Full of Luck Club

How do you like your dim sum? If you prefer somewhere loud, boisterous and authentic, look elsewhere. This modern Cantonese restaurant, opened by the folks behind Li Bai, offers that brashness only in its decor – think chinois chic plucked from the mind of Dick Lee’s hipster cousin – with none of the good food that you’d get from a down-and-dirty joint.

A meal at Full of Luck Club is a novel experience let down by execution. And the steep prices certainly don’t help – ‘$7 for har gao?!’ one couple beside us exclaims in Cantonese (it’s actually $7.20). The dishes aren’t worth the pretty penny. The dim sum is thoroughly average: the radish cake with XO sauce ($6.80) is cold and sticky, and the fatty and unctuous steamed char siew bao ($5.40/three) isn’t half as good as Tim Ho Wan’s. At least the fancy baos ($6) – like a braised pork belly one with pickled lotus root – are complex and moreish.

And then, the mains. Our truffle beef hor fun ($20) reeks with a chemical pong (whither thou, wok hei?), and our smoked duck claypot rice ($14) is straight-up bland. The sweet mint and lime cod, however, is crispy and succulent enough to have rescued the meal – except you’re paying $24 for four morsels of fish.

We really like how fresh this restaurant and its ideas to modernise Cantonese fare are. Unfortunately, it needs much more than luck to make it work.