W1 Restaurant, iSquare, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

I have been terribly busy this past month, hence the lack of blogging action. Rest assured I have been eating and for this entry we are on the Kowloon side for some dim sum on a Saturday lunch time, which was partaken some time ago. This restaurant is situated on the 25th floor of the iSquare shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. As we were eating a bit later the lunch time rush must have gone and we were able to be seated straight away.

The menus were on the table already and we ordered the following items.

The Drunken Chicken dish arrived first, it was good with an alcoholic marinade taste that was not too strong. Double boiled soup followed soon after; this was a pork based soup and had a very thin and clean taste.

Drunken Chicken in the background, Double boiled soup in foreground

The photograph below shows most of our order. Five dishes are noted, starting from the top row, left hand side and working right to left then onto the next row (hope that made sense). The noodles were linguine-style and were soup based to give it a good flavour and slightly spicy. The 'Siu Mai' shrimp and pork dumplings were nice, with a scallop placed on top for some variety. The steamed custard buns are a sweet dish were the ones that had a runny filling in them; we left them to cool a bit so that the filling did not burn our mouths. The 'Siu Long Bao' Shanghai dumplings only numbered 3, which was a little disappointing and there was not that much soup in them. The 'Har Gow' prawn dumpling had a nice pastry and prawn filling with courgette for a little crunch.

Most of our order

We also ordered an abalone dish that was served on a light pastry.The abalone was cooked and chewy, with a sauce accompanying it and the pastry was flaky. It worked quite well; like a really posh pie I suppose.

Abalone

The best thing about this restaurant is the view. It's located on the 25th floor and one can see easily across the harbour and onto the island. The food was decent with some dishes better than others, as is the case when eating dim sum. Service was adequate and efficient and tableware was elegant and all nicely presented. Overall a decent restaurant that I will most likely go again if in the area.

The view

Scores:
Food: 3/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 4/5

Overall: 13/20

Bill: About $300 total, so about 12.50GBP a head.

I ate: all of the above.

I drank: numerous cups of Dragon's Well tea.

I wore: A sweaty t-shirt following my site visit that morning.