Central London is home to many good restaurants. Where to some the obvious choice for Chinese cuisine might be found in China Town, there is at least one better alternative as we found out last week. Around the corner from Liverpool Street Station you will find HKK Restaurant, a Michelin Star awarded restaurant serving refined and modern Chinese cuisine. Walking around the area, the restaurant is easily overlooked as it is not very apparent from the outside that the building hosts a great restaurant.

Enter the restaurant and the first thing you’ll notice, apart from the friendly ladies at the entrance, is the somewhat dark space. Just allow your eyes a few minutes to adjust and you will find a nice interior. In many other restaurants the kitchen is the focal point, but here the owners opted to keep it out of sight with some translucent drapes, allowing you to see some silhouettes only. The kitchen is by no means a dark secret as the maître is more than happy to show you. Every now and then you’ll hear a sound resembling a rocket launch coming from the kitchen. As it turns out this is one of the chefs skilfully wielding a large wok on the burner.

The menu is based on Chinese wisdom, recipes and above all the Chinese calendar. This means there is a new menu every two months. Eating a-la-carte is not an option here, there is a meat menu and vegetarian menu only. Allergies are not a problem at all and the good thing is that they are really careful, making replacements if and where needed. Guests who cannot or will not drink wine can choose a beverage pairing of non-alcoholic beverages. More restaurants should offer this as this greatly enhances the dining experience.

The eight course menu starts off with wagyu beef.  Two dices of beef so tender that you can cut it with your spoon. Nicely caramelized and juicy, the beef is paddling in the most unusually delicious sauce with strawberry, hazelnut and basil.  It may not be what you think of when visiting a good Chinese restaurant, but in retrospect, considering the rest of the menu it is a perfect start.

Following the beef is a chicken soup. On the side of the plate there is a little bit of coconut that is to be stirred into the soup. With very subtle flavours of the chicken, bamboo and a slight bitter note of the fresh coconut. Sweet but much less than the beef, it feels like the logical next step for some reason.

Because of allergies, the dishes in the third course were replaced by some others. They were still dim sums, but from the vegetarian menu. Two of the dim sums had mushrooms as main component in the filling, shiitake and morriles, that gave it their earthy flavours. These two were absolutely to die for and this is coming from a person who does not like mushrooms. The third dim sum was one with pumpkin and sweet potato. If I would have to fault them on anything, it would be this one. Compared to what I had eaten so far, the flavours were there but this last dim sum feels a little mealy (i.e. like eating some raw flour).  Nice little detail was the little brush to ‘paint’ the soy onto the dim sums.

Next course is the restaurant’s signature dish, the Peking duck. Apart from the dish itself, the nice thing about this course is that the chef comes to your table to carve the duck. After this, you can see someone from the restaurant staff prepare your dish in the center of the restaurant. Nice touch that shows the attention to detail that goes into every dish. The piece of skin is slightly fatty but perfectly crispy. Next to it is a juicy and slightly smokey piece of dusk breast. Nothing goes to waste as the meat from under the skin is put in a little pancake with some cucumber, which adds some nice freshness to a somewhat fatty but absolutely fantastic dish.

The duck is followed by a light dish, sea bass. With this being a seasonal menu, it is on to op some nice crunchy green asparagus. Where most chefs will insist on scaling the fish thoroughly, not here. The crispy skin has all the scales on it and the waiter explains that this brings some extra crunch.

After the fish it is time for a dish that I would normally skip due to the amount of fat in it: Pork belly. The pork here is slowly cooked whereby the fat has been rendered out for the biggest part. Here too, the meat is accompanied by some seasonal vegetables. The perfectly juicy and cooked, slightly fatty meat is has some nice but slightly sweet sauce. Here the choice of the beverage, which is slightly acidic, makes a big difference. If it weren’t for this the dish would have been a little too rich and sweet.

As the menu draws to an end, we now get started on the fist of the two desserts. A mousse of honey with the most delicious blood orange sorbet. A perfect marriage between the subtle sweetness of the honey and the citrus of the orange. These flavours are followed by some anise from a leaf of cress put on top as garnish.  It is one of the smallest dishes, but packed with flavour.

Second dessert closes off the meal with a bang. Probably my favourite dish has some rhubarb, parfait and barley ice cream. A little earthy tone in the barley ice cream is unusual and delicious. The parfait has some jasmine in it. It is nice rich and creamy, which gets even better when combined with the rhubarb either in the gel or little chunks.

The staff is worth mentioning separately, as this is absolutely the best I have seen so far. The staff, both waiters and sommeliers, have detailed knowledge of each dish and are more than happy to explain the dishes (incl. drinks) and answer any questions. They are well-dressed, exceptionally friendly and professional without being distant. Unless you count not knowing about the anise flavour on the first dessert (which was corrected upon enquiry with the chef), the service was flawless. The lady who prepared the duck dish for us earlier showed us the kitchen after the meal. The pastry chef, although being under pressure to deliver desserts, took the time to talk to us for a few minutes.

HKK is by no means a cheap meal, but it is worth every penny. The many will cost approx GBP 100 (about EUR 125/USD140) not including an optional service charge of 12,5% which is common in London. On this evening I have also chosen the beverage pairing. This is reasonably priced at approx. GBP 30 (EUR 35/USD 40). In total you will spend around EUR 160 (little more with the wine pairing) but this will get to an unbelievable experience. It is a Chinese restaurant unlike any other where every food-lover visiting London should dine at least once.

Restaurant location: View on Google Maps
Restaurant website: http://www.hkklondon.com