Sweet sights and great food gently gliding by

The dining area of Mott 32 can seat more than 150 people.[Photo by Dong Fangyu/China Daily]

When we arrived at the lobby level of the bank we were greeted by restaurant ushers, one of whom accompanied us on a long down escalator and then a procession of circular stairs decorated with mirrors and industrial chains.

The dining level is enveloped by subdued lighting, and the super cool interior decorating gives it an Old-Shanghai-meets-New-York industrial ambiance that, with decorations such as Chinese lanterns, and furry tassels, really is other-worldly.

It is cavernous, taking in more than 150 diners at any one time, and there are multiple dining spaces with different design motifs. We were seated in a corner where tables for two were located. Next to us was a themed semi-private dining section in a vaulted space equipped with several sets of comfortable fabric yellow couches and with a huge collection of Chinese calligraphy brushes lining the walls, and teak wood flooring for wall coverings.

Eye-catching design has not been spared either in decorating the restrooms, entry to the ladies' being gained through steel-bar grated doors that have more than a heavy hint of a dungeon entrance about them.

After dining at Mott 32 some of my Hong Kong friends said the establishment offers "Chinese food for Westerners in what is more like a bar". Normally you don't expect great food in a bar, but Mott 32 considers itself a gourmet nightclub that serves dim sum for lunch and Peking duck for dinner.

The two dim sum items we had seemed surprisingly original and satisfied the taste buds to the core. Steamed siu mai dumplings are made of kurobuta pork, quail egg and black truffle. They must have been steamed very briefly, because the egg yolk was runny, and it flowed into the mouth at the lightest bite.