Kavitha P.

Had a quick cocktail with a view at the bar in Hutong on a sat afternoon during Christmas Great service, able to move seats to the window seat because let's face it you are paying for the magnificent London city view Cocktails are pricey as to be expected but tasty I always love the vibe and service at the Shard and make a point to visit whenever I visit London

Ed U.

I was watching a travel vlogger assert that the best way to enjoy a view from The Shard was making a reservation at the upscale East Asian restaurant GONG on the 55th floor. We did just that, and while the panoramic view was spectacular, the portion size of the set dinner left much to be desired (review: https://yelp.to/4lEwNuHqMg). As luck would have it, we were an hour too early for our reservation. So we came here first. Coincidentally this was also an upscale East Asian restaurant but on the 33rd floor of The Shard. They have a separate lounge, the Shanghai Bar, with cocktail tables next to the window. As it turned out, the difference in the views between the 33rd and 55th floors wasn't even discernible. They were equally spectacular. Lucky for us, a table was open for us. Their posh cocktail menu was based on the Chinese lunar calendar and the elements and flavors associated with each zodiac sign. Jamie and I just went with what sounded good. He first ordered the £21 Yellow Ming, a citrusy sweet mix of rosemary-infused tequila, mango purée, mandarin syrup, and yuzu juice, while I had the £20.5 Coffee & Melon Martini (photo: https://yelp.to/OcRMi4AgbC). It was a subtly sweet blend of melon-infused rum, cold brew coffee liqueur, and hazelnut & chocolate liqueur. Now that was the right way to celebrate London at sunset, so much so we had a second round but wisely non-alcoholic this time. Jamie ordered the £13 Shan, a refreshing mix of Everleaf Mountain aperitif, almond, cranberry, lime, peach, and dill. I had the £13 Senlin, a tropical and slightly spicier blend of Everleaf Mountain aperitif, pineapple, coconut, passionfruit, mango, and chili (photo: https://yelp.to/YXjzxAB5cW). Non-booze was definitely the way to go since we had a bottle of Champagne Rose coming up at GONG. Even though the service bordered on the glassy-eyed, the bar experience by itself would've been just fine for a visit to The Shard if you are so inclined. COCKTAILS - 4 stars... intriguing artisan mixes and blends befitting the view AMBIANCE - 4.5 stars...gets crowded quickly but the view made it worthwhile SERVICE - 3.5 stars...a bit automatic TOTAL - 4 stars...here's the visit to The Shard that makes sense to us RELATED - Exploring London? Here's my collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://bit.ly/3zFACrx

James G.

TL;DR: do NOT dine here! Go next door to Oblix for a more enjoyable experience and the same view. If you NEED Chinese food, visit a mid-tier offering elsewhere. My partner and I regularly frequent luxury brunch locations around London. Examples being Quaglino's, The Aubrey, the Aqua locations, and Oblix (located in the Shard adjacent to Hutong). We were excited to try Hutong's offering since they appeared to market themselves as a more elegant, luxurious Chinese dining experience and their brunch menu seemed interesting. We could not have been more disappointed. I'll bullet our experience to make it clear why dining here is a total waste of time. 1. We arrived punctually, about 20 minutes early for a 1400 seating on Saturday, March 22nd. 2. We were told to sit by the bar and that someone would get us when our table was ready. 3. We had to ask to check our bulky coats; no one offered (a first for us at an "elegant restaurant"). 4. We promptly seated ourselves at the bar and selected drinks from the menu. 5. No one attempted to take our drink order until 1356, four minutes before our seating. We decided to skip the drinks we had selected 10 minutes earlier. 6. At 1408 we had to go back to reception to inquire about our table. We were AGAIN asked to provide the name on the reservation by the exact same hosts that took our coats and directed us to the bar. They acted as if it was their first time speaking to us, making it crystal clear that no one would have ever come to seat us if we stayed at the bar. 7. We were told someone was making the table up and were asked again to stand to the side. We stood for an additional 10 minutes discussing if we should dine elsewhere before finally being brought to our table at 1420. One of the hostesses did offer an apology in passing... 8. Our table was by the window, which was nice, but also located next to the DJ station which made one of the seats a bit tight. We waited another 10 minutes before someone came to take our drink order. 9. Our server was pretty good and the service was a bit improved from this point forward. 10. The starters were bottomless, but half of the dishes were below average. The shredded beef was inedible, like chewing on twigs from a tree. The three dumpling dishes were the best of the bunch. We were asked if we wanted additional starters and ordered the four we enjoyed most. We only received two before our mains arrived (we weren't surprised nor cared enough to mention it). 11. The mains were fine but did not stand out. We ordered the spicy tofu and the scrambled eggs with scallops, selecting the vegetable fried rice as our shared side. 12. For drinks we went with the bottomless cocktail option for an additional £40. This included three cocktail options over a cheaper £32 option that included beer, wine, Prosecco, and Bellinis. The Hutong Spritz was delicious and the Exotic Martini was pretty good, but the Chinese Lantern tasted like a child's fruit juice made with sugar and syrup (reminded us of the American "juice" called Tang lol). The Bellinis were also very good! 13. For dessert we ordered the mango pudding and the sorbet. They were both about buffet restaurant quality and we stopped after about two bites. I will say, it was strange to have solid chunks of ice in what should have been creamy sorbet - yikes! Other than completely disrespecting their patron's time, the number one issue we observed was communication between the staff. No one working seemed to have fine dining competence at all, as if putting a restaurant in a London landmark was "fine enough". No vendor response needed; we won't be visiting again.

Ryan L.

