One Harbour Road

On the 8th floor of the Grand Hyatt hotel is the restaurant One Harbour Road. Although thus far shunned by the eccentric Hong Kong Michelin guide (in my opinion easily the least reliable of the Michelin guides), amongst locals it has a strong reputation. On this trip I only had time for a quick lunch, so I may not have really done justice to the food here on this visit.

The main dining room is spread over two floors, has an attractive ornamental lotus pond and excellent views over the harbour. If you want the best window seats then you must request these when making a reservation, as they are popular. Despite having a reservation I was initially led to what was termed in a Frasier episode "the enchanted grotto" of a restaurant i.e. the worst table in the dining room, overlooking a concrete bridge and hidden from the harbour by a huge plant pot, but they did relent and moved me after I complained.

Being lunch, I ate dim sum. Har gau was good but not remarkable, the prawns nicely cooked and the outer steamed dumpling coating reasonably delicate (14/20). Better were barbecued honey pork buns (char sui), which had excellent fluffy buns and good quality, slightly sweet pork filling, with none of the gristly meat that mars this dish in many lesser restaurants (16/20). Spring rolls were also excellent, the crisp outer shells unusually light and delicate, the prawn filling carefully cooked (16/20).

Gai lan is a dish I often order in Chinese restaurants as a benchmark, since it is very simple and gives some indication of the care and attention in the kitchen. The best versions rely on careful selection of youngest and choicest broccoli, followed by accurate cooking so that the stems are at their most delicate. This was a pretty good version, the gai lan tender and tasting a little of the garlic it was cooked with (15/20).

Service was reasonable, and the bill for one came to HKD 320 (£25), with just jasmine tea and water to drink. I would certainly come back here, and on another visit will try some of the more elaborate a la carte dishes.