Mott 32, Central, Hong Kong

Named after the location of New York City’s first Chinese supermarket (which opened all the way back in 1851) 32 Mott Street would become the heart of NYC’s Chinatown and played a part in making Chinese cuisine the global hit it is today. Helmed by Chef Fung, who previously worked at the 2 Michelin starred  Dynasty restaurant in Hong Kong, Mott 32 serves Cantonese and Sichuan dishes with a handful speciality dishes from Beijing, but its probably no surprise that I was there purely for the dim sum!

The restaurant has almost a 1920’s Great Gatsby sort of style to it, accessed by first descending a long elevator in the Standard Chartered building before navigating a windy staircase down stairs. There is a definite “speakeasy” feel about it, assisted in no small part by my glamorous dining companions, many of whom appeared to be dining on expenses (if only!)

I settled into a corner table, right next to the kitchens, which afforded me a great view of the chefs at work, from slow roasting ducks to hand folded dumplings and woks that were worked at seemingly impossible speeds, safe to say, I was in heaven before the food even arrived!

Dim Sum is always going to be tricky when dining alone, naturally I over ordered and managed around 9 of the 12 (!!) pieces of dim sum I had selected but this is half the fun and I was determined to try as much as possible. After much deliberation I narrowed it down to Kurobuta Pork Crab and Caviar Shanghainese Soup Dumplings ($895 HKD for 4) Wild Mushroom and Water Chestnut Dumplings ($65 HKD for 3) some Kurobuta Pork, Black Truffle and Soft Quail Egg Siu Mai ($60 HKD for 2) and their Signature Crispy Sugar Coated Iberico BBQ Pork Buns ( So good I completely forgot to take a note of the price!)

I’m no Dim Sum expert but it was certainly interesting to see how the use of premium ingredients affected dishes that I am relatively familiar with; the pork buns were amazing (so, so good!) and the siu mai with the quail egg inside were also really interesting. If anything the XLB were the least impressive but then when the “standard’ version is just so good, I am not sure it needs all that much improvement with fancy ingredients….

With tea and mineral water lunch came to just under $500 HKD (around $65) which whilst a touch decadent for lunch, was absolutely more than worth it for the quality of ingredients and standard of cooking on offer.

32 Mott Street, Standard Chartered Bank Building, 4-4a Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong.
+852 2885 8688
http://www.mott32.com/