A Walk Around London: Pizza East & Imperial China - Shoreditch & Chinatown, Friday December 28th, 2012

There's nothing like showing off the city you live in. I'm a very proud Londoner and when I have friends in town it's usually an excuse to eat somewhere and enjoy a day out and about. A colleague from France (but a native Londoner) was visiting and had brought her children with her. The order of the day was to show them around a few parts of London they were less familiar with and generally get some fresh air to shake off the collective post-Christmas food hangover.

That curing a food hangover should involve both lunch and dinner might sound surprising, but hair of the dog and all that... The first part of the day was spent walking around east London, ducking in and out of vintage clothing shops, interesting side roads and the almost real-time regeneration of the east end. Lunch time hit us and it was decided we should grab a pizza. I suggested Pizza East since it was enjoyable on first visit and it was more interesting than Pizza Express.

The variety on the Pizza East menu is always a pleasant balance between exotic and familiar. There's never too much choice but there is just enough to make the first read through the card an enjoyable debate. I decided to push the boat out with a pizza and a side dish. The main event was topped with squash, pancetta, parmesan and stracchino cheese (left). This was a hearty, thick and creamy pizza. One perfect for a winter's day walk around London. The stracchino, a cow's milk cheese I had not eaten previously, contributed the creaminess without overwhelming the base and flavour elsewhere. The parmesan's sharp acidic notes gave some zip to the whole thing whilst the meat and the squash sat perfectly as the main flavours: salty, savoury and deliciously soft.

My side dish was cauliflower cheese (right). Given that I was eating a cheesy pizza it seemed a little indulgent but the fact that it was also still technically the Christmas season meant I had impunity to order all the dairy I wanted. The dish itself was a delightful mixture of both white and green cauliflower, both of which were perfectly cooked. The different types of vegetable lent a necessary textural variation to the dish and the overall effect was wonderful. Another dish perfect for a winter afternoon.

After more walking, taking us up to St Paul's by the time the day was drawing in, the wife came to meet us and we headed to Chinatown for a light supper. The lure of Imperial China was too strong to ignore and we found ourselves at a typically tasteful round table upstairs wondering what would be acceptable to order given our rather heavy lunch.

In the event, we went for a sample of dim sum dishes which started with an assortment of dumplings (left). All steamed but containing different fillings, these were a lovely way to start. All the fillings, from scallops to pork to mushrooms, were excellent. The soft, supple dumpling casings were steamed to a smooth texture which meant the whole tray was devoured in minutes.

We also ordered soft-shell crab (right). This was clasically deep-fried to crispy, greasy satisfaction. Not at all heavy or cloying, the meat was soft and sweet with a hint of saltiness to bring home the sea flavour. A dish like this is so pleasurable by its very nature that it becomes easy to dismiss it as a constant winner. However, Imperial China is the kind of place where it starts to become something a little more special than the closest one gets to Chinese fish 'n chips.

Our final main dish was a plate of pork gyoza (left). These were properly crisp, chewy and slightly soft dumplings which had been pan-fried to a perfect bite. With soy sauce on the side, these didn't last long and the fact that we'd had pizza for lunch suddenly seemed a distant memory.

Imperial China was a lovely way to finish off a busy, bustling day. Two good meals at two dependable restaurants combined with a vigorous stroll around parts of the east and central areas of town made it one to remember. There really isn't anywhere quite like London and restaurants are such an important part of that.

Pizza East

Imperial China

Royal Dragon - Chinatown, Friday 26th October, 2012

Chinatown is one of the most interesting places in London to me. The rectangle of the West End, bordered by Lisle Street, Charing Cross Road, Shaftesbury Avenue and Wardour Street is so alive, so colourful and so full of food. Even if the aim is not related to dim sum, dumplings, duck pancakes or snack shopping, I always relish a walk around because there is always something new to notice, some more tourists overwhelmed or some more temptation in waiting.

One of the hardest things to accomplish when in Chinatown is to find somewhere genuinely decent to eat. In terms of Lisle Street, it more or less starts and ends with Imperial China. As for the main street, it can be a tougher proposition. Three of us went into Royal Dragon on the main street, given that we'd been here before and we knew it was likely to be good.

The food we ate was actually rather tasty. It was late in the evening, following a birthday party and at that sort of hour, you're looking at places becoming increasingly full of people who just want sustenance at a moderate cost and damn the quality. Here, it's a little different. Their deep-fried soft shell crab, for example, is something I've enjoyed many times and is certainly a cut above the standard kinds of mush in batter you might find elsewhere (left). Moist, sweet and fresh, it's just as deep-fried seafood should be.

