For my husband’s birthday this year I made an advance booking at the Hutong Restaurant in the Shard.  Hutong is on the 32^nd floor of the shard, so on arrival you are guided to the lift to make your journey up to the restaurant.

On arrival we met with the receptionist, and as we were early we went to the bar to start the night with some delicious cocktails. The decor of the restaurant is wooden, with lanterns and very dim lightning.

As our table was ready we were directed to our seats and were amazed by our spectacular views. It was stunning, and I was pleased they gave us these seats which made it more special for the birthday boy.

By this time we were starving and decided to order a few dishes to share. For starters which were both delicious and flavour some included the wilted spinach with Sichuan ginger sauce and toasted sesame;

 

And a Dim Sum platter which included the following (2 pieces each): Ma la Chilean sea bass and shrimp dumpling, XO sauce crystal prawn dumpling, scallop, prawn and kai lan dumpling and the assorted vegetable & bamboo pith dumpling.

Onto the next dish which was the Roasted Peking duck. We were surprised when the chef came to your table to carve the duck before serving, which was a good experience; however we weren’t so impressed with the duck and felt it was slightly raw and fatty.

Fried chicken fillet with Sichuan dried chilli and Steamed cod fillet with Sichuan peppercorn with soy sauce, was our mains choices with rice and I must say the cod was absolutely divine it was so soft that it just melted in your mouth, the chicken however wasn’t as good as we hoped it would be.

Lastly as a little surprise our waiter for the night surprised my husband with a Mango pudding with fruit salsa, coconut ice-cream and sang him happy birthday which I though was a lovely gesture and the dessert was delicious, great end to a lovely evening. I would definitely recommend Hutong for a special occasion, the service and food was good even if you are paying for the stunning panoramic views.