Ho Wong

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £28.00 (set lunch)
   £25.00 (evening meal)
• House wine: £12.00 per bottle

• High point: Well designed interior; attentive staff
• Low point: Few pork dishes
• Food served: Mon-Fri noon-2pm, 6-11.30pm; Sat noon-2pm, 5.30-11.30pm; Sun 5-10.30pm
• Open since: 1986
• Also offers: Wheelchair access

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

Situated on the ground floor of one of Glasgow's fine examples of 19th century commercial architecture, Ho Wong lives up to its classy setting with a modernistic, but not harsh, interior. The intimate bar area gives onto a more secluded, windowless restaurant space of brick-surrounded pillars and honey-coloured textured stone tiles decorated with East-meets-West prints. Attentive staff hand out chopsticks, unobtrusively supplying emergency forks where necessary. Wan tun soup has a subtle smoky, nutty flavour, counter-pointed by delicately-handled Chinese leaves. The prawn toast is as hot as it is fresh, with a distinct sesame seed aroma. Duck in black bean sauce is tender and succulent, with the beans forming wonderfully elegant comma shapes in a sauce that has subtle, finely-chopped chilli highlights. It takes a good restaurant to excel at the staples, but with light, well-separated rice and soft but textured noodles, the Ho Wong can do fancy or plain. The toffee banana desert is dramatically immersed in water to cool and crackle the glaze, adding contrast to the roasting interior, and the lychees have a satisfying pink grapefruit-meets-pineapple flavour, simply served in a light syrup. An impressive example of fine Chinese cuisine in a quiet, sympathetic setting.