Equally enjoyable are their meat dishes. Barbecued pork and stir-fried chicken are both things which you nearly expect to go horribly wrong at a late night Chinese restaurant but here it works well (right). Big, sensible flavours combining with a genuine Asian sensibility might sound simple, but it's all too often missing from London restaurants.

Even standards as trite as 'crispy duck' are great here (left). Not at all the dry, shredded rubbish we have come to accept as standard, this is more a succulent, rich, comfortingly fatty delight which can cure midnight hunger, hangovers and a critic's gripes.

'It is not one of the most incredible restaurants I have eaten in, but it is a welcome and staunch venue in one of those places where it can be hard to get a genuinely good feed. It's certainly got my recommendation and it's somewhere I will continue to go when I am in the West End and in need of a late supper.

Royal Dragon

Golden Day: Chinatown, Sunday September 23rd, 2012

When you eat out as much as I do, you get a feel for the kinds of places to try and those to avoid. Without too much effort, you can gauge whether or not you will like a place just by looking at it. It might sound judgmental and pretentious but it's true.

One early autumn evening last year, the wife and I were invited to try dinner with one of her old colleagues at a place in Chinatown which, apparently, was not a bad sort of place at all and one that we would quite enjoy. Just looking at the offensively orange exterior and the semi-fast food makeup of the inside, I was pretty convinced I would have a hard time here.

And so it proved. (Clearly the review was always going to go this way from an introduction like that.) The meal ambled along and eventually reached the point where I asked the wife and her friend to check with the waiting staff if there was anything on the menu I would actually be able to eat without streaming nose, eyes and other orifices. It was a very spicy evening indeed...

In defence of the place, I did manage to get through some cabbage and some simple pancakes but the glass noodles, served in a bowl of lethal-looking red sauce were exactly that (left). The wife and her friend quite enjoyed them but I could not see it past a few mouthfuls. It was a similar story to more or less everything else on the table, eventually.

Some dry-fried beef would normally have been a reassuring standard-bearer on a night like this, but again the amount of chilli was prohibitively hot for me. The girls got through an impressive-looking but outstandingly spicy hot pan of pig intestine which was fresh and vibrant but far too out there for more than a mouthful for me (right).

That was more or less the story of the evening, sadly. The place was not appealing, the food too spicy and generally not to my taste at all. In the interest of balance, the wife's opinion was a little more relaxed than mine, saying that as a Chinese restaurant, it was pretty average, though she did not appreciate the service. It did seem to be rather slow-paced and lackadaisical throughout the evening. Their answer to some non-spicy fare for me was a dish we already had on the table but I had found too spicy...

I would not recommend this place but I suppose I am not the person to ask about an overtly spicy restaurant in Chinatown. It clearly is not one of the West End's hotspots for Asian food though, so I am a little vindicated in my general dislike of this place. For very spicy, average Chinese grub in an annoyingly orange atmosphere, it doesn't get much better than this.

Shanghai - Knightsbridge, Sunday 22nd July, 2012

Lazy summer afternoons in the city are always a lovely thing. Except they're rarely actually lazy in London since it's always so bustling and lively. A year ago the wife and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather to have a stroll around Knightsbridge (inevitably ending up with shopping) and through on to Hyde Park (inevitably ending up with a meal.)

We decided some dim sum was in order, so we tried Shanghai, situated on the Old Brompton Road and with a suitably serene, tranquil atmosphere within. It was a nice break from the packed, sun-bathed streets and dim sum is a great afternoon food whatever the location or season.

We went for mixed noodles and these were definitely worth the visit (left). A properly balanced array of squid, prawns and scallops, these were moist and substantial. The vegetables were all well-cooked, retaining some crunch but with a nice sheen from the sauce. Despite the heat, this was on the money. Mixed noodles from a decent Chinese restaurant is one of those mythical dishes: simple enough to make but rarely ever executed well enough to be enjoyable.

As with any (and I do mean any) dim sum meal, dumplings and buns had to be ordered (left and right respectively). These were unfortunately not on the same level as the dumplings: over-heavy, under-seasoned and a long way from the wholesome comfort eating they should have been.

This is perhaps the biggest risk of eating anywhere in Knightsbridge: the price. Whilst the noodles were a bit toppy, they were fine since the delivery was great. Dishes like this just aren't worth the extra couple of quid you get charged at places like this. We also ordered a couple of miscellaneous side dishes of vegetables and white radish but none of it could compare with the noodles. The best places to be for food like this on any given London day in the sun are in Chinatown and Bayswater.

Shanghai

Imperial China - Chinatown, Sunday April 22nd, 2012

There is something so unutterably reassuring about Chinese teatime. It's one of those meals that you know is a bad idea for both money and cholesterol levels, it's a relatively unnecessary meal and if you eat it you most probably won't need dinner. Having said that, what makes it such a familiar comfort is that - most of the time - you will feel satisfied with what you got.

