Shop 304-305, Windsor House, 311 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay Tel: 2890 6366 Open: 11.30am-10pm Cuisine: Taiwanese dumplings and small eats
Price: about HK$110 per person without drinks and the service charge.
Ambience: set around a corner on a mall level dominated by clothing and lifestyle boutiques, King's has a spacious dining room that seats more than 100 at rectangular tables. The off-white tiling and dark wood decor is embellished with Chinese motifs, such as the decorative painted steamers on the feature wall by the entrance. The raised booths along the sides seem built for quick turnover, but the restaurant was only half full during lunch hour.
Pros: the efficiency and friendliness of service at King's Dumpling is on par with nearby Din Tai Fung. The menu differentiates itself with a greater selection of dumpling variations, including pan-fried ones, as well as Taiwan-style tossed noodles.
Cons: the execution of well-known standards such as cold pork slices with garlic sauce (HK$45) and chao sau (dumplings in chilli oil, HK$35) was sloppy. The pork was sliced too thickly, with skin on, making it unpleasantly chewy, and the sauce salty and overpowering. The chao sau chilli sauce lacked fragrance, and the dumpling filling was bland. We were excited to try the Taiwanese-style dan zai noodle (HK$35), but came away unimpressed with the limp, soggy noodles and dryness of the meat mince. The small portion size was the only plus, as it meant we had room to try more dishes.
Recommended dishes: our first cold starter was the delicate crystal eggs (HK$16), hard boiled gently in a sweet, spiced soy sauce to achieve the creamy, glistening 'sweetheart' yolk. We liked the refreshing crunch of the shredded water bamboo (HK$28) dressed with a touch of vinegar, which served as a palate cleanser for the garlicky pork dish and chilli oil dumplings. The xiao long bao (HK$45 for a steamer of six) were straightforward and enjoyable. These were packed with morsels of pure pork mince and broth.