Birthday Lunch at Hutong, The Shard

Birthday Lunch at Hutong, The Shard

• March 09, 2017

A few months ago, back in November, we went to Hutong at The Shard to celebrate my sister's birthday and we had such a great time. 

My brother was one of the restaurant managers there at the time, so even on his day off he still had to go into work haha. We always feel very privileged to dine at all the restaurants he's worked in. To see him banter away with his team and best of all, we always get treated like royalty. Words can't describe how proud I am of him when I see him in his element.

Everything at The Shard is pure luxury, from entering the front doors, to going up in the lifts and then finally setting foot into the restaurant. Needless to say, the view over London is stunning and our table by the window meant we got to stare at it for the entire 4 hours that we were there. 

Since my brother knew what was good on the menu, we let him take the lead. The set menu was ordered for all 3 of us, and we picked a few additional things from the a la carte menu too. For £35.00 per person, the price is a bargain and I am happy to say the majority of the items on it were delicious. 

The quirky menu.

Refreshing and pretty looking non-alcoholic cocktails.

Brother's latte art. First coffee he's ever made me!

Liquid lunch... The cucumber and fish soup was delicious.

From the set menu, 4 types of dumplings. They looked oh-so-pretty but taste wise they were on the bland side with dumpling wrappers not steamed to chewy and glutinous perfection.

Xiaolong bao; dumplings filled with pork and soup inside, and black truffle shiitake mushrooms were ordered as extras. The mushroom buns are the cutest things ever, made to look like mushrooms. So clever! Again, both dishes were nice but underwhelming in taste.

Hutong are reputable for their roast Peking duck, and it's decent. The meat was succulent, skin is crispy, but the thick layer of fat under the skin wasn't too pleasant. We had it served 2 ways, the good parts of the duck are sliced ready to be wrapped in pancakes with hoi sin sauce, cucumber and spring onion, whilst the rest of the meat is stir fried and served in lettuce cups.

The chef sent out a huge portion of the lettuce cups just for us.

This was the knockout dish from the set menu lunch. Ma la baby cuttlefish; stir fried with dried chillies, Sichuan pepper and Chinese celery. The fried cuttlefish was beautifully crispy and so tasty with a salty and fiery flavour. The Chinese celery did a great job of adding crunch, fragrance and offered a cooling effect from the chillies. So good.

Fried chicken with Sichuan dried chilli was just as sensational as the cuttlefish. All the mains were spicy, spicy, spicy, but luckily we all love our spice.

Bro had requested for this dish to be swapped in instead of the blackbean chicken from the set menu and the chef gave us another huge serve. Perks of dining at my brother's place of work but we are full to the brim.

Wok tossed choi sum and chef's pickled vegetable fried rice with egg were the perfect ending to lunch. We're absolutely stuffed, but somehow managed to keep eating coz they did such a great job of balancing out the spicy mains.

Mango pudding with fruit salsa and coconut sorbet to finish. Both were delicious and were light and refreshing. Just what we needed after such a heavy lunch.

We all had such a good time and sis enjoyed her celebratory lunch, although not so much at the surprise presentation of a birthday dessert and loudly sung birthday song by us and all the staff. She was mortified and completely embarrassed, much to the glee of my brother and I.

For lunch with a fantastic view that won't break the bank, Hutong's set menu for lunch is a great choice. I'd been to Hutong in Hong Kong and was quite disappointed by it so I didn't have high hopes for the London branch. However, I'm please to say the food in the London restaurant is much better. Perhaps we'd made better menu choices this time round but who knows. 

My brother is no longer working there anymore so it really was special to have dined there when we did. His new adventure in Dubai awaits and hopefully we'll be able to visit him later this year!