Mong Jung Heon

The row of trendy international boutiques and upscale French and Italian restaurants in this Westernized corner of Apgujeong makes Mong Jung Heon stick out like a jade dealer on the Left Bank.

But if you like dim sum, and are willing to shell out a little extra for the real deal, this chic little Cantonese shop is a welcome anomaly.

What’s good here? Basically everything, including the most enchanting setting one can expect from a place serving barbecued pork buns.

The decor includes reproduction Qing furniture and understated lighting in birdcage-style fixtures. Upstairs you get a water wall and a set of private rooms while attentive servers whisk around in slit-skirted silks.

Local food pundits have called the restaurant’s staple deep-fried shrimp dumplings “crispy parcels of prawn heaven.” The brittle-but-soft, deep-fried shrimp, pork and vegetable rolls wrapped in tofu skins were recently hailed as “paradoxically pleasing.”

The pork-seafood-mushroom shaomai is also a worthy fixture.

Bring cash and don’t neglect the barbecued pork bun, which is almost sweet enough to pass for dessert and is probably -- dare it be said -- the best of its kind in these parts.