Imperial China is an old favourite and it was on a quiet Sunday with not much to do that we decided to enjoy our afternoon with a few dishes. What I like about this place, aside from the food, is that it remains one of the truly elegant restaurants in Chinatown. Its gateway through the small garden-like entrance becomes something resembling a properly upmarket eatery, all within the scummy throes of one of the busiest parts of west end London.

We went for some beef cheung-fun to get things started, being that the long, thin dumplings are a mainstay of dim sum for the wife and I (left). These were lovely in texture, but lacking in taste. The beef was lost in the skin, meaning the hint of flavour we were anticipating never came. Pretty disappointing, given the quality one expects here.

Next up were some chicken feet, which the wife had insisted on (right.) This really is one of those Asian dishes you have to give it your all for and despite the wife's affirmations, these are not for me. Whilst the meat and skin is actually soft and rather pleasant, the amount of small bones you have to spit back out leave a lot to be desired.

Egg tarts were predictably fantastic; a reminder of just about the best thing ever to come out of Hong Kong (left). Warm, flaky pastry surrounding a delicious egg cream with a slightly gelatinous sheen - perfection. I could eat these for way longer than is healthy.

We departed from our usual dim sum themes to try some spring rolls (right). These were a nice surprise - hot, soft and just about as tangy as you want your spring rolls to be. Slightly Vietnamese in style, they were packed full of vegetables, herbs and dainty flavour.

Next up was some pork rib (left). When this came to the table, it looked more like pork knuckle. Similar to the chicken feet, there was some pretty enjoyable meat here, but the amount of cartilage destruction and bone separation didn't really merit the eventual pay-off. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't a top one for me. The wife, however, really enjoyed these.

Finally, no dim sum outing of mine would be complete without some char siu bao, the fluffy barbecue pork buns (right). These were hot, steamy but sadly a little too thick. The meat inside was great, which is not always a given with these in dim sum places, but the bun slightly overwhelmed the filling. Not bad but not quite up to scratch.

There were a few highs and a few middles (no real lows to speak of) from our tea time at Imperial China, but it remains a favourite of the area. Its tea and lunch time appeal is just about as good as anything else you will find in Chinatown and it's more or less always the restaurant I'd recommend to anyone if they are in the area.

So, note it down: next time you feel like something worth your money in Chinatown, head off the bustle of Gerrard Street and onto the quiet sleaze of Lisle Street. Imperial China is waiting.

Imperial China

Four Seasons: Bayswater, Thursday January 12th, 2012

Early January was a hectic time. The wedding was two weeks away, the wife (then fiancée) was struggling to recover from a bout of sickness that had sidelined us both over the holiday and the in-laws were about to come to London. We decided that, having endured a lengthy flight from Taiwan, the best way to start their stay was a little dinner in Bayswater, London's original Chinatown.

The Four Seasons is a chain with some clout when it comes to Chinese in London. They have two locations in the west end which are always packed, but it's this one that those in the know go for. Brimming with locals looking for quality takeaway and tourists who have lucked out, the spirit of a lively Chinese restaurant is alive and well on Queensway.

There were some very interesting parts to the meal here. Primarily the starter of diced warm seafood wrapped in lettuce: something that sounded and looked suspicious at best. I'm not a huge fan of large iceberg lettuce leaves in any food, especially if said leaves have been stuffed full of barely identifiable seafood. The result was an unexpectedly substantial and meaty pocket of wholesomeness. The seafood was well-cooked and it made for a comforting starter. Hot seafood inside cold lettuce: it does actually work.

One dish which Asia seems to have a constant affinity with is crab. Deep-friend soft shell crabs are often on Chinese restaurant menus and we tried some here. Cooked to a crunchy-soft turn, they were entirely pleasant until the chilli overwhelmed any glorious salty flavour they had. Too spicy by half, which was a shame given the crabs' quality.

Tofu with minced pork was a dish which lived up to my expectations entirely: good minced pork wasted by the addition of tofu. A pot of rice was as functional as anything else you're likely to get in your average Chinese and greens with garlic were as stringy and watery as they always are. But then there was duck.

One thing I (and the guidebooks) recommend you eat at the Four Seasons is their traditional Chinese duck. Served on a platter, (mostly) de-boned and dripping in rich soy sauce, this stuff is what you wish you got every time you ordered duck at a Chinese restaurant. Doing away with the tiresome fallacy of pancakes and cucumber, this is proper duck, the way it's meant to be eaten: with sauce and little else. Juicy, fatty, perfect.

The Four Seasons is definitely worth a trip if you're in the area. There are a number of good Chinese restaurants around Bayswater - particularly the Mandarin Kitchen - which deserve a visit, but there is something special in the air at the Four Seasons. As much a part of the community as Hyde Park, tacky shops and beautiful housing, this is somewhere worth your time.

