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A. Wong is a
Michelin-starred The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...
Chinese restaurant, located in
Pimlico Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by London V ...
, London. It serves modern British retake on traditional Cantonese dishes. It is owned by Andrew Wong, a third-generation London restaurateur who is also the restaurant's chef de cuisine.


History

In 2012, Andrew Wong, a third-generation restaurateur, opened A. Wong, named after his parents, in Pimlico and became its
chef patron A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant or hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities ...
. The site was previously the location of his parents' Cantonese restaurant Kym. The author of the magazine article is not to be confused with the chef of a similar name. Wong's wife Nathalie manages the restaurant. Among notable guests of the restaurant were brothers
Ferran Ferran () is a commune in the Aude department in southern France. Population See also *Communes of the Aude department The following is a list of the 433 communes of the Aude department of France. The communes cooperate in the followi ...
and
Albert Adrià Albert Adrià i Acosta (; born 20 October 1969) is a Spanish chef. He is currently head chef of Tickets, a Michelin one-star restaurant in Barcelona and was formerly the head pastry chef of elBulli, in Roses on the Costa Brava. He was the lea ...
of El Bulli.


Menu

The restaurant has provided traditional Cantonese dishes with modern British twists. The menu has been seasonal and included Peking duck, '' guotie'' (pan-fried dumpling) and '' xiaolongbao'' (Shanghai pork dumpling) with ginger-flavoured vinegar foam. It has also offered the "Taste of China"
tasting menu A tasting menu is a collection of several dishes in small portions, served by a restaurant as a single meal. The French name for a tasting menu is ''menu dégustation''. Some restaurants and chefs specialize in tasting menus, while in other case ...
, which included "soy chicken, ginger oil osetra caviar wrap",
Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
shredded lamb 'burger' "with
Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
pomegranate salad", '' char siu'' "with grated foie gras", "
Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...
street tofu", "
Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
fermented seabass", and " Wuwei smoked duck" (). A. Wong also offered a Xinjiang-inspired dish of deep-fried beef strips with chili and a sauce; "1,000 chili' chicken with
snails A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastrop ...
and Sichuan pepper";
Kung Pao chicken Kung Pao chicken (), also transcribed Gong Bao or Kung Po, is a spicy, stir-fried Chinese dish made with cubes of chicken, peanuts, vegetables (traditionally Welsh onion only ), and chili peppers. The classic dish in Sichuan cuisine originat ...
; "seared
wagyu beef Wagyu ( ja, 和牛, Hepburn: ''wagyū'', ) is the collective name for the four principal Japanese breeds of beef cattle. All wagyū cattle derive from cross-breeding in the early twentieth century of native Japanese cattle with imported sto ...
with
mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...
, chili and
lemongrass ''Cymbopogon'', also known as lemongrass, barbed wire grass, silky heads, Cochin grass, Malabar grass, oily heads, citronella grass or fever grass, is a genus of Asian, African, Australian, and tropical island plants in the grass family. Some ...
"; aubergine with Sichuan sauce; and crispy noodles with brown gravy. It also has offered
dim sum Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cuis ...
dishes, like
prawn cracker Prawn crackers ( id, krupuk udang) are a deep fried snack made from starch and prawn. They are a common snack food in Southeast Asian cuisine, but they are most closely associated with Indonesia.They have also been adapted into East Asian cuisi ...
with deep-fried seaweed and "pork and prawn dumpling" with "a citrus foam", and desserts, like
duck egg Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...
and "poached merengue with fruit textures". A. Wong also offered "Why We Don't Eat Shark Fin Soup", a soup dish containing
agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from ogonori (''Gracilaria'') and "tengusa" (''Gelidiaceae''). As found in nature, agar is ...
and chicken broth with oil extracted from steamed ham "rolled in sugar". Derived from
shark fin soup Shark fin soup is a traditional soup or stewed dish served in parts of China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The shark fins provide texture, while the taste comes from the other soup ingredients. It is commonly served at special occasions such as ...
, Wong's dish substituted agar for shark fins because shark finning is banned in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. A. Wong also offered "Why The Buddha Didn't Jump Over the Wall" ("barbecued
sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...
with some fermented, salted black-bean relish"), inspired by the
Columbian exchange The Columbian exchange, also known as the Columbian interchange, was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, commodities, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the New World (the Americas) in ...
in the 1500s and based on a popular Cantonese dish of "pumpkin and black bean sauce". Wong wrote a 2015 cookbook, ''A. Wong: The Cookbook''.


Reception

The restaurant earned its first
Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...
in October 2017. It then earned its second star in January 2021, becoming the first Chinese restaurant outside Asia and in the United Kingdom to hold two stars. To this date, it has been the only two-Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant outside Asia. Ben McCormack in November 2018 called A. Wong "the best restaurant in Victoria" and "possibly the best Chinese restaurant in Europe".


Chef and restaurateur

Wong was born in early 1980s into a family that operates Chinese restaurants, including his parents Albert and Annie. Wong's grandfather, a Chinese immigrant, owned some
East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
pubs and a restaurant in Chinatown, London. Wong initially did not aspire a career in hospitality, and his father wanted him to pursue
further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. I ...
. Wong attended the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
for a bachelor's degree in
chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
but did not finish after one year and a half. He then studied
social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...
at the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...
. In 2003, due to his father's death, Wong decided to help his mother Annie run the family's four remaining Chinese restaurants, including one Cantonese restaurant, Kym's, opened in 1985 by Wong's parents and named after his grandmother. Wong then took cooking classes at Westminster Kingsway College and spent six months in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
studying varieties of
Chinese cuisine Chinese cuisine encompasses the numerous cuisines originating from China, as well as overseas cuisines created by the Chinese diaspora. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many ot ...
. Wong opened another Chinese restaurant Baoshuan in
New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
in 2018. He also operated another Chinese restaurant Kym's, which lasted from March 2019 to late 2020, in Bloomberg Arcade of London. He became a research associate at the SOAS Food Studies Centre of the
SOAS University of London SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...
in May 2020. Wong also co-hosts ''XO Soused'', a podcast exploring the cultural history of Chinese food, with Dr Mukta Das, food anthropologist at the SOAS Food Studies Centre.


References


External links

* {{coord, 51.4930, -0.1406, display=title Chinese restaurants in London Michelin-starred restaurants in the United Kingdom Restaurants established in 2012 2012 establishments in England Cantonese restaurants Michelin-starred Chinese restaurants