City-based sister restaurant to A Wong

Kym’s is the second venture of Chinese chef Andrew Wong who owns Michelin starred A Wong in Victoria. Kym’s is named after Andrew’s Grandmother who ran the original restaurant before Andrew took this over to form A Wong. Kym’s is more casual affair (as is its purpose), sat within Bloomberg Arcade almost equidistant from Bank, Moorgate and Monument. The interior is beautifully done and overall I enjoyed the dishes here. It felt more like a quick fix of reliable food rather than a place to make a special journey and is a useful venue to have on the radar for Chinese food in the City of London.

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There were many plates that were ordered to share which is the encouraged way at Kym’s. Tiger prawns that were lightly coated came with a very nice pineapple and sweet chilli sauce which made a good change. A lemongrass salad was quite simple with just some nuts, lime and chilli and was a little puzzling to be this simple but at least was healthy.

Bao (dumplings) came in two varieties – mushroom and ‘bao bao’ of pork and prawn with black rice vinegar, egg and crispy chilli. The mushroom bao was pleasing enough but the bao bao was something else and delightful in every way – salt, acid, crunch, softness and richness. Then came the crispy duck which was a certainty to try. As per its presentation at A Wong, it comes with a paintbrush to paint the gentle plum sauce on to the pancakes which is not only fun, but actually quite practical because it ensures a good spread and helps to not overdo it as I often do. The duck itself was juicy and not dry with good crispy skin.

Three treasures is a Cantonese dish (which is the favoured of the regional styles for Andrew Wong) and consists of three meats: soy chicken, crispy pork belly and barbecued pork char siu. This was pleasant and the meats themselves had pronounced flavour whilst also not being too dry which was a relief from the appearance. Gai lan broccoli came with soy and goji berries. Uyghur fries (from Xinziang province, China) were thinly cut and came with mango powder as another quietly pleasant change from the norm.

The dessert was a little more tricky to pin down how enjoyable this was as it was reasonably pleasing on the palate but the mousse that was labelled as coffee really did not taste much of this which was the bit that threw the table a little. No huge biggie and the pineapple and bun-like add on was good, but just a little puzzling overall.

Overall, I spent £59 for what was a large amount of offerings so I was pleased with this and refrained from drink which made the money go further for this lunch. It is a stylish place to go and certainly recommended for dropping in to see for yourself as a good option.

Food Grade: 73%