Four Seasons

Joe Allen & Dumplings' Legend: Covent Garden & Chinatown, Saturday December 17th, 2011

Two Christmas parties having been taken care of - one with friends and one with work - it was time for the last festive hurrah of the season. The football lads' meal which included both ex-bloggers Mike and Tom was, as ever, held at Joe Allen in Covent Garden.

It is the ultimate in fun group dining. Despite the food here never being world-beating, it is solid. The burger was ordered again, and yet again, it was fabulous (left). With Byron and Bar Boulud being at the top of my burger list these days, it's so easy to forget how original the Joe Allen burger is. This was cooked rare as anything, served with classic fries and a gherkin.

The rest of the meal is almost not worth mentioning, so iconic is the burger. However, the standard was still at the reasonably high level we have come to expect: Eggs Benedict as rich as ever, salads as punchy as you could wish for, chocolate mousse cake a sweet treat (right).

The atmosphere really is the big draw here, as I have mentioned before. The vibrant hum of the place is one of the most genuinely lively and assured atmospheres you will find in any London restaurant. Friendly noise, helpful service and a well-judged pace make Joe Allen a remarkably comfortable restaurant as well as a fun one.

Some time and several bars later, two friends and I were still standing and in the mood for some late night sustenance. When you're in central London at some godforsaken time in the morning, the only place to go is Chinatown. As long as you can separate the wheat from the chaff, there are some really affordable gems to be had along Gerrard Street, Lisle Street and Whitcomb Street.

On this night we opted for the relatively empty Dumplings' Legend, a place the wife and I first tried a long time ago. Since then, it has apparently changed hands a few times, re-opened and generally been through the mill. I was quite surprised to see it still standing, to be honest. However, remembering there were some good parts to our previous meal there, I suggested this be the location of our final festive graze of the night.

It was a good decision. In their slightly squiffy state, my friends opted for some spicy seafood noodles and a simple Chinese curry with rice. Both of them wolfed it down. Each was way better than the sort of dreck you've seen dozens of times from your local Chinese and a different world completely from the sort of food most people are eating in the wee hours in central London.

My choice was simple and well-informed. Taiwan-style pork dumplings are what the place is famous for and  that is precisely what I was in the mood for (left). I mentioned a while ago that the dumplings I ate in Taipei were the best ever - quite rightly so too - but these were no mean alternative. Properly soft and slippery with a delicate as opposed to rough filling, these were actually impressive. Especially for the early hours of a Sunday morning.

With the December wind whipping through us, we called it a night. Back in the day a club would have been involved, but age is catching up with us. When you get to the stage where age begins to affect your social events, you want familiarity, comfort and value for money. On the last major event before Christmas, we had both thanks to a brilliant institution in Covent Garden and a half-secret one in Chinatown.

Joe Allen

Dumplings' Legend

Odette's & Wang-Fu-Don: Camden, Saturday 19th February, 2011

Primrose Hill is probably my favourite place in London. The view across the city is second to none, perfectly encapsulating London's special disparate charm. The hill itself is simply picturesque, with green rolling verges punctuated by lush trees, and it feels as if the sumptuous beauty of the park rubs off on the surrounding area. The side roads which you walk down to get to the hill from Camden are stunning: old industrial conversions along the side of the canal, resplendent detached houses and picturesque suburban-urban peacefulness.

North London (particularly surrounding Camden) is not known for good eating, but there is food to be found if you look hard enough. One place I'd hoped to try for some time was Odette's. A star dish in two consecutive London Restaurant Festival visits, their lamb had ensured the name stayed etched in my memory and it was always on my 'to visit' list.

One Saturday earlier in the year, we took the plunge and went for the set lunch menu and then followed it with a walk and some tea-time food which made for a typically indulgent and memorable day out. Lunch was the main event naturally, and even though we were on a set menu deal, we were still expecting to be impressed.

Bryn Williams is the main man at Odette's. He's something of a quintessentially modern British chef without the eye-rolling. He's done his time, training under Marco Pierre White and Michel Roux jr. He worked in France for a while. He's excelled on The Great British Menu. And he's a native Welsh speaker. There's not a lot to dislike about Bryn Williams.

When you go inside Odette's there's even less to dislike about him. Having taken over the place in 2008 as chef patron and owner, the theme of the restaurant is simple and current: comfortable, old-fashioned, Great British eating. It's not too pricey (the weekend lunch deal was three courses for £25) and the setting entirely welcoming and unpretentious.

