A. Wong, Pimlico

At Restaurant A. Wong, they don't serve up courses they serve up collections. The evening menu consists of six collections in total - five savoury and one sweet. When the second collection arrived in front of us, I asked the server in all seriousness, "Are the kitchen trying to kill us?"

Because at Restaurant A. Wong they give you so. Much. Food. Apparently this is typical of the culture - the desire to feed, to feast, to banquet. And fortunately, the food is so, so delicious that you unbutton your trousers, take a deep breath and power on through as much as you can. This is Chinese food done properly, expunging the memories of years of lurid, greasy, sickly takeaways in just three hours and offering a fascinating glimpse into a food culture which is as exciting and challenging and varied as any in the world.

We had the best seats in the house; perched on bar stools overlooking the main kitchen. Prep was done downstairs, and pastry prepared in a cold room off to the side, but the majority of the action took place here in front of our eyes, in an atmosphere of almost preternatural calm. Halfway through service, the main man himself arrived which seemed to make everyone stand up just a shade straighter but otherwise it didn't feel as if anyone was missing a beat and the ballet of the kitchen, mysterious, fragrant and, above all, hot, continued to mesmerise us all evening.

All in all we ate 31 dishes; and with very, very few exceptions they were wonderful. I'll try and pick out a highlight or two from each collection.

Collection 1 was The Banquet - a sumptuous array of eight relatively small dishes. The cured scallop with stuffed crab claw was my favourite here, in terms of flavour and mouth feel it felt like a definite nod to a classic sesame prawn toast, albeit elevated.

Collection 2 was Dim Sum which were a joy from start to finish, although the soup dumpling - "Tangerine fish" with Chiu Chow beef broth and Caviar - was probably the most joyful mouthful. I defy you not to smile as that amazing broth floods your palate.

Collection 3 was Fish. Full disclosure, I wasn't terribly excited about the description of any of the dishes on here but I should have known better. I was surprised by how much I adored the braised abalone with shitake mushroom, sea cucumber and abalone butter; it had an almost smoky quality to it which was immensely pleasing.

Halfway through and we were presented with Collection 4 - Snacks. All excellent, but the soy chicken was generally acknowledged as the favourite - simple (relatively speaking) but classic.

We were both genuinely flagging now and grateful for a short break before the arrival of the ominously named main course (or Collection 5 - Five Flavours). But some of the mouthfuls here were lighter and designed to soothe (chrysanthemum tofu in lemongrass broth) or refresh the palate (Nashi pear with Sichuan pepper). For sheer nostalgia though, I can't not mention the sweet and sour chicken which was both reminiscent of the takeaway classic and yet strangely refined. The candied walnuts here were a wonderful addition, giving, alongside the crispy chicken, a pleasing crunch.

Thankfully Collection 6 - Fruits - was as light as it sounds. A coconut ice with mulberries and yoghurt, and some dainty fruit jellies rounded out the meal and provided a perfect, sweet full stop without overloading our already groaning stomachs. Anything heavier and I would probably have rolled out of there.

An altogether fabulous experience then, and one which I will remember fondly for a very long time. I think anyone with an interest in Chinese food and culture should make a point of coming here to sample the food as it really should be and give it the credit it deserves. Your Saturday night takeaway will never be the same again.

A. Wong

70 Wilton Road

Pimlico

London SW1V 1DE

0207 828 8931

Recent eats: an interminable January

I think January might have lasted forever. And even though we are, let's be honest, over a third of the way through February, February has just proved itself to be something of a January 2.0. Cold, wet, miserable and utterly ennui-inducing. D is only finally now shaking off a cough he's had since before Christmas, I've been feeling rundown and lurgy-ish and none of this has got 2025 off to a particularly dazzling start.

I decided to dust off the blog to do a recent eats post and went searching through my phone for pictures to share - needless to say, found very little. Little by way of food pictures, that is - if you want a picture of the cat asleep on the back of the sofa then I have several hundred iterations. We really haven't left the house very much, one exception being a lunchtime trip to White Cloth Hall, a relatively new Leeds venture which features a number of street food(ish) type vendors. We shared a Jamie Thiccston sandwich from Morty's Focacceria which was an absolute beast of a thing, but delicious for all of that. I would have liked slightly more burrata but, then, I think most things would benefit from more burrata. In general, the ratio of bread to filling was pretty good, there was plenty of salty, slippery mortadella and it wasn't so ridiculously huge you couldn't fit it in your mouth in one go to get the full benefit of the layers.

We've done some home cooking, of course,  and have enjoyed several dishes from Meera Sodha's latest book, Dinner which I commend to your attention, especially if you wish to up your vegetarian and vegan cooking game. Having said that, looking back over the archive meal plan, I think one of my top food moments from January was carnivorous; tucking into haggis, neeps and tatties on Burns night, smothered in a fabulous whisky sauce. Classics are classics for a reason. Oh, and I baked some blondies for my Dad's birthday which turned out rather nicely. 

But all in all not an awful lot to share from these first few weeks of the year. We plod on.