Duddell's — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

I have been wanting to come to Dudell’s for a while and try their all you can dim sum brunch. I had the dim sum brunch with free flow non-alcoholic drinks (soft drinks or juice) for 550 hkd. I came with my three year old son and wisely passed on the free flow champagne option. My four star review is based on the following:

Food: 4 stars Environment: 5 stars Service: 4 stars Value: 3.5 stars Meeting expectations: 3 stars

Recommendations: crab and shrimp dumpling w/ fish roe, the fried rice, pepper and garlic spare ribs, vegetable dumplings, orange juice

I had pretty high expectations before eating here with Dudell’s two Michelin star pedigree. The interior design and atmosphere here is first class. Entering into the restaurant you immediately feel like you are in for a treat. I felt like I was in the movie Casablanca and I should have been wearing a sport coat and smoking a pipe.

Walking up to the 4th floor you immediately see the Peking duck carving station. All you can eat Peking duck isn’t something you don’t see everyday and was the first thing I had. The dish comes out as an assembled pancake which includes duck scallion and hoisin sauce. The crispy crunch from the duck skin which is the best part of Peking duck was absent. The dish tasted ok but I have had much better Peking duck.

The next set of dishes that came out were the steamed dumplings. This is the part of the meal that really shined. This is definitely a step up from your average dim sum. The dumpling wrapper was really delicate and had a right level of thickness to it. I will usually use the shrimp dumpling as a benchmark for the dim sum and the shrimp dumpling here is very good. The best dish of the day was the shrimp and crab dumpling with fish roe.

The mains were good good but not as good as the dim sum. The fried rice and the garlic and pork spareribs were the best of the bunch. I would pass on the wonton noodle soup. The noodles don’t have the chewiness I look for in wonton noodles.

The desserts were above average. I had the mango sago, sesame puff, and the red bean cake. The sesame puff was my favorite. The pastry was nice and warm, flaky and not too sweet. The mango sago also had pomelo in it which was nice. The red bean cake was not so much a cake as a jello and didn’t have to much...

The experience was good, though not excellent and below of what a Michelin star restaurant should be. Way below. I think this restaurant shouldn’t have a star, unless people from Michelin are served differently. I will develop.

We took the regular tasting menu. But they have two other different tasting menus. One Premium and another one that I can’t remember. They are both “above” the regular tasting menu in terms of price and visibility. So, it’s a little bit confusing. Usually a restaurant has 2 obvious choices, X or Y courses. And that’s it. Here, no matter what we choose, we already have that feeling that we’re going to miss out on the chef’s identity (if any?). So, from the gate, choice of tasting menu not very obvious. Each of them have “3 upgrades” possible…

Then the service is extremely basic, after the third course we finally got a lady coming to explain us the dishes. Thank you. The others would just say the name and leave. But it was after a few courses.

Then the dishes themselves were very poorly refined. Neither could we taste anything different nor the products didn’t seem special in any way to make it an experience. Though it wasn’t bad, it was good. It wasn’t very special we don’t feel like we discovered anything nor a special chef. Just a basic okay restaurant, probably with a taste of disappointment.

Desert was okay, milk pudding. Not so dangerous either (not to say boring).

This is more of a personal touch but counts into the experience : At the end, the waiter reminded us that the “10% service was for the company” to which I reacted that in this case it shouldn’t be called “service fee”. I also thought it was very rude to ask for a tip the way he did. This is probably the worst part. Basic food not bad in taste is acceptable…

Overall, a very very basic experience for the price, and extremely below Michelin star experiences (I really wonder how this restaurant has a star). Food was okay if we don’t expect an experience but rather “just stuff your belly with basic Chinese food”.

I wouldn’t recommend this place given that it’s in a city with a huge choice of good authentic Cantonese cuisine. I don’t know how they were before, but they’re now clearly just surfing on their previous success. In Hong Kong, good restaurants...

We came for a few cocktails and dinner. We enjoyed our time at Duddells in London so decided to try it out.

We had drinks in the garden with cocktails starting from 160 HKD and still water at 78 HKD. Garden atmosphere was great and provided a tranquil background.

For dinner it was only two of us and we were told that we could not have half a Peking duck. Instead they recommended to eat a roast duck and add the pancakes for 120 HKD. Portions were about a 1/4 duck size and no second course of cooking. Total price was 340 HKD which amusingly is half the price of the full Peking duck two course experience.

We wanted to try their chicken with red bean curd but they were out of stock so we had the half salted chicken (300 HKD) and US beef tenderloin (380 HKD). Both we were fine but nothing to get excited about. Food felt a little more greasy than their restaurant in London.

We wanted steamed rice (25 HKD) and noodles with our food and the waiter bought a separate noodle menu. Plain fried noodles with bean sprouts cost 260 HKD. It was clearly meant for 4 people, I'm not sure why portions for a couple are not possible.

We had a Georgian (very edgy with the art they are trying to impress with) and Greek red wine for 140 and 178 HKD each as they were the cheapest on the menu. A small glass of Barolo was being sold for 670 HKD which should provide some context. I don't know what wine prices in HK should be but in our hotel there is an upmarket steak house serving large glasses or Barolo for 110 HKD.

All in all, excluding drinks, prices came to about 800 HKD per head. Not crazy but not great value as the food didn't impress.

I also noticed that the waiter didn't look happy when I didn't tip as there was already a 10% service charge on the bill. I looked into this in detail when I had a chance. Turns out most places to not give the proceeds of the service charge to the staff (I don't know if this is the case with Duddells) which is something embarrassing for the industry here. Staff are low paid and stealing a large part of their wages is...