Mott number 32 at Palazzo

A5KOBE · March 25, 2019, 4:11am

#WorthIt

I had dinner here on a whim and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

BBQ menu

Ordered the Peking duck in advance to ensure we had one for our meal during reservations. It takes about 30-40 minutes so they fired it once we were sat.

Australian Wagyu Beef Puff - these we cooked well, delicate exterior and lucious peppery beef filling. Not at all interesting but executed flawlessly.

Sesame Prawn Toast w/ Autumn Sauce - really tasty stuff, the toast was perfectly crisp and the prawn paste was served with a slight bite. The sauce was a tiny bit sweet, mostly savory, and a delicate sour finish. They offer more sauce on the side but I didn’t think it needed any more than what they presented.

Here comes the main event.

They provide accompanying sauces, pancakes, cucumber and scallion.

One of the sauces is hoisin mixed with sesame and peanut. Use this one.

Applewood Roasted 42 Days Peking Duck

They recommend dabbing the skin in the sugar cane and eating right away. It was really good flavor, some pieces perfectly crispy while others are well rendered but not crisp.

Here is the rest of the for the pancakes and condiments. The hoisin - peanut - sesame mixture was excellent and served as the perfect sauce for the wraps. It has a deep molasses taste reminiscent of slightly burnt sugar. It wasn’t too sweet unlike many other hoisin served with Peking duck. Also ate some duck as is, and I can say this Peking duck is better than any I have had in SoCal.

Yueng Chow Style Fried Rice - excellent

Wok Fried Chinese Broccoli w/ Minced Pork - excellent, nice wok hei flavor and with a crunchy exterior and a nice tender interior.

Dessert time!

Double Boiled Egg White w/ Black Sesame - holy shit did I enjoy this dessert. Very soulful, the texture of the egg white was akin to silken tofu, not eggy at all and only a faint amount of sweetness. Combined with the black sesame, which provided a clear roasty, nutty, savory surprise to bring it altogether. What an amazing dessert to end the meal!!

I’ll be back to dig into the menu further.

Mott number 32 lives up to the hype for me.

J_L · March 25, 2019, 4:50am

The whole meal looks sumptuous, but that dessert appears to be spectacular.

PorkyBelly · March 25, 2019, 5:02am

Agree with @A5KOBE, the duck was worth it. The space felt a little too clubby though, like they’re trying to compete with tao and hakkasan. i was a bit annoyed, even with a reservation, they first tried to seat me at the bar, and then the lounge with knee height coffee tables. they were eventually able to “fit me in” at a normal table in the dining room.

I had no idea what else to order and they were really pushing these two dim sum items so I caved.

traditional iberico pork shanghainese soup dumplings
This was okay, skin was thick, but they didn’t come out super hot.

soft quail egg, iberico pork, black truffle siu mai
Didn’t taste the truffle and the egg was overcooked not worth $7 for each siu mai.

hoisin and peanut sauce

hoisin

cane sugar

cucumbers, scallions

the motherducking fuck
apple wood roasted 42 days peking duck “signature mott 32 cut”
I’m no Peking duck expert but this was pretty damn good. Crispy skin, meat was tender but not greasy. One duck can feed about one porkybelly, don’t ask me how I know.

Pro tip: make sure to ask for your duck carcass which is your god given right with your order.

skin
Eat this by itself with the cane sugar

skin and meat x2

super thin pancakes

no toto
I must have shoe splash guards from now on.

moonboy403 · March 25, 2019, 5:41am

No droop when picked up with chop sticks…not a good sign.

moonboy403 · March 25, 2019, 5:44am

How’s the wok hei on the fried rice?

I have reservations on consecutive days at Mott 32 next month so I can try out different stuff. Also, shame on you and @PorkyBelly didn’t try their iberico char siu! I’m hoping that it’ll be as amazing as what I had in Hong Kong.

J_L · March 25, 2019, 7:29am

What, you gotta ask for that?! It’s like asking for socarrat with your ohwhoamIkidding…

Google_Gourmet · March 25, 2019, 7:53am

In Beijing, had the bones deep fried salt n peppered. We were pretty well stuffed at that point, but the three of us couldn’t stop. It was that good.

Not Instagram worthy. Just delicious.

A5KOBE · March 25, 2019, 7:54am

There was no remnants left in that bowl.

A5KOBE · March 25, 2019, 8:19am

The Yueng Chow Style fried rice was very good although not much wok hei. Lot of scallion flavor upfront with nice clean shrimp taste and some pork in the background. Definitely a nice dish, although I have had better in SoCal.

I’ll be sure to run the gamut next time!

PorkyBelly · March 25, 2019, 5:47pm

gah, i knew i forgot something

JLee · March 26, 2019, 4:39am

Dammit, I was hoping someone would try the Iberico charsiu. Ive been lusting to go to Mott32 in HK for years but now I hopefully don’t need to.

moonboy403 · March 26, 2019, 5:35am

I’ll let you know in 20 days or so. The version I had in Tin Lung Heen in HK was off the charts

moonboy403 · April 10, 2019, 1:51am

How was the portion on the fried rice? I’m currently contemplating getting 2 BBQ items, a meat dish, a fried rice, and 2 desserts for my first night there for a party of 2.

For my second night there, I plan to get 2 starters, a soup, peking duck, peking duck carcass course, and 2 desserts…also for a party of 2.

Should I order more? Order less?

A5KOBE · April 10, 2019, 2:50am

It is a nice size, maybe 4 rice cups worth. It is not huge but not small either.

First night meal should be fine.

Second night meal, starters seem to be baby sized (at least the one we ordered) and honestly I could smash the whole duck by myself easily. Not sure how big the soups are or how filling. I might add one more dish here if you are big eaters.

Hope this helps and enjoy!

catholiver · April 10, 2019, 2:54am

Is that a euphemism? I have no idea.

js76wisco · April 16, 2019, 4:38pm

Duck was amazing. Best we’ve had. They provide a lot of accoutrements. But it’s not cheap. We also really liked the crispy squid, iberico pork and quail egg shui mai. The green forest dessert (first on Western dessert menu) was one of the best composed desserts we’ve had at any restaurant in a very long time. I loved the egg white and black sesame dessert. Comes out a little warm.

Service was impeccable. Sorry for terrible random pictures as I forgot some dishes but our friend was sending us out a lot of drinks.

No Toto but they have ankle splash guards on the urinals.