The T’ang Court is situated inside the Langham hotel in Shenzhen and since Mr. C and I were staying there over the weekend, we decided it was most ideal and of course convenient to dine there in the evening.
The restaurant sits on the second floor and at the entrance you are greeted by a smiling hostess who graciously leads you to your table. T’ang Court is so elegantly decorated with high ceilings and an eye-capturing display of yellow-orange glass-like baubles dangling up above. I liked how each table was spaced out generously giving diners privacy as well as providing a comfortable seating environment.
Once seated, we were given menus as well as a separate tea menu for our perusal. It is lucky that we have similar tastes in tea, so our standard choice is usually Tie Guan Ying, and the one served here was quite good, light, fragrant and not overly ‘gip’. While looking through the menu, Mr. C suggested we have peking duck that night since we had both been craving it recently. We decided to order a whole duck, but instead of having noodles or stir-frying the duck meat to be eaten in lettuce cups, we requested if they could make soup for our second course which they readily agreed to. Since we knew that the preparation of peking duck would take some time, we ordered an appetiser to take the edge of our hunger.
Our appetiser soon arrived. A generous serving of chilled fungus where the black fungus itself was fleshy with a soft crunch, infused with the delicate flavour of the wine marinade it was immersed in. We quite liked this as it was refreshing to eat.
As we were picking at the last few morsels of our appetiser, the arrival of the peking duck was signaled by the two large bamboo steamers brought out revealing our flour pancakes as well as assorted condiments of cucumber slices, spring onion and hoisin sauce. The duck was brought to the table already sliced into pieces and rather than just slicing only the skin to be wrapped with the pancake, they prepared it with a generous cut of meat along with the skin.
They offered to prepare our pancakes for us, but we declined preferring to be more hands on ourselves. For me, I like to spread a generous amount of hoisin sauce as a base, then placing a piece of duck and several sticks of cucumbers before rolling it up and *bite*~
The pancake was thin with a slight stretchy texture, and I loved their hoisin sauce which I suspect they used honey in the making as it was slightly runnier and sweeter than usual. The skin of the duck was crisp and there was a thin layer of fat between the meat and skin which achieved the aim of giving a richer flavour but not being too heavy at the same time.
The second course of soup was ready when we were half way through our duck, and I was really glad we opted to have soup rather than something heavier. Immensely flavourful with no hint of MSG, there were also cubes of soft tofu hidden at the bottom of the bowl. Very good~
We enjoyed our experience so much that night, we returned the following evening to try some of their other a la carte dishes.
When in China, Mr. C and I do like to order chicken as we find that the chicken here has a much stronger flavour than the ones in Hong Kong. That night we tried their salt-baked crispy chicken which was a recommended item on their menu. The skin was roasted to the point where all the fat had been rendered out, leaving it delicately crispy, while both the thigh and breast meat were tender with a slight salty flavour. Both of us really enjoyed this, Mr. C especially.
We also ordered their hot and sour soup which arrived with the standard mix of diced tofu, black fungus and bamboo shoots. Both elements of spicy and sour were evident, but something seemed to be missing in terms of flavour.
I have developed a huge love for mushrooms so I had to order the stir-fried assorted mushrooms with water chestnuts. There were around four different varieties of mushrooms which were very fresh with a wonderfully meaty texture, while the slices of water chestnut were crunchy and sweet. This was really good and the lingering wok-hei flavour in the dish gave it additional points 🙂
For vegetables, we had a plate of simple garlic stir-fried tong sum choi. Vegetables in China always seems to be of good quality and this was no different, tender leaves with a crunchy stalk, it left a subtle garlicky flavour on the palate.
Our last dish was termed simply as spicy scallops, we had originally pictured the dish to be just normal stir-fried scallops with brocoli in spicy sauce, but looking closer they had stuffed the scallops with a minced prawn paste. The scallops turned out to be a little overcooked, so were quite chewy, but the brocoli was fine.
Both nights we were too full for dessert, but were presented with a fruit plate each which was a lovely gesture~
T’ang Court really is a beautiful place to dine at, food quality seems above average and service was polite and efficient. Also a special mention to one of the waitresses who was highly attentive in ensuring our tea cups were never more than half-empty 🙂
Just Something About Me 