Good bread and butter came in a basket and said basket was sent back to the kitchen minutes later with nothing left in it. Our first starter was something altogether unexpected from a very British institution: cured salmon, or as we might know it: sashimi (left). It was exquisitely fresh and tender, something we practically squabbled over sharing. Fish this good doesn't need much with it. The radish, avocado and ginger was a nod to the already pronounced Japanese leanings of the dish but the salmon was so good none of the rest really registered.

Along with this, we sampled one of those dishes that was so exceptionally conceived you wish you'd opened a restaurant just so you could've thought of it. Or at least claimed the creative rights. However I want to eulogise this won't do it justice: it was a bloody good serving of quail (right). Roast on the side of a toasted goats cheese sandwich with broccoli, I was in heaven through every bite. The entire premise was gloriously simple but incredibly satisfying. Naturally, we ended up fighting over this one too so we wanted to eat both starters exclusively by ourselves.

We were told that unfortunately the kitchen had run out of the braised pork shoulder as a main course. I was a little disheartened but since we were (I believe) the last table to be seated for lunch, I could understand. Instead, they were replacing the pork with rabbit. So that was braised rabbit with Alsace bacon, white bean and apple. Now, I did not really see rabbit combining with these, but rabbit in general is not something I usually turn down. I don't know how good the pork would've been with this dish, but the rabbit tasted like it was meant to be on that plate all along (left). Beans cooked to perfection, bacon crispy and rich and apple smoothing over the meat which was falling off the bone.

Our second main course was not one you'd usually see us ordering. The other half and I are a couple of fairly pronounced meat eaters but the look of a butternut squash risotto with parmesan and pine nuts was too much to resist. Fortunately we had chosen well. The rice was light, unimposing and fairly sang with the sweet, subtle notes of the root vegetables (right). The dish looked a picture and delivered on all counts.

Desserts were not to be sniffed at and we were right to indulge. We decided to pay £20 for our two courses and go for a la carte desserts. Two in particular looked too good to miss out on. Some apple tart was exactly as we'd hoped: crisp on the bottom and sweet on the top. It wasn't quite what I'd eaten at Ramsay or Launceston Place but nice nonetheless.

The stand-out from the dessert menu was the chocolate mousse (left). Served around passion fruit & banana sorbet which sat atop some small cubed biscuits, the mousse was quite wonderful: moderately aerated, slightly swirly, a little creamy and winningly rich. Four warm madelines on the side and the place had gone from great to tapping the spirit of St. John. A truly special dessert.

That was lunch. Lunch was terrific. We were ready for a leisurely walk from the base of Primrose Hill through the side streets down the canal to Camden Lock. The walk along the Regents Canal to Camden is a special walk. It's riddled with tiny elements of historical spice, from the still-operational freight mainline bridge over the canal to the narrow boats constantly moored in the lock.

Despite the slow and steady soul extraction of Camden, developers have yet to remove all its whimsical charm. The stables market proper may be gone, but the myriad of shops and small home-made sellers still operating on the banks of the lock retain their own special vibrancy. Camden is a town for all seasons, all comers and, relevant to this February Saturday, all cuisines.

We came across Wang-Fu-Don, an apparently rather above-average restaurant. But it's not really called that. You and I would know it as Yum Cha Silks & Spice. I certainly think the former is better than the latter so I will continue to refer to it as such. Dim sum was the order of the day and despite that fact that we didn't altogether need it, we wandered in and were sat at a wipe-clean, no-nonsense, utterly typical Chinese restaurant table.

This was not the best dim sum I've eaten. Nor was it even the best Asian food I ate that day (that cured salmon was still sashimi to my mind), but it was pretty nice. I will say immediately the plate of duck tongues the other half devoured were pretty vile: chewy, bone-lined and pointless. I must have missed their point immediately but she loved them.

On the plus side, egg tarts were crumbly, sweet and had just enough of a greasy hint to leave an impression. I love these things so much as I have mentioned before, so if they're even half good they're worth it. Alongside these we ate some barbecued pork puffs which had the correct buttery and flaky pastry to be contradictory and so brilliantly Asian (both right). They might be terrible at desserts but that seems to be because they've used their effort in putting strands of dessert into main courses.

Pork and prawn cheung fun (thin, white, pasta-like dumplings) were the highlight. Tender, salty and delicate meat fillings with silky smooth outer cases were exactly as we hoped (left). We also made it our business to try one of the yardsticks by which any dim sum meal can be measured: barbecued pork buns. I vividly remember eating these for the first time many years ago. My first taste of dim sum, I recall thinking "where have you been all my life?" These were not necessarily that good (maybe it's metaphysically impossible any others ever will be) but they were delicious enough: fluffy, moist, warm and comforting.

