**** So, this is part 2 of our dinner. If you haven't read part 1, you can find it here.
After the "Banquet" and the "Dim Sum", the next set of items up were named "Fish".
Anhui Province Red Braised Fermented Wild Seabass, I'm thinking that this was supposed to be a homage to Chòu Guì Yú, which uses a brine based fermentation technique?
We enjoyed the textural variations within the dish. The ikura like fish roe presented a savory-brininess. The fish was tender, not overly salty.
The "Why We Don't Need to Eat Shark's Fin Soup" was interesting, subbing agar for the shark fin.
We were told to pour the soup, which had a nice gelatinous richness onto the Braised Abalone with Shiitake Mushroom and Sea Cucumber which was part of the "set". It was a bit of overkill. For some reason the abalone tasted somewhat bitter?
And then there was the Garlic Steamed Tiger Prawn, Mung Bean Noodle, with "Superior" Soy. Not sure why they needed to add the Superior Soy to the name…..I use it in my dishes all the time and think of it as a kitchen staple?
Nice balanced garlic-ginger tones in this; but the tiger prawn was over-cooked and tough.
Next up were the "Snacks".
Starting with the riff on Rou Jia Mo; something we loved during our trip to Shaanxi.
A very interesting put it together yourself presentation. The mantou was a bit too doughy; it should be more crisp as well. The lamb had really been stewed in the juices and sauce, but was quite mild in flavor. It seemed a bit "tame"…which I think was the issue we had with many of the dishes here.
Soy Chicken with Ginger Oil and Oscietra Caviar. Man Ossetra Caviar, with Soy Sauce Chicken?
It was accompanied by some soy sauce for dipping. The caviar and soy sauce did a great job balancing out the dish which skewed sweet.
We did enjoy the texture of the Pulled Noodle Cracker with Japanese Wagyu and Shrimp Chili Oil.
But the Wagyu seemed a bit lost here. The chili oil was savory, but wasn't particularly spicy.
Next up were the "Five Flavours"; now you know how much I reference suan–tian–ku–la–xian, the sour-sweet-bitter-spicy-salty metaphor for balanced dishes.
Gong Bao Chicken, Roasted Peanuts, and Hot Pot Essence.
This was a nice bite as the ma-la (numbing spice) came thru cleanly.
We were provided with Nashi Pear edges with Sichuan Peppercorn as a palate cleanser for the final dishes.
The presentation of the Sweet and Sour Corn Fed Chicken, Thai basil, Pineapple and Candied Walnuts was eye catching.
But like many of the other dishes, the "Emperor had no clothes". It was too sweet; the chicken was not crisp enough and bland. Not enough basil to really add that anise goodness to the dish.
Not sure why the Roasted Cashew, Tamarind, Dried Shrimp and Coriander Cheung fun wasn't on the "dim sum" menu.
The Missus enjoyed the crisp youtiao that crowned the dish; it again skewed a bit sweet, though the cheong fun was nicely texture with a nice "pull" to it.
The silken tofu in the Chrysanthemum Tofu and Lemongrass Broth was beautifully silken.
The dish came with a very nice soup spoon of sauce on the side.
We were told to eat the tofu in combination with the Yunnan Seared Beef with Mint, Chili and Lemongrass.
Which was fine. As you can tell, we were getting a bit worn down by this time.
And my notepad on my phone was getting quite full.
On the bright side; the last "main dish" was quite interesting. The Young Coconut with Madagascan Black Pepper Sauce.
I know, doesn't look like much from this angle. But turn the plate around a bit……
Yes, there's more black truffle here. We were surprised that it went well with the slightly sweet and nutty coconut. The black pepper sauce really balanced the dish out with the fried shiso leaf adding in that touch of minty-anise-vegetal tones.
As you all know, I'm not much of a dessert guy, but I found the Coconut Water Ice to be quite refreshing. Especially after so many items.
The Candied Walnuts with Blue Cheese was an interesting, very non-Chinese item for dessert.
The Missus enjoyed the version of Dragon's Beard Candy provided.
We took the Petit-Fours with us. The Missus enjoyed them with coffee the next morning.
So, if you've made thru both posts, I'm sure you can figure out what we thought of the meal. The service was a bit hovering, but very nice. The presentation of the dishes were quite excellent; but we don't eat with our eyes. For a place whose owner claims to be a "Chef-Anthropologist", many of the dishes really didn't capture the essence and soul of the cuisine of the various regions of China to us.
As for the price; it was 200£ per person plus another 200£ for the wine pairing….which the Missus liked BTW. So, all told including service charges/tips the bill came out to about $1k US!
We'll have to mark this one up to "well, at least we finally tried A Wong".
A. Wong
70 Wilton Rd.
Pimlico, London, United Kingdom
The Cold Brew was ok, on the milder side. The scone was pretty good, not overly dense, nice chunks of corn, and not too sweet. I did not find it to be overly salty. Quite filling to be sure.
Slices of pork belly wrapped around cucumber; looking at it, we were reminded of what we’d had 
Well, for starters, the broth didn't have the "super clear" look of the previous two versions I'd had recently. There was some nice savory tones; slight pungency, it was a bit on the sweet-salty side. I was quite thirsty for the rest of the afternoon.
You can tell the broth wasn't overly thin as it did a decent job of coating the noodles.
I quickly set about tasting the different items. The soup was far from bland, but really had that "San Diego sweet" pho flavor. It was also high in msg as well.
One of the first thing that came to mind was the "Hu Tieu shenanigans". You know, the time I ordered the Hu Tieu Mi Kho and 
Like before, the bowl was delivered with a huge portion of iceberg lettuce. The soup on the side looked like a bowl of water which had some slices of green onion fall into it. It was very salty and other than a hint of white pepper really lacked flavor.
First off; I quickly determined that the simple squirt of sate sauce over the beef was all that was provided. There was nothing at the bottom of the bowl of the bowl. This meant that it was difficult, nay impossible to coat the noodles and even all the lettuce evenly. The basil was nice and fresh; but still attached to the thick and basically inedible thick stems. Now, I can imagine having this on the side and then one would tear off the leaves as necessary. Heck, even at the top of the bowl like this is ok; but having that all to precious sauce squirted on it. The customer would have to reach in and tear off the leaves and get sauce on your hands?
Because of the lack of sauce; I ended up dumping the whole bowl of "soup" into the bowl to moisten the noodles; which kind of defeats the purpose of getting this with soup on the side? The noodles were decently cooked, nice and al dente, and the beef fairly tender, but the lack of the flavor producing items in the dish was it's downfall. 
Which arrived to my table steaming hot. The soup had a bit more savory tones this time around, but was again, other than being a bit heavy in msg was fairly plain. The noodles were on the crunchier side overall, but not bad. The char siu was lean, tough, and though it had some decent porky tones, lacking in the sweet-salty-savory profile of said pork dish.
It was quite interesting, the skin was separated; the one's that were fattier were on the upper and left hand side; these were crisp with a creamy finish. The skin on the right were more crisp. The leftover skin with fat heated up super well in the air fryer later! The meat was slightly gamey and earthy. All of this went so well with the perfectly made tender, but up to the task pancakes. Which also heated up well using my microwave tortilla warmer.
We saved the two legs for home and they crisped up perfectly. This was so delici-yoso once you create your little "roll-up". In fact, the Missus said this was better than what we'd had at 
