We booked a table for 12:00 and arrived at 11:51. The restaurant was completely empty and we got to choose our table and obviously we went for the best window seat. We quickly ordered and within 10 minutes, all of our food arrived. I ordered the 文山精緻配料 $108 with their signature 雲魅特色湯 and 豬腩片 (pork belly slices) 米線 (rice noodles). The 雲魅特色湯 is very cleansing with a relaxing pickled spicy taste, it is exactly what I imagined sour spicy to be and it is not too salty or intense and makes you want to keep drinking it. The special pot they serve you the boiling soup in also helps regulate the temperature and keeps it hot even after putting it the cold vegetables and toppings. The spice level is not too numbing nor does it burn and make you sweat, just warms your whole body. The 米線 is springy and thin but not chewy. It holds the flavor offer soup surprisingly well and tasted absolutely delicious when you have a spoon of soup and noodles. The portion is also very generous as you have a stuffed bowl of it. Definitely enough for 1 person even though you can add extra as well for $20. The noodles also don’t get soggy or mushy towards the end and all of them are very long so there were no pieces that stayed at the bottom. It was also surprisingly easy to pick them up and rarely did it slip from my chopsticks. For my 文山精緻配料 $108. The toppings included was: 帶子 (scallop), 鳳尾蝦 (fan-tailed shrimp), 蟲草花 (cordyceps flower), 竹笙 (bamboo pith), 鵪鶉蛋 (quail egg), 酸菜 (pickled vegetables), 響鈴 (deep fried soybean roll), 炸醬 (meat sauce), 酥肉 (fried pork), 芫茜蔥 (coriander and green onion). - The 帶子 (scallop) was plump and small, there was a small slit in the middle to make sure it cooks thoroughly. I forgot about it after putting it in for a while but it never became dry and tough even when I ate it at the end. I got 3 bites out of this 😋. - The 鳳尾蝦 (shrimp) was surprisingly big and plump, it was fan-tailed to make it easier to cook and make it look bigger I suppose. The meat was a bit tough as I left it for quite some time but not dry at all and worth about 2 bites. - The 蟲草花 (cordyceps flower) (a type of fungus) was very springy and a good texture contrasts between the noodles after mixing it all together and tangling them together. - The 竹苼(bamboo pith) was very refreshing and crunchy or 爽口 😅 if you will, a typical topping you see at authentic hot pot places so it surprised me. The portion was 2 thumb sized pieces which was enough for me to experience the soup soaked with this crunchy texture. - The 鵪鶉蛋 (quail egg) was added in the beginning and I managed to not break or separate the egg so the egg white cooked around the yolk as if it was a poached egg and I got to eat a very creamy hard boiled quail egg at the end 😜. - The 酸菜 (pickled vegetables) added to the acidity of the soup and the texture of each bite as the crunchiness of it was mind blowing with the silky noodles. Also helps open-your-stomach (開胃) due to the acidity. - The 響鈴 (deep fried soybean roll) was the most disappointing topping as it was not the same crispy and fresh 響鈴 you usually get at hot pots but it was stale and old. When I dipped into the soup for 1 seconds, it already made the texture mushy yet hard which made it very difficult to swallow. - The 炸醬 (meat sauce) helps add umami-ness and saltiness to the soup. My mother recommends eating it with the noodles without adding it into the soup for more authentication. - The 酥肉 (fried pork) was unnecessary in my opinion and putting it in the soup was a huge mistake as the batter it was fried in became mushy and very hard to eat. The batter was also very thick compared to the pork inside. The pork itself was very tender and I recommend eating the pork itself to not ruin the taste. - The 芫茜蔥 was a good color addition to the pale soup and gave a nice crunch when drinking the soup. The 豬腩片 (sliced pork belly) was already cooked for me as they don’t want to risk the hot soup not cooking it fully. The meat was very thin and I was also skeptical about it being dry and tough as it went into my boiling hot soup. However, the fatty pork belly pulled through as it remained tender with only 5% of each piece being dry. As the meat was not pre marinated or seasoned, it still had the natural pork taste and flavor which I loved and it held onto the soup really well as flavor. There was about 3/4 pieces of pork belly and all of them was very big but very thin. Underneath the meat was some lettuce that was also delicious as it soaked up the soup very well and managed to stay crunchy. We also ordered a lunch set* and added $20 for 3 pieces of 薄荷牛肉卷 (beef mint roll). The beef mint roll is tasted amazing. I loved the combination between the tender meat and refreshing cucumber wrapped in mint. The dish was not perfect as it could have been more cold for an appetizer and not tepid. The meat was also cut thin which was good but the tendons were hard to bite through and became a bit dry after a few bites. However the ratio between the cucumber and beef was spot on as you could feel the balance between them and did not feel like anything was lacking. I would have also preferred if the mint flavor was more noticeable as you could not smell it and only taste it a little as you eat the leaf. They should name this cucumber and beef instead of beef and mint 😅. The sauce it was dressed in was on the salty side and do not recommend covering the roll in it as it covers the freshness. *The lunch set ingredients is the 昆明風味配料 and this set includes an appetizer and a drink unlike their other two ingredients. We chose the 雲魅手撕鬼雞 (Yunnan style shredded chicken) for the lunch set appetizer. It was what I expected it to be. The size of the pieces varied a lot as some was delicious chunks of chicken meat whereas some had the taste and texture of minced ground chicken. The sauce (or lack of it) was a refreshing spicy that would leave your mouth as soon as it came so safe for people sensitive to spice. This appetizer was a free addition to the lunch set and yet the amount of chicken they gave was enough for 2 people, albeit most were tiny pieces. There are some pieces of chopped chilli as garnish but they did not burn my mouth at all when I ate it with the chicken which was surprising. The service was also really well considering they don’t have a service charge. Provides water but you have to keep reminding them to refill as the glass is quite small and the staff is not always around. Overall, this restaurant is great if you want a taste of Yunnan, the noodles itself was delicious and adding everything in was a really fun and eventful experience. The view of the sky is also breathtaking so having an under $100 lunch here rivals any other fine-dining place. …查看更多
