Tin Lung Heen

This restaurant, which opened in March 2011, has a spectacular view from its 102nd floor perch in the ICC tower, the tallest building in the city. Its floor to ceiling windows give a birds eye view over Hong Kong harbour, and it is so high up that it is actually at or above the level of the clouds. This can be experienced when the clouds on occasion completely envelop the building, and the windows appear opaque due to the mist. To access the restaurant, take the express lift from the Ritz Carlton lobby to the 103rd floor, where there is an escalator down to the restaurant entrance on the 102nd floor. The room is impressive, with a very high ceiling and smart, modern decor.

To begin the meal, deep fried crab cake with onion was much better than I was expecting, there being plenty of crab in the filling, enhanced by the slight sweetness of the onions, and with a very light batter (16/20). Steamed shrimp dumplings with black truffle and green vegetables were delicate, the prawns quite tender, with a generous amount of truffle (easily 15/20).

Deep fried spring rolls with crab meat and salted egg yolk were very good indeed, the batter thin and light, entirely avoiding greasiness, the crab filling generous with the hint of salt judged carefully (comfortably 16/20). Steamed barbecue pork dumplings were extremely light, cloud-like and fluffy, with a very tender sweet pork filling (16/20).

Gai lan with ginger was carefully steamed, the broccoli cooked lightly and having good flavour, the ginger lifting the dish (16/20). I was particularly impressed with a simple dish that in so many restaurants is an afterthought: fried rice. Here it contained very tender baby shrimps, pine nuts and assorted diced green vegetables, but the rice itself was superb, every grain clearly delineated and having excellent texture. This showed considerable skill (17/20).

Service was well meaning but not particularly good: a drink order was forgotten, and they insisted on placing the teapot out of reach of the table. Just as with when a restaurant does this with wine, I don't mind provided that they then actually top up the drinks properly.  Unfortunately this rarely happened here: they should either leave the teapot on the table so that guests can pour for themselves or do the topping up effectively. The bill came to HK$1,203 for two with just tea and fruit juice to drink, which works out at £47 a head. At dinner, with modest wine to drink, a more realistic bill would be around £70 a head. Although on this trip I only had time for a lunch, the standard of the food was extremely high, and I would very happily return another time and try a more extensive selection of dishes.