Hutong at The Shard has been a firm favourite of mine for the past few years, and a venue I have frequented for many a special occasion from birthdays, anniversaries to reunions with childhood friends. This time, I was there with two of my favourite girls and the special occasion was Hutong’s 5th Birthday, for which we were experiencing a special tasting menu.
As you may know if you’ve been reading my blog for a while or follow me on Instagram, I am obsessed with The Shard, and I find the experience of having dinner whilst watching the sky change from bright and clear, to hues of pink at dusk followed by nightfall with all of London’s landmarks illuminated and twinkly just so magical.
We toasted in our favourite way, with glasses of chilled bubbles, whilst we admired the views and chatted about our week and waited excitedly for the food to arrive.
I then moved on to my usual – a Classic Mojito which was absolutely delicious.
First up from the starter selection was Bamboo shoots dressed with homemade chilli oil. This was a dish I hadn’t tried before and it was really tasty. The texture was similar to that of cassava, which is something I grew up eating a lot in Kenya.
I was really pleased that we were each handed our own selection of Hutong’s Signature colourful and delectable dim sum in the classic bamboo baskets. We enjoyed Braised mushroom dumpling with black truffle, Cuttlefish and shrimp dumpling with squid ink and smelt egg, Steamed cod fillet dumpling with tonburi and XO sauce crystal prawn dumpling, which was my favourite.
The course I had been salivating about all day was the Roasted Peking duck served with homemade pancakes. The Peking Duck was carved at our table and beautifully presented. It was so plump and juicy and roasted to perfection.
It was definitely my favourite course, with the sheer pleasure of stuffing each thin and perfect pancake with pieces of delicious duck, spring onions, cucumber and hoi sin sauce.
On my trip to Hong Kong last year I had fallen in love with the flavour of Sichuan Dried Chilli and that spicy and numbing effect it has. It is rather addictive! Hutong makes an incredible Red Lantern crispy soft-shell crab with Sichuan dried chilli and it was served beautifully in a lantern! We really enjoyed this course and the flavours were just incredible. I was lucky enough to devour some of this at Taste of London too!
The penultimate courses were Beef fillet in a hot and sour broth,Seafood fried rice with dried salted fish and ginger and Wok tossed choy sum.
They were comforting dishes that complemented each other well and the flavours were piquant and robust. Every course had really generous portions and were so satisfying and impeccable. I especially loved that you didn’t have to pick any of them – that you could just enjoy each one as they arrived.
Dessert was fruity, refreshing and divine with a Chocolate tart served with a zesty mandarin sorbet. Combined with the impeccable service, we had such a fantastic evening, and the views from our table were as mesmerising as ever.
It was the perfect dessert to end a fabulous meal on and we thoroughly enjoyed every single aspect of the tasting menu. The dishes are all chosen to complement one another and were all just so delightful.
The menu is available until the end of August but in case you miss it, the A La Carte menu at Hutong is absolutely amazing too.
For more information you can visit their website https://hutong.co.uk/
Angie says
A fabulous post which really captures a wonderful night!!
Bejal says
This looks incredible Binny! What a delicious looking and sounding meal. I reckon my next time in London needs to involve Hutong for sure!
Laura says
What a fantastic meal! I feel so hungry after reading this!
Emma @ Adventures of a London Kiwi says
This was *such* a lovely, delicious evening!
Lara Olivia says
Hutong is another one of those I’ve been meaning to try for a long time! Everything looks divine, what a wonderful opportunity! xo
mostlyfoodandtravel says
Binny your IG stories were making me drool! I love Chinese food and this looked amazing. I am gutted they won’t give us a table for 8 in their dining room or else we would have gone there this weekend. Cannot best a good Chinese, beautiful cocktails and amazing views right?