issue) as I find the feeling of the hard, spongy texture of the bones on the tongue extremely unpleasant, if not off-putting. The chicken turned up on our table perfectly deboned and was very good - not as salty as I would have expected, with a flavourful and juicy meat. The skin could have been crispier though.