A.Wong: a tour of China steps away from Victoria station

Our rating: 8.5 / 10

Price: starters £5-9, mains £8-18

Price we paid: £100 per person

1 Michelin star

Go there for: the Taste of China menu, a creative adventure through different regional Chinese cuisines

Location: Victoria

Andrew Wong is a young British chef with Chinese origins, who is trying to teach London what real Chinese food is from his small restaurant in Victoria. His Taste of China menu is a 10-course culinary experience that takes the lucky customer through Hong Kong, Shanghai, Yunnan, Sichuan, among others, with some of these regions' most iconic dishes.

From outside, A.Wong looks like the average westernized Chinese restaurant; the decor inside is also quite basic, with a questionable choice of mirrors and chairs. We went there with clear ideas: ordering the Taste of China menu. However the à la carte menu is also extremely attractive, with most dishes available for less than £20.

The first dish is a trio of finger food starters: beef jerky, fried crab claw and a scallop salad. The maitre instructed us to open the crab claw, place the scallop salad inside and eat it. The result was sublime, an explosion of flavour.

To follow was a basket of dim sum dumplings, the first shrimp based with a shrimp foam on top, the second pork based. Both excellent.

The third dish was surprising: a gourmet version of a street food classic, spicy silky tofu, but elevated to new heights with the addition of the best peanuts we've had since we came back from Taipei. Top notch.

Then, another dumpling, the infamous Xiaolongbao. This Shanghai speciality typically needs to be dipped into ginger vinegar and then eaten. However the chef here has already injected the dumplings with the vinegar, so all you have to do is eat them (trying not to break them in the process!).

The fifth dish was a duo of duck served on a net of crispy noodles and braised fish belly. Very nice, but the worst dish of the menu in our opinion.

What followed was then a sequence of three dishes which were one better than the other. First came a braised abalone with shiitake mushrooms, which had a perfect balance of salt and earthy taste, and just the right bouncy texture. Outstanding.

Then the famous Shaanxi lamb burger, a dish from the Xi'an province with lots of Muslim influence. We have tried this dish in other restaurants around the world, but this was really something else: pulled lamb was served with a pomegranate salad and a series of other herbs and sauces which gave it a unique spicy flavour, in between Chinese and Middle Eastern. The best dish of the menu.

What followed was a beef dish in two servings: first served on top of a noodle cracker which the chef hand-pulls himself every day, second served striped and mixed into a Vietnamese-style mint salad. We were blown away by this dish, you really need to know a lot about Asian cuisine to put this together.

The last savoury dish was a chicken wrapped into salad leaves and "infused of hot pot". The execution was perfect and the hot pot taste was incredible, given that the dish was served in raw salad leaves.

Before dessert came a coconut water and blackberry sorbet (or at least what a Westerner would call a sorbet). This was light and refreshing, very nice. The main dessert was a poached merengue with a heart of tangerine sorbet accompanied by a mango jelly and a mango granita. This was a very fine and light dessert, very authentic and definitely different from the Westernised desserts served in Chinese restaurants most times.

The dinner ended with a petit four course, with two small sweet bites, both pleasant. Service was excellent, waiters were able to explain the dishes in detail. Price was £100 per head including one cocktail each (both absolutely delicious), of which the food item was £75. This is definitely not cheap for a meal, but the quality of the food and the level of the produce was definitely worth every penny. The best Chinese restaurant we have tried in London so far!