Weekly Review: A. Wong
Journey through China via the medium of Dim Sum and excellent wine.
Quick hit: Top-flight Chinese delivered in wondrous bites of delight.
Details: Booking essential. Pimlico. ££££.
Restaurant website. More on Instagram and from Michelin.
Find it on Google Maps. 70 Wilton Rd, Pimlico, SW1V 1DE.
When we arrived at the front door of A. Wong, promptly at noon as instructed during the booking process, it was locked.
This, in retrospect, was a good sign. A suggestion that the restaurant expected our lunch to be sufficiently long, involved, and excellent that it would be best for us to begin at the very moment they opened and to prepare to linger.
They were correct.
Through most of afternoon, we meandered through China, pausing for brief interludes to taste, sip, or nibble on a lovely, technically brilliant cross section of that country’s astonishing culinary diversity.
A. Wong isn’t where you might expect. If you were standing in front of Victoria Station, you might look for a place with two Michelin stars straight ahead in Belgravia or over your shoulder in Pimlico. At a stretch, you could imagine it off to the right, amongst the radical range of new builds that sprung up along Victoria Street over the decade. But instead, A. Wong is behind the station, on a mildly salubrious street. And that’s where we found ourselves, standing before the locked door, on a cold, steely London day.
Once the door was unlocked (swiftly), we found a warm welcome — literally and figuratively — and walked straight into a vision of paradise. We were a large group, so were led downstairs through a jungle of greenery into what is normally the cocktail bar. We had the whole area to ourselves, except for the team of ladies working studiously at one end of the bar to assemble dumplings. They were with us through our whole lunch, and added to the sense of authenticity that I felt in virtually everything.
At lunch, A. Wong offers a selection of dim sum designed as an introduction and exploration of Chinese cuisine, with particular focus on Cantonese. The current iteration is called “Touch of the Heart.”
At this point, I’m going to ask your forgiveness for two things: First, the bar was quite dark, and photography was difficult. My pictures, which are usually rubbish, are particularly bad this time. Second, I’m going to go into more detail about the food and wine here than I usually do, in hopes of conveying some sense of the level of creativity and achievement in every dish.
Over the course of the meal, we progressed through five rounds, each with a few dishes, and each paired with appropriate wine.
The first round actually included two wines, so that we could compare the experiences with the food. One was a young Riesling from an excellent producer in the Rheingau. Riesling is the traditional pairing for hard to match foods because its high acidity and luscious flavours tend to balance well with a range of foods, especially spicy ones.
The other wine was Dom Perignon 2013. And it turns out that champagne, especially good champagne, is likewise a fantastic pairing with spicy food for lots of the same reasons. Both more than passed the test in this case, though I very slightly preferred the Riesling.
The dim sum in the first round included parcels filled with Iberico pork seasoned with liquorice and topped with a dehydrated raspberry powder. Good God, it was delicious. There was also “smacked” cucumber with trout roe in a ridiculous chill, garlic, and vinegar sauce — a sauce so good, I was eating it with a spoon once the cucumber were finished. A shrimp dumpling was topped with a “rice vinegar cloud” and managed to be both delicate in texture and bold in flavour. But the most miraculous was the “pork and prawn dumpling.” This was actually two dumplings made separately but then joined during cooking (I have no idea how) to deliver a combined flavour. It was topped with a bit of crackling and sweet chill sauce. I dream of such things.
The second round brought more miracles, and a real sense of humour. There was a wonton filled with a poached egg yolk. A “carrot” filled with the most astonishing rabbit. (Get it?) A legendary “999 layered scallop,” and something called “Memories of Peking Duck,” that I can’t begin to explain. These were served with a lovely, full bodied white wine from southwest France made from Grenache Blanc and absolutely packed with character.
The third round included more substantial bites. My favourite was the scallop and Iberico pork cheung fun. These were rich and decadent sandwich-like morsels made with such care that it was almost criminal to eat them. Then there were bites of pork crackling topped with thin slices of prawn and rounds of black truffle. Finally for this round, noodles with king crab and a broth so clear that I would describe it as perfect consommé.
The fourth round was “lamb burger,” a DIY dish that started with perfect bao buns. You could then assemble your burger to your own specifications from a tray that included luscious, slow-cooked lamb, greens, sesame, fried onions, and a chilli ketchup. This was served with the best wine for any burger: A 2016 Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley in California.
The final round included a dessert — a stunning bun filled with “duck yolk custard” — and a cheese course. Except the cheese course was made to appear as ice cream cones and was served with a pistachio topping. The cheese was so rich, creamy, and wonderful that the experience was more like cheese cake than a cheese course. The final wine was a 2015 Sauternes, an outstanding match for both dishes.
The whole lunch including all of the food and the wine pairings came to £195 per person. Now, I am not about to argue that £195 is cheap for lunch. It’s an extravagance beyond any doubt. But in the context of today’s high-end restaurants, where a tasting menu might run £175 or more with an additional £150 or so for a wine pairing, this price for lunch represented tremendous value, especially given the excellent quality of wines (and in stark contrast to some other experiences I’ve had.)
Massive kudos to sommelier Mickael Metayer for the brilliant pairings. In a recent interview, he talked about the challenge of constructing a pairing that works in a course of multiple dishes. As someone who loves wine and respects the art of matching, this level of service feels unattainable to me. But Mickael’s pairings delivered on every course.
Indeed, the whole service experience was at the highest level. We were a group of nine, and I imagine coordinating dozens of delicate, bite-size morsels for a group that size must be something of challenge for the kitchen and front of house team. There was never the slightest tremor. Wines and food arrived in perfect time, every time. The team who looked after us were professional, but caught our mood and joined us in a few laughs.
At one point, one of our number got chatting with the dumpling makers at the bar. Within seconds, he had been passed ingredients, had his hands dusted with flour, and was drawn into an expert-level lesson in dumpling making. Needless to say, his attempt was not fit for service to other guests, but it was cooked and delivered to him triumphantly as a final trophy of the afternoon.
All in all, I struggle to imagine how A. Wong could have been a better experience. And I really can’t recommend it enough for lunch. Either in the dining room or with a group in the bar, it’s a wonderful way to journey through Chinese cuisine at the highest level.
My only wish now is to return for the even more involved dinner service. I really can’t wait to get back.
Thanks for reading Professional Lunch. Have you been to A. Wong? Or another high end Chinese restaurant? What was your experience like? Please let me know in the comments. And I hope you’ll subscribe if you haven’t already.
Awesome - any other recommendations around Victoria direction? Our office is nearby and always looking for new places.
This sounds wonderful and I'm jealous.