I really do like the part of London that sits proudly at the top of the tube map. It's fun, genuine and a place that really does appeal to a vast and diverse crowd. Lunch and tea time were both great fun. The latter was an unnecessary indulgence which revealed a decent neighbourhood Chinese restaurant: something which deserves noting in anyone's book. The former was a delight which I won't soon forget. I'll be back to both of these places I'm sure; just Odette's will be a more special occasion.

Odette's

Yum Cha Silks & Spice

Taiwanese New Year: Phoenix Palace - Marylebone, Tuesday 8th February, 2011

This post could be entitled 'Chinese New Year', but anyone who knows me well knows that I am predisposed to label it as I have. My Taiwanese connections are strong and there are fewer worse faux pas you can make than assuming anyone oriental is Chinese.

Inter-country rivalry is something that has always fascinated me. Being the rugby fan that I am, I have a once-yearly showing of primal, chest-beating, nationalist pride with the coming of the Six Nations. Wouldn't you know it, the Six Nations runs right about the time of Asian new year. In fact, the preceding Saturday had seen England kick off their campaign with a victory in Wales. Given that a Welshman was amongst our attendees here, I was in the mood to differentiate nationalities. As such, Taiwanese New Year it was.

As a party of nine, we decided to celebrate the occasion at a venue well-suited to the group's size. We settled on Phoenix Palace, a well-renowned Chinese place near Baker Street. It's absolutely the right place to take a big group: tables of all sizes all over the place. It's the kind of place that you might not want to go if there are two of you; the greater the numbers, the better your chance of getting noticed.

There were many predictable negotiations on what we were going to order. Some wanted seafood, some wanted dishes we could share, Mike wanted meat and lots of it. I was happy to let the other half flaunt her expertise on both organisation and knowledge of oriental food. We got the order in and were presented with a huge array of diverse Chinese dishes.

We had a traditional Beijing roast duck to start. Ask more or less any English advocate of Chinese food which dish they like best and the odds are it'll be this one. Of course, the standard answer will be something along the lines of "that crispy duck with pancakes" but this is what it's actually called. And, in the true style of "that crispy duck with pancakes", this stuff was moreish, sweet and satisfying. It's essentially comfort food, but it's great to be sharing this kind of stuff with friends on a winter's night.

Sharing was certainly the name of the game this evening. Some people have reservations about sharing food but I have no time for this. One of the wonderful things about eating with open-minded friends is that you can get your fingers grubby, trust their hygiene and relish in the special atmosphere of communally enjoying a great time. Anyway, if you're that worried about hygiene, you shouldn't be eating in mid-price restaurants.

The cavalcade of dishes that followed was breathtaking, mainly for the fact that we had ordered so bloody much. To start with, some sweet & sour pork wasn't the usual pot of glazed gristle and sugar you get in your average takeaway... But it wasn't a million miles from that because that's more or less what sweet & sour dishes are. On the side, some mini pak choi (Chinese cabbage, essentially) was served with garlic, along with that semi-stewed, semi-overcooked feel you always get with Chinese veg.

Some stir-fried beef with mango was a new one on me (left). When you think of stir-fried beef, you conjure an image of either shredded or hopelessly overcooked meat swamped in thick, salty sauce. This was vastly different: a light, almost unique take on modern Chinese food, and one I did not expect: I would never have paired beef with mango.

Next up was an assortment of perfectly fried chicken. Wings, legs and thick meat all cooked to within a crispy skin of excellence. And served with prawn crackers, as if to remind us where our heritage in Chinese food comes from. Another new dish for me was some ostrich (right). I'd never eaten it but the idea of ostrich served with port and shallots, flambéed for good measure was enticing. And not particularly Chinese either. Wherever they got their inspiration, it was worth it for the spectacle and the unlikely sensation of a gamy jolt to a meal you'd not normally expect to get one.

The centrepiece of the evening was a whole seabass (left). The other half described it as "stunning" and the rest of us agreed. Served in a typically Asian way - soya sauce, ginger, coriander, garlic, spring onion and white wine - and presented as only a big fish should be: on the bone, whole, we loved it. Impressively fresh, tender and delicately balanced flavours. A winner with a bowl of rice on the side.

(This might begin to sound greedy now, but remember there were nine of us...) We inhaled a round of battered oysters (not quite as good as The Harwood Arms a month or so earlier) which were fairly amazing. Mike's comment  that the best way to get him eating seafood - "covered in greasy batter" - was actually a comment full of praise, though my one-time contributor has a flair for disguising goodwill as criticism.

Two final meat dishes saw us off: the imaginative but not out-of-this-world lamb with honey and asparagus (this seriously veered away from the Chinese feel of the food for me) and a very well-executed rotisserie selection (the pork belly was the highlight) because we didn't feel as if we'd done ourselves justice with the nine dishes we'd eaten thus far (right).

