Shang Palace

The expectation for Shang Palace was set very high based on its Michelin star rating and reviews. I would say the food is good but not special enough to justify its hype. Matched with the price, it is in fact disappointing. We got the chef’s special signature tasting menu which included crispy pork skin (the best part of the meal), fried lobster with oatmeal, whiskey braised short rib, soy marinated cod on a bed of rice and about 4 other courses but it was honestly not that memorable. The three named above were the best courses but with a price of $ 2900 HK dollars for two people (one drink each person) we felt a little ripped off. The desert was a variety of pastries which were quite dry and tasteless. Each of our courses came out lukewarm/​cool rather than hot. Comparing it to other fine dining experiences with similar or even lesser price points, it was not worth the splurge in my opinion.
Service was very attentive but they would only give one menu for two and that would be to the male at the table. When speaking, they would only address the male even when I (female) asked them a few questions — very mysogynistic style of serving but not sure if that is just the culture.
With the abundance of choices available and fine dining options in HK, i would never choose to come back to Shang Palace.

Shang Palace is a must every time I’m in HK. I used to come here a lot with my family when we lived in HK, and on my last trip several years ago, we had the best lunch including some of the most exquisite dim sum you’ll ever eat.
On this trip, I came here for dinner with some friends. We enjoyed a menu of various appetizers, delicate beancurd soup dotted with roe from Shanghainese hairy crab, sauteed pea shoots, grouper with Chinese celery and daikon, sticky rice with cured Chinese meats and sausage, and insanely delicious desserts.
Shang Palace always delivers when it comes to a perfectly executed Cantonese meal. Chef Mok is one of the best in his craft and it is no wonder the restaurant has 2 Michelin stars.
Simply superb from food to service.

Fantastic Night in Shang Palace restaurant in Shangri~la hotel. My friend invited me for the Sake dinner. Although I alway dine and drink, but I can’t imagine how good they are, 6 courses paired with 4 different Sake. Great food and great service from their staff which I never have had in my life… thank you!

Fancy. So fancy that if I were Shang Dynasty royalty, I would most definitely choose to dine at Shang Palace.
What stands out most to me about Shang Palace is how it perfectly masters centuries-​old Chinese culinary traditions with 21^st-​century technical finesse – all too often, classy Asian food is diluted into some fashion of fusion, but Shang Palace maintains authenticity and augments it to the haute level of fine dining.
(Disclaimer: that’s about the extent of my food critic wannabe writing abilities. Any elegant prose will probably begin to rapidly deteriorate. Actual fine dining classy people may want to stop reading here)
(FYI Japanese is included only because it was on the online menu. I’m not cool enough to be a polyglot)
We got the dim sum set lunch because it seemed like a good and relatively less expensive way to sample all the specialties. Note an emphasis on relatively because the price tag is still $ 368 per person for a lunch, but at this quality it is definitely worth it. Delicacies include:
0. Fresh fruit juice | Even though I often laugh at restaurants in Asia trying to appear classy by serving juice and other western items, the juice was actually good! I chose mango and it tasted quite fresh indeed.
0.5 Tea | There was a little cup of chrysanthemum tea (in addition to the standard pot of tea). Not sure if this is standard for multi-​course Chinese meals, but it makes you feel fancy.
1. 心拼盤 /​Dim sum combination /​点心盛り合わせ| Honestly there is only so far you can get with dim sum, and I’m sure the best regular dim sum places could be on par with Michelin star restaurants in a blind taste test (hence the existence of the renowned «cheapest Michelin star» 添好運 /​Tim Ho Wan). The set lunch dim sum included 蝦餃 /​shrimp dumplings and 菠蘿包 /​pineapple bun which tasted pretty much like good dim sum, and there was another dumpling which was more unique because it had a combination of ingredients unlike any dim sum I’ve tasted before. Overall my favorite part of the dim sum was the presentation: the miniature steamer was too cute.
2. 明火滋潤靚湯 /​Soup of the day /​本日の健康スープ | I’m usually not a huge fan of soups, but this was good: very soothing and you could tell a lot of work went into the broth. It actually had real flavors, instead of the usual flavored salt water soups.
3. 銀魚醬玉簪蝦球 /​Wok-​fried prawns with seasonal vegetable in whitebait sauce /​車海老と季節野菜のシラスソース醤強火炒め: On point with just the right amount of spiciness and light crisp from wok expertise (鑊氣)
4. 鮑汁靈芝菇自製豆腐 /​Braised homemade bean curd with giant mushroom in abalone sauce /​白霊茸と自家豆腐のアワビソース煮込み| This was my favorite! I really like tofu, and they made this magical. I have no idea what the green sauce is, but I can only describe as being like Chinese pesto: delicious and savory. The abalone sauce gave it a flavor explosion. To wrap up the fine dining-​esque bites, there was a delightful array of textures, including the crispy topping, stringy dried scallop, and homemade tofu so soft it could be featured in toilet paper commercials (disregard the last comment if HK doesn’t have commercials about ultra soft toilet paper and baby skin)
5. 鮑魚荷葉飯 /​Fried-​rice with abalone wrapped and steamed in lotus leaf /​蓮の葉包み 鮑入りチャーハン | After trying the 糯米飯 /​glutinous rice at 大家樂 a few times, the Shang Palace high-​class version with abalone was surely a treat. In my opinion presentation could have been a bit more artsy and creative, but it was tasty.
6. 芒果布甸 /​Chilled mango /​マンゴープリン | The set-​up is extremely photogenic in a double glass container including ice, though I’m not sure how practical it is because the ice doesn’t actually touch the pudding. (Dry ice would make more sense and would add an exponential wow factor) The pudding itself was good, with sufficient mango flavor and not too sweet.
The ambiance is majestic: tall ceilings, a crimson theme, gold embellishments, traditional Chinese décor, chandeliers, lanterns, lantern-​chandeliers – could easily make its way into an Ang Lee movie set.

Michelin 2 rating is well deserved. One of the best Cantonese restaurants that I have ever enjoyed. Tried a variety of menu items… all well prepared, delicately cooked, served with great attention to detail.

Food is delicious, especially the baked crab meat stuffed in shell and the barbecued pork. Also yhe service is excellent, really enjoy the dinner in this Michelin 2 stars restaurant.