I had a wonderful work lunch in the mid afternoon with 6 colleagues (I love working in insurance -- my trips to London for a week, several times per year, include 4-8 truly excellent meals, limited only by my diet.) This is a northern Chinese restaurant on an upper floor of the Shard, a tall skyscraper on the south side of the Thames overlooking the City. While they could easily just coast on the location, it also has beautiful Chinese design throughout the restaurant, and quite good food (comparing it to some of the best restaurants in Shanghai). Service, especially in the less busy times like our late afternoon private dining, is quite good as well (we had a dedicated server in our room for 2 hours). Unfortunately you do pay quite a bit for all of this (fortunately for me it was covered by work, and actually the supplier/partner was hosting us); you could easily pay $200-300/person without alcohol, and up from there, but there are some set menu lunch options which could be $100-200/person total. I'd love to go back for drinks in the evening sometime, but for food, I really enjoyed mid-afternoon when the place was fairly empty, quiet, and very attentive service. We did the least expensive set menu per person (GBP 35 for 3 small plate versions of popular items), a whole duck, and maybe 7 other dishes (multiple orders of a few types of dim sum, some vegetables); somehow managed to be the perfect amount of food with less than half a plate left over, across 7 people.

Brion C.

Sitting 33 stories above London in The Shard building is Hutong, a swanky restaurant serving even more swanky Northern Chinese meals. The star for me is the Peking Duck sliced at your table, but everything on the menu is delicious. They even celebrate birthdays. It's always a superb evening of wonderful, flavorful delicacies with extraordinary service.

Yasmine B.

the service was terrible. when I walked in someone sat me by the bar and I asked if she had hot cocoa to which she said let me go and ask and I waited 20 mins and she never came back so I walked up to the bar and a waitress told me No. then eventually a waiter came up to me but only about 10 minutes after serving someone else who came in after me. he was cool and polite and explained the menu the lady had given to me earlier cuz she had not explained it goes by the chinese zodiac. I then proceeded to order a drink that went by my zodiac. the drink was nice but not worth the 20 quid with the poor service. would not come again but would only recommend for the view.

Katrina P.

I came here to have a cocktail when in London recently, and felt like a queen. You do have to go through building security but once you head up the elevators, all of that bureaucracy melts away and you are immersed in the slick, sexy interior of the Shard. Hutong, which sits on the 33rd floor of the building, provides an intimate setting with both delicious cocktails and mocktails, and the most incredible view of London. I walked in with no reservation, hoping to find space at the bar, and the sweetest waitress helped keep an eye out for a better spot to open up so I could look over the city, and by the end of the night my boyfriend and I were literally seated at the best table in the joint. Dreamy dreamy dreamy

Kassandra G.

This is a MUST GO spot when visiting London! We stopped in for drinks at the bar and even from that smaller section the view was incredible! No better view of London than from the shard and that exactly where this restaurant is located! Drinks were delicious and they have such a a fun menu! Their menu is is set up with Chinese zodiac signs and the drinks have what sign they think would like each drink! The green wanly was delicious and of course we tried a classic lychee martini and you can't go wrong there! For food we just had bar apps and they were perfection! I've never had better apps! The dim sum was perfection and one even had champagne infused in it! This place was great, the service was wonderful and the bar area lets you sit at the window on a rotating first come first serve basis so that was great because we had a chance to sit on the window with the views! Lastly decor, this place was BEAUTIFUL! The views add a lot to the vibe but in general who ever decorated this spot really outdid them selves! Even the bathrooms were beautiful!! Perfectly themed spot and i will definitely be coming again!

I'm choosing to post this review because I disagree with a number of posts that I read that were quite negative. I understand every experience is unique, but our visit was great, so I thought I would share. We had a reservation at 6pm for 2 ppl. We were seated promptly, offered drinks and were explained the menu. We ordered the following: Crispy Shredded Beef Waygu Beef Mille-Feuille Spring Roll Leek Soup Half Duck Spicy fried rice Sweet and sour chicken Let me start off by saying: this is too much food for 2 people. Our waitress said we were right on target, but we ended up giving the 2nd part of the duck order to a couple at the table next to us. The waygu dim sum was out of this world. The Peking duck was spectacular as well (I actually preferred it without the pancake and veg that comes with it. Use the chili crisp oil with a bite of the duck and you won't regret it!). Sweet and sour chicken was awesome too! The only thing we absolutely would skip next time was the spicy fried rice. It was dry and flavorless (which was a surprise as every other dish we ordered was great). I'll post a pic of the bill for those curious. It's a little pricey, but the views are immaculate and that's part of what you're paying for. Service was good. Our waitress Nadeyah was lovely. We'd go back again for a great date night. Overall 9/10. Hope that helps!

Yutika N.

This place is special in all ways. I thought it was just a hyped up place, but I just loved it. Chose this for a date night, and boy it was one of the finest dates. We booked the table for 8:30 perfect for sunset and moonrise view from the shard. The staff is extremely courteous and sweet. Ordered spinach and mushroom dumplings, and it was cooked to perfection. No sticky outer and flavourful. The chilli oil had shrimp, so the server helped us with fresh chilli and soy sauce dip. The chilli is some other flavour that I've never tried before and loved the packed heat. For mains, we had mapo tofu with sticky pickled fried rice, they're a perfect combination. Towards the end, had to separate chilli from the mapo tofu, but definitely a great meal. The bill was about 70 pounds, which I feel was good for the ambience, food and the views.

Cal L.

I was very impressed by the food, but even more impressed by the view. This is a truly beautiful restaurant, and everything was perfectly designed, plated, and served. We ordered a smattering of things from the menu, including the red lantern soft shell crab. It was as good as I remembered it from my trip to Hong Kong, where I tried the sister restaurant. However, we thought the dim sum was OK but not worth the price, and overall, walked away feeling a bit dissatisfied with the overall price of the meal. The view, though, was spectacular. We got to see all of London, and I guess that's what you're really paying for. We will be back when we have more money.