Restaurant review: Elite Dining, Tsim Sha Tsui - Chinese

Elite Dining is an anomaly among most of the high-end restaurants in iSquare, as the space — at least in the public dining area, as opposed to the many private rooms — doesn't make much of the view. You can see outside, but unlike in the other restaurants, the windows with the view are further away, due to the double-height ceilings of the bar area of Elite's sister F&B establishment one floor below, Nanhai No 1. Which is fine with us, we were interested in the food.

Because we were there at lunch time, we were able to choose from the dim sum and regular menus.

Steamed xiao long bao (HK$38), while not the juiciest we've tasted, had thin wrappers and tender meat. Shrimp wrapped in tofu sheet (HK$42) was moist, perfectly seasoned and delicious. Barbecued pork with jackfruit pastry (HK$42) sounded more interesting than it was: the jackfruit added fragrance, but not much flavour.

The starters were disappointing. The flavour of the garlic cucumber (HK$60) was only on the surface. On the barbecue combo platter (two choices for HK$180), the honey-glazed char siu was dry and had a soggy bottom, suggesting that it had been placed on a tray and cooked, rather than hung in the oven.

Our luck improved with the main courses; the only dish that went uneaten was the choi sum (HK$120), which was not particularly sweet. The stir-fried wagyu beef tongue with asparagus (HK$220) was excellent. It was a generous portion of tender, thin slices of beef tongue, and thick, succulent spears of asparagus.

Crispy chicken with garlic (HK$220 for half) was also very good, and came with a light, slightly sweet and garlicky dipping sauce.