Review | New restaurants in Wan Chai: elegant decor, excellent dishes and Instagram-friendly lighting

It’s easy to tell who Xin Rong Ji in Wan Chai is targeting: as soon as you enter, you’re greeted in Mandarin, instead of Cantonese. That shouldn’t be surprising, though, because the original, which has a Michelin star, is in Shanghai.

It’s an elegant space, sparsely but beautifully decorated – although the dog sculpture on the staircase is a bit odd – with calligraphy, dried flower arrangements and bonsai. Service was attentive and the noise level was muted. The lighting is excellent, which makes taking photos of the food easy.

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It’s a brief menu by Chinese restaurant standards, with an emphasis on fish and vegetables. There’s very little poultry offered (we wanted the one chicken dish, but they had sold out) and not much meat. The quality of the food lives up to the environment, and the dishes came at a good pace.

We started off with jellyfish with home-made sauce (HK$268) which was, without doubt, the best and most interesting jellyfish dish I’ve eaten. The large pieces had an unusually crisp texture and were served in a light, cooling sauce with cucumber and slices of sweet raw onion.

Home-made pork sausage (HK$198) was recommended by the waitress. The sausage came sliced into thick pieces, and was intensely flavoured without being too salty. Although this was listed in the appetiser section, it would have gone well with rice.