Kym's Restaurant - A Wong v2 - has sadly closed
19 Bloomberg Arcade
London EC4N 8AR
Nearest Tube: Bank/Mansion House
Buzz Factor 4.6/5 stars
Food 4.6/5 stars
Value for money 4.2/5 stars
4.5 Yummy Stars
Price £££ Small plates £3-£12.50; to share £12-£24; classics - £12.5-£29 (at time of writing)
☏ 020 7220 7088
Three Treasures at Kym’s Restaurant
Not since Bill Poon from Poons restaurants in the 1980’s has there been such outpouring of adoration for a Chinese chef. His second baby, Kym’s Restaurant in the stunning Bloomberg Arcade (in the City of London), was borne in October 2018, attracting many mouth-watering Instagram posts and much hyperventilating coverage in the media.
Andrew Wong earned his first and long overdue Michelin star for his restaurant, A Wong (see review here), in Victoria last year. His father’s restaurant, Kym’s (named after A Wong’s grandmother), occupied that very site. Kym is now the name of his second restaurant.
Having initially studied chemistry at Oxford before switching to anthropology at LSE in London, destiny called when his father passed away and he decided to help with the family business. In 2010, he delved into different regional cuisine while travelling in China. He also tours Hong Kong restaurants in his quest for knowledge. This is a chef who is inquisitive and keen to learn about the history of Chinese cuisine and perfect his craft. He presents with aplomb his own refined versions of classic and inventive dishes at both Kym’s and A Wong.
Kym’s felt very different from A Wong. It smelt of lots of money having been invested. It was obviously interior designed. The staircase, wrapped round a fake cherry tree on one side and a half moon shaped money-spinning bar on the other side, was the centrepiece at the restaurant. Tons of under counter and ambience lighting throughout made it look like the stage at a theatre. The kitchen was in full view facing the dining area with a flurry of activity behind the counter. The various roast meats were hung on stainless steel rails which you normally see in a traditional unassuming Chinese restaurant and looked rather out of place in a glamourous setting such as Kym’s.
On my first visit soon after Kym’s opened, the star of the show was definitely the roast meats at Kym’s. With the Three Treasures option, you can try their poached soya sauce chicken (with ginger relish), crispy pork (with honey mustard) and BBQ (Iberico) pork (with honey soya sauce) (Char Siu), all in one dish. The Char Siu was the best that I had in London. It was full of flavour and so soft that you didn’t need a full set of teeth to eat it. The poached chicken and crispy pork were just as delicious but the chicken was ever so slightly overcooked and some of the skin of the pork was not as crispy as I would have liked. A year on, on my second visit, The Three Treasures were somewhat disappointing. The skin on the crispy pork wasn’t crispy and the sauces were way too sweet for my liking. It didn’t help matters that the meat stone-cold by the time I got round to eating it. Perhaps it was just a psychological thing. The dish, particularly the BBQ pork was so stonkingly good on my first visit that it could never quite live up to my recollection. Or, hopefully, it was just that evening.
Other dishes, however, tasted just as good as the first time. I never thought that I would enjoy a seemingly simple vegetable dish as much as the French Beans fritters, with chilli, spring onion and pepper. The batter was as light as a feather and translucent. Who needs chips if you can have these fritters instead? The Sichuan Spiced Aubergine was scrumptious with just the right level of sweetness. The glorious Pork and Shrimp Bao Bao (dumplings) with 2 fried eggs with crispy chilli, shallots, spring onions and sesame seeds, ceremoniously arrived, sizzling on a hot plate. The combination of flavours (with Pat Chun, a sweet vinegar) and textures were just on point. If you take the fried eggs off the hot plate quickly enough, the runny yolk (before it got overcooked) adds extra richness.
The pork ribs were another winner. The meat was deliriously tender that it fell off the bone at the poke of chopsticks. The beancurd from the tofu with 100 year old egg was smooth and went harmoniously with the spicy Sichuan sauce. Oh, and the Wagyu beef was stunningly cooked, lightly seared, deep pink in the middle, framed in a thin brown edge, drenched in a glistening sauce with a hint of heat. Beautiful presentation never escapes Andrew Wong. The crispy duck (served with pancakes and hoisin sauce), had slices of plum artfully draped over it. The meat was juicy with notes of five spice.
On the waiter’s recommendation, I ordered the truffle fried rice with fried egg. Compared to the other deep-flavoured dishes, it was rather bland, but worked well as a backdrop to other dishes. The soft shell crab was crispy and quite tasty, but nothing mind-blowing. The Seabass, served off the bone - the Western style, was decent too.
Service was pretty slick. One waiter offered to decipher the menu for us and another was helpful with our choices.
It has been over 30 years since someone like Andrew Wong has come along in the Chinese restaurant scene in London. Exciting times.
