Hutong at the Shard review: As good as it ever was
For those of us who have worked in the City for a good chunk of our lives, realising that the restaurants in the Shard are over 10 years old is an unwelcome reminder of the ceaseless passage of time. It’s also a personal reminder that it’s 10 years since I was left waiting in Hutong for more than 90 minutes by my date, the staff going from understanding to concerned to sympathetic to, eventually, surprised when she eventually turned up.
By that stage the sun had long since set upon our planned sunset meal but the glittering lights of the Square Mile served as an alternative backdrop. I was impressed by the food, expecting relatively little (most skyscraper restaurants are dreadful) but finding a series of dishes loaded with punchy flavours and numbing Sichuan peppers. Where most ‘restaurants of altitude’ settle for blandly inoffensive fare that’s sure to appeal to the bridge and tunnel crowd, Hutong was trying something different.
It’s 10 years since I was left waiting in Hutong for more than 90 minutes by my date, the staff going from understanding to concerned to sympathetic to, eventually, surprised when she eventually turned up
Walking back in for the first time in 10 years, I was struck by how similar it all looks – the same dark wood furniture, the same lantern-red accents, the same thicc, sinewy tree dominating one part of the dining room.
The chairs are the same, too – I remember because they are unlike any chair I’ve sat in before or since, incorporating their own footrest and placing you at an angle so upright your chiropractor would be proud.
Hutong lunch menu
I was here to try the new Azalea lunch menu, which, at £80 a person before you factor in lubrication, is not cheap. It’s good, though and there’s enough food to turn your meal into a long, languorous affair should the office not beckon. First up was a predictably excellent roasted Peking duck: a decadent spread, carved at the table, involving as much fat as flesh. This is the good stuff. Then came dim sum: lobster; crispy pork; mushroom and spinach. They looked fantastic and disappeared so quickly they must have tasted pretty good too.
You then get four main dishes, with kung po fried prawns probably the pick of the bunch: big, meaty, crunchy prawns in a sauce mild enough not to detract from the main attraction. The flat noodles with veg is also top notch, a lovely, umami-infused way to catch up on your carbs.
I could have taken or left the beef tenderloin, which neither lived up to the promise of “green chilli” nor left things simple enough to let the beef do the talking. But forget about that – let’s talk about the string beans. I had forgotten how much I loved these a decade ago but the very sight of them brought the memories flooding back.
Hutong isn’t just a restaurant with a pretty view – in fact it’s good enough that it makes you forget about the view altogether, providing you with enough gustatory stimulation that the grey cityscape becomes little more than wallpaper
Back then I described them as “the best thing I ate all night. What a plate of beans. I asked the manager how you make beans so good – he said ‘deep fry them for two seconds before pan-frying with pork, garlic, shallots and shrimp. We cook it properly, other restaurants are lazy.’” Well, don’t change a winning formula – they are still wonderful.
There was dessert but there probably shouldn’t have been – not after all that. I’m only human.
Hutong isn’t just a restaurant with a pretty view – in fact it’s good enough that it makes you forget about the view altogether, providing you with enough gustatory stimulation that the grey cityscape becomes little more than wallpaper after a while.
Pleasantly buzzing from champagne and cocktails, I headed down to Aqua Shard for a seat in one of the banquettes, flute in hand, watching the city pass by below. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.