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Luxe Garden

We rarely get excited by the opening of a new Cantonese restaurant, given the sheer number of such quality establishments available. But the reputation of the team behind the Luxe Garden, a new upscale but affordable Cantonese restaurant in Central, tempted us to visit.

The creative force behind Luxe Garden is its General Manager Po Kee, a well-known F&B operator and an acclaimed dim sum chef who has worked for many of the city’s stalwart dining groups, including Maxim’s, Superstar Seafood and East Ocean. He has been joined by other veteran Cantonese chefs and operators including awardwinning culinary directors Thomas Ho and Matt Choi – dubbed the “Twin Dragons”, F&B Director Ben Wong, and Wade Po, as Operations Manager. Together, this formidable group brings over 100 years of culinary and F&B experience.

Located on Lyndhurst Terrace, just minutes from Lan Kwai Fong and Soho, the restaurant is decorated smartly; in addition to the dining area, the outlet also houses three private VIP rooms. Luxe Garden has a simple but effective two-pronged approach to its menu offerings, based on its affinity with the city’s dining scene – offer creative, photogenic and colourful dim sum items for lunch and serve classic, authentic, favourite Cantonese dishes for dinner, aiming for a nice balance of premium quality and price. We were there for its plethora of dim sum dishes. Pedigreed Po Kee is widely considered one of the pioneers of ‘cartoon-figure dim sum’, in which dim sum items are shaped to resemble cartoon or animation characters.

Hence, a dim sum meal at Luxe Garden can both be appetising and fun. For our meal, were treated to many of Luxe’s Garden’s signature creations: Dinghu Style Shrimp Dumpling ($46/ 2 pieces), Crab-shaped Shrimp Dumplings ($38/ 2 pieces), Sichuan-style Spicy Pork Dumplings ($32), and a real visual treat – Penguin-shaped Red Bean Paste Bun ($50/2 pieces), which is beautifully and intricately presented over a bed of dry ice – the buns are really tasty too. Be sure to order this one.

Another interesting dim sum dish is Beef Rolls Stuffed with Mushrooms ($38), with a wagyu beef filling. Other dishes we tried included Sauteed Sakura Ebi with Pomelo Peel ($98), Pan-fried Dumplings Filling with Oyster ($88) and Chef Lung-styled Fried Rice, a delicious and savoury shrimp fried rice. We finished our meal with another Hong Kong creation, Earl Grey Tea Pudding ($29), original and rather tasty.

Luxe Garden offers various lunch sets, starting from $288 per person (minimum of 2 persons) to $888 for four persons, that include selected menu items, including its signature Pork Lung w/Almond Soup which is a must-try. The restaurant can also make various customised dim sum items for kids – ideal for birthday parties.

We are confident Luxe Garden will be a success and a destination for those seeking quality food and yummy and interesting dim sum. So do give it a try before it gets discovered. We highly recommend it.

1/F, Lyndhurst Tower, Central, Hong Kong

2788 2683