Excited to review the dim sum menu at Hutong, we arrived at the Shard just in time for lunch. The luxurious Chinese restaurant is located on the thirty-third floor, and boasts a truly captivating view of the London skyline.

The beautiful flowers and decor at the entrance are absolutely breath taking. A striking wishing tree stands tall at the centre of the restaurant, with branches laced with cards hanging for wishful desires. The majority of Hutong’s design consists of dark wood and bamboo, adding an authentic oriental atmosphere to the whole experience.

The floor-to-ceiling windows enable you to see the amazing view from wherever you are seated. Taking a moment away from glaring at the mesmerizing surroundings, we finally took a look at the menu.

The lunch menu consists of three styles of dim sum; steamed, baked and fried. Each dish comes with three to four pieces, making it easy to sample the menu regardless of the size of your group. Everything we ordered was mouth wateringly tasty and was served with delicious individual sauces. Our personal favourites were Hutong’s signature dish “Shanghai-style xiao long bao”, consisting of pork soup filled dumplings, and “Wagyu Beef Puffs” which are baked sweet pork puffs in pastry. The vegetable and bamboo pitch dumplings were also exquisite – ideal options for vegetarians.

There was plenty to choose from on the wine menu. We ordered Esk Valley Riesling 2013, which complimented our lunch perfectly. It was very light and ideal to cool us down after all the chilli sauces.

As London’s sunset slowly made its way through town, across the buildings in Waterloo and London Bridge, we realised we had spent almost three hours enjoying our meal and the stunning view.

As we made our way out of the sky-high bamboo forest, we were already looking forward to our next experience at Hutong!