Mr Wong has always been on my list to visit for upscale yum cha and we finally booked in a table for a Sunday morning. The restaurant is located in a small alleyway and when we arrived before opening, a crowd had already gathered around the entrance.
The interior was darkly lit with an open kitchen and bar. A tantalising display of glistening roast ducks hung by the side of the cooking area.
The yum cha menu is quite extensive and it was hard to choose from the interesting mix of the standard favourites and the not-so-traditional dishes.
For our yum cha tea, we selected the silver Jasmine, which was fragrant and earthy – perfect to wash down dumplings.
The lobster and scallop dumplings were tasty, with bursts of salty fishy roe and chunks of lobster meat encased in an impressively thin skin.
Thanks to the duck display, we also ordered the fried spring rolls with duck. It was like a fried version of a Peking duck pancake. The duck was meaty, moist and flavourful, but it was a little one-toned and missing some freshness to cut through the rich and salty duck meat.
The prawn, XO and mussel dumplings were already a winner when they arrived at the table, with a large mussel sticking out from the middle of each dumpling. The attention to detail applied to the dish was amazing, with a purposefully thicker skin to hold in the large chunks of prawn and mussel in the filling. Even then, the skin was still silky smooth. The crunchy water chestnut added some freshness and texture to the dumplings.
Along with spring rolls, prawn toast is my other deep fried yum cha indulgence, and the combination with foie gras and sesame was too tantalising to pass up. The star of the dish was no doubt the meaty, juicy prawn ball with smatterings of roe inside. For me though, this dish was a little disappointing in that it was more prawn than prawn toast. I would’ve liked more of the crunchy, fried bread base, but that’s just a personal preference.
The prawn and crispy dough rice roll is in essence cheong fun wrapped around a hollowed out yu char kway with a prawn filling.
The prawn was juicy and moist and the thin layer of yu char kway better was crunchy fried goodness. This is one of those dishes you can’t resist ordering every visit.
Our last dish was the egg tarts. Mr Wong’s came served sophisticatedly in Chinese spoons. The pastry was perfection – it was buttery and crumbly with a thin base. The egg custard was gently sweet and creamy. It was a warm and comforting end to the meal.
We did have a dish not turn up at the table, but it was probably for the best as our stomachs were quite stuffed! Mr Wong is a little pricey for an every week yum cha venture, but you truly do feel you get your money’s worth in a polished dining setting and some delicious food.
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