Phoenix Palace was a pleasant meal which was well-thought out, impressively served and enjoyed by all who attended. It wasn't overly pricey, though I don't think any of us went home stuffed. In terms of a bright, fun night out it's got everything going for it: decorations and zany Asian-ness oozing out of the walls. Well-liked by locals and importantly by tourists, it will continue to stand as one of the better and more popular Chinese restaurants in London. Their menu has more interesting and informed dishes on it than most other Chinese places I can think of.

I would say it didn't have the touch of class we might reasonably have expected - their list of celebrity clientèle is long and illustrious - but it was a great evening out with friends. It's rare that you want any more from life than that.

Phoenix Palace

Pre-Christmas 2010 Round-Up

So, with the clocks about to go back to herald the coming of winter 2011, I'm almost done with my reviews from 2010. Pretty shambolic I know, but my excuses have been made, my day job remains away from food reviewing and I am still soldiering on.

December had already proved to be a fruitful month of eating, but the other half and I were informed by a mutual friend that she would be staying with us over the Christmas period. Never ones to turn a lady away on Christmas (I've heard you can get into the eternal good books for things like this, and we were happy to have her), we rolled out the sofa bed and started planning on where we'd go to eat. December was about to get a whole lot busier.

I will publish a set of specific reviews later on, but there were a few re-visits in there which I will summarise here. The journey began with a re-visit to Restaurant Michael Nadra. Certainly one of the stand-out west London restaurants and somewhere I'd enjoyed greatly on our summer visit there.

The quality remained fairly high. We didn't make a booking, so three of us were shunted in to a fairly late seating. Unfortunately this meant that quite a few of the dishes were off the menu since they had run out of them. Even so, I decided to run the beef gauntlet with some carpaccio followed by fillet steak whilst the other half went back to the tasting menu.

All things considered, Michael Nadra is still quite a draw for anyone in Chiswick. Whilst it's still not my favourite place in W4 (that honour goes to Le Vacherin), it's always worth a visit and considering its relatively low profile, I'd advise you pop in if you are in the area.

Christmas came and went with the usual family fun, I got off my crutches and began some fairly iffy rehabilitative physiotherapy, far too much was eaten around home tables and then we found ourselves back at Bar Boulud. It was fairly soon after we'd paid our first visit there so I shan't review in too much detail. Sufficed to say the afternoon tea (the main reason we went there: our friend wanted some and it was fairly affordable, along with decent quality) was still on song, but we decided to branch out into the burgers this time.

Without too much fawning, let me tell you that these were about as good as any burger I've eaten anywhere. I will be going into this in more detail soon, since this meal was later to felicitate a third visit to Bar Boulud within a year of us first going there, but it was pretty fantastic. For now, just look to your left...

Amongst all the excitement, we also happened upon a restaurant in Chinatown called New Fook Lam Moon. It was a fairly inconsequential visit there but we did try the marquee dish of the place: lobster noodles. As I wrote many months ago, these are quite fantastic if they come off, and whilst these weren't quite up to the standard of the Mandarin Kitchen, they were enjoyable: strong flavours complimented with perfectly cooked noodles. The dishes that came with them were negligible and forgettable, but the main event wasn't.

I also happened to pop in to Smiths of Smithfield - the restaurant empire within a building owned by Masterchef mainstay John Torode - for a spot of lunch with our friend one day between Christmas and new year too. Short and sweet enough to avoid a proper review, the pie and chips I ate was reasonably good, with not a lot else to say. I may go back there but the location is probably the biggest draw of the place. Perhaps breakfast after the market is the way to go?

So that more or less wrapped up 2010. There were just a couple of matters to see off before the year's end: what to do for new year and which should meal should we take our friend to for the main event of her trip?

Yauatcha – Soho, Thursday 28th October, 2010

Whilst I was mired in pre-operation tests, masses of day-work and a decidedly dreary couple of weeks in October, I was able to eke out a couple more days off so I wouldn't be stuck with loads of leftover holiday at the end of the year. Happily enough, most of these days off involved some sort of eating and luckily for me (and you, dear reader), I have an excellent memory. Let the raptures of meals past come forth once more!

…Ahem. Tea time at Yauatcha is nothing to be sniffed at. Named after the successful restaurateur and patron Alan Yau (the man behind Hakkasan), it sits on the corner of Berwick Street and Broadwick Street, right in the middle of Soho. It's bizarre to think that on the edge of a Soho street market, next to a parade of the ugliest flats and the dodgiest fabric shops, sits a Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant.

The place itself is pretty swanky. Deep, cool blues everywhere from the fish tanks to the screen in front of the kitchen, soft yellow backlights and a real feel of Mayfair chic. Bizarre for what is essentially a Soho café. Mind you, the food is generally more expensive and - importantly - better than what you'll find elsewhere in W1.

