T'ang Court, Gold Coast — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Great reputation comes with great expectations. The Langham hotel is the new kid on the block, recently celebrating their 1st anniversary. The 1.4 billion building stands out among the many high-rise monuments on the Gold coast; money is obviously no object. On entering the Langham, we were greeted with the concierge service directing us towards the restaurant. As we walked through the extravagant 2 story open interior design extending from the lobby to the bar, a light jasmine aroma made the ambiance even more memorable. Up the lifts, we arrived at T’ang Court and greeted Richie who promptly led to our table. Again, the interior décor spared no expenses, marble tabletops, clean glasses, and plates as expected of a high-end restaurant.

In my opinion, it is very difficult to turn Chinese food into a fine dining experience. The reason being is that authentic Chinese food has gone through thousand years of ‘evolution’ and refining to its current state. The vast country has countless styles of cooking and flavor profiles that differ from the routine stir fry and oven bake. Such distillation of flavor and cooking techniques makes preparing Chinese food a tedious process even at home. The Cantonese style focuses on the natural flavors of the ingredient itself; sweetness and savory seasoning tends to complement to draw out the umami. A authentic Chinese restaurant already has amazing flavors and surpassing this would require the best ingredients, countless hours of preparation and exceptional presentation.

We started with one of the 5 elements cocktail The Charred Branch which that boasts an interpretation of China’s traditional Mineral, wood, water, fire, and earth concept. It was a spin on the old fashioned using Talisker 10, Jack Daniels, syrup and grapefruit bitters. Was nice but wonder whether a more strongly peated like Laphroig may bring out more of a charred flavor.

Entrées. Glazed toothfish – the crispy skin adds a layer of complexity to this simple yet delicious fish. The flavors were just right. Although I have had better cuts of this fish – it lacked a bit of the fatty aroma.

Char siu – Reminds me of Cha Siu I make at home from marinating with Lee Kum Kee. The cut of meat was dry and luke warm. I believe using the shoulder cut would add to the flavour instead of using the tenderloin.

Honey glazed pork rib – again, dry and luke warm.

Salt and chili quail – this was well done, tender and juicy breasts. Tossed with onion, chili, and capsicum.

Onto the mains – Yangzhou fried rice – well seasoned fried rice, good texture. Although, the classic Wok hei was vaguely there. (Wok Hei is basically the soul to cooking with a Wok. It is the aroma of burnt fat that you get with a blowtorch which is very pleasant)

For the vegetable dish, we ordered the asparagus, black truffle, and exotic Asian mushroom stir fry – a pleasant dish, subtle aroma of truffle enhances the mushrooms in the dish. The mushrooms were ever so slightly bitter, not sure if its just the variety of the mushroom, but I did not mind it.

Wok fried snow crab, foie gras, black pepper and butter – Everything became silent when crabs were on the table as we focused on digging the meat out of its shell. The black pepper and butter sauce was well seasoned and tasted great, foie gras did not jump out at all as everything blended nicely together (it is just goose fat anyway).

Finally came the Char Siu pastry – nicely baked flaked pastry with hot and sweet Char Siu. One of the best dishes today.

All in All, we really enjoyed the atmosphere at T’ang Court, Richie Akiko and all the other staff were friendly and passionate with their roles. We understand some things on the menu may be an Australian ‘interpretation’ of the Cantonese counterpart in Hong Kong, but when I step inside a fine dining Chinese that is aiming at the Michelin standard, every dish should be consistent and exceptional.

Would I recommend trying T’ang court to a friend? Not really at the price, there are better tasting Chinese restaurants for a fraction...

Wow where do I begin . Clearly money is no object when it comes to the fit out in this new hotel . Everything is the best of the best , not really the smartest but certainly mountains of cash has been spent here . The staff at Valet are lovely and courteous , walking to the elevators it boggles me why a structural column is stuck in the middle of the passage but hey that’s architecture ( personally I think a mistake ) . Once we arrive at the restaurant it’s once again evident that there is no budget here . From the most beautiful furniture to the wall coverings to the priceless light fittings . Simply stunning . We are greeted in an empty restaurant and naturally given the worst table in the entry . Staff again lovely and immaculately dressed . Sadly that where it’s all ends . We order our meals and opt to share and taste the various exorbitantly priced meals . We don’t batter an eyelid although we are hoping the quality matches the prices . First it’s the cold wok tossed lamb ribs , clearly sitting in the fridge as you can taste and smell the taste of mutton over and above the thick coating of seasoning . Next the scallop and prawn dumplings , at $36 for 4 ( no better than any Chinese restaurant at a 1/4 of the price . Than honey glazed pork ribs , again cold almost impossible to strip the meat from the bone . Cantonese dry aged duck $72 again Luke warm and oily , chef has dumped it in cold fryer. Yuk left half behind and we were hungry . Out come our wok tossed prawns , again smelling fishy but better than what we’ve had so far $88. Side dish of asparagus with truffle and mushroom totally undercooked and no sign of truffle at $48. There was more but really just a repeat of the above , cold undercooked / overcooked food in cold plates . Better Chinese in the local takeaway at 1/10th of the price . With the amount of money this mob has surely you can find a chef that can cook . Cocktails saved the night . Not amazing but ok . We were going to get some champagne but thought at double the price of any comparable fine restaurant. NO. We opted to go local in Broadbeach for a nice bottle of French and desert . Thanks Langham but no thanks . I’d heard it was not good but all the rumours didn’t prepare me for how bad it...

We had the classic set menu with matching wines. The service was excellent and the wine pairing was perfect. The hotel itself is nice and the restaurant felt plush and comfortable, with impeccably presented wait staff that clearly have experience and solid training. The courses started coming out before we had had a chance to enjoy our pre-dinner cocktails, which we would have likely ordered more of given the chance. We had to ask the wait staff to slow it down a few times because we had matching wines with each course and at one point one of our party had three drinks on the go. We booked months ago and were told at that time that the main course on the set menu advertised on their website was temporarily replaced with another dish. To our delight, the advertised pork jowl was back on the menu when we sat down, however we were advised that it was was being replaced with sweet and sour chicken. Given how easy it would be to update their website and menu (a folder with loose leaf paper inside), we are surprised that no one at an establishment of this calibre has taken that opportunity, as the pork jowl has evidently been off the menu for months now. The food was nice but lacked finesse - apart from the dessert, there was little element of surprise or wow factor and whilst it was perfectly executed, sweet and sour chicken doesn't belong in a fine dining setting at that price point. We enjoyed our night and left full and satisfied, but I think we did all walk away questioning whether it was really worth the money and feeling unsure whether it's an experience we would confidently...