Well, it is better but it isn't quite good enough. It's cheap but not quite cheap enough. There are highs but strangely these just are not high enough. Most of what we ate - cheung fun (thin, white dumplings stretched long to accommodate beef), char siu (puffy buns housing more impressive pork), char siu bao (pork buns as comforting as the cosiest bed) - was really lovely. Kind of like Hakkasan without the spotlighting and grandeur.

Two dishes stood apart though. The stir-fried beef ho fun (flat, sticky noodles) was actually fairly ordinary. Neither on-the-street authentic nor Michelin-starred galactic, they just ended up being noodles which were slightly overpriced and poorly served. The second dish which stood out was for better reasons. A salted egg and crab croquette is something that should be great if you're eating at Yauatcha, but this was even better than I'd hoped (left).

Crackly, deep-fried batter housing something that looked like it had been wheeled off the set of Alien was actually light, crispy, rich in salty flavour and just lovely. I've never eaten anything that looked or tasted quite like this.

I'd go back to Yauatcha, but only for a quick lunch or a traditional Asian tea time. It's not the sort of place you would go very often, but as a midday outing or afternoon treat, I'd recommend it.

I do find it hard to get too galvanised by Yauatcha in general. The food is - more or less - very good without the eye-watering prices you might expect, but the place itself is a bit contradictory, a bit clinical and a bit precious. I'm sure I'll go back, but I won't be hyper-excited about it.

Yauatcha

Two Contrasting Restaurants: Imperial China & Pearl - Soho & Holborn, Saturday 14th August, 2010

During 2010, I realised that I (and usually the other half as well) had started getting rather carried away with eating out. Not content with a couple of restaurants in a week, we even would occasionally eat out twice in the same day. Indeed on one occasion toward the end of 2010, we ate out twice in one evening. Having just got through the end of the year, I am convinced that 2010 was indeed the year of indulgence.

A sunny Saturday back in August was indeed one such occasion. We were even so carried away we spent the time in between meals shopping. In truth, I am not well-off enough to be living such a lavish lifestyle and halfway through the day I had a minor personal financial crisis. Still, what is life without enjoyment and the occasional splurge?

We began the day with a little dim sum for lunch with a few friends in Chinatown. I love dim sum - it's just about the best way to eat Asian food in my opinion. Provided you find somewhere with a bit of authentic flair (or you splash out ridiculous money on high-end Chinese as we did at Hakkasan some time ago), you are usually in for a treat.

Imperial China is one of the better restaurants in Chinatown. You will often find a lot of consumer traps and cheap imitations here, similar to Brick Lane, but there are always a few diamonds in the rough. Imperial China is one such diamond, especially during lunch or tea time.

Dim sum lunch was a fairly typical affair. Five of us tucked in to a variety of dishes, the highlights of which were some pretty delicious egg tarts, some slightly salty and spicy duck noodles, the usual pork buns and long, silky pork dumplings. Unfortunately a little tofu was ordered which was a waste of the plate it was served on, let alone our money.

I can't really say too much about Imperial China you haven't heard me bleat about before. I love dim sum so much that as long as it's reasonably priced and tastes reasonably good I will eat until I realise I've eaten too much. Roughly the same as the kind of dim sum you can expect at a branch of Royal China, I was happy before moving on to spend more money on clothes I didn't need.

The evening took us on a walk from the west end to the other side of Holborn to sample Jun Tanaka's popular restaurant, Pearl. Jun Tanaka is something of a veteran of London restaurants now, having started his career at Le Gavroche many years ago. Pearl has been a fixture of the higher end of London's eating scene for some years and I'd heard consistently good things about it. The other thing I appreciate about Tanaka is that he really does work in the kitchen still. I saw him pace across the restaurant not long after we had sat down.

As we arrived, one thing immediately stood out: the restaurant is huge.The building is the former site of Pearl Assurance, some banking company or other, and in 1999 it was transformed into The Renaissance London Chancery Court Hotel. Firstly: what a stupid name for a hotel. Secondly: this place is too big. I mean uncomfortably so. Why anybody would look at a hulking banking building and decide to put a high-end restaurant in it is beyond me.

That said, it is a good location for a decent hotel, and decent hotels need decent restaurants. Another saving grace is that Tanaka and his design team have decorated the place remarkably well. Sheets of utterly non-invasive glass, streams of glass pebbles and the most delicate lighting you could wish to see do help when you're dealing with such a massive room which is clearly in need of help. Though I do think it smacks a little of childish word association to have thrown quite so much soft pink and glass at the place. What used to be here? Pearl. What shall we call this place? Pearl. What shall we decorate it with? And so on...

When we were seated, I realised that no matter how gloriously you light a restaurant (and it was probably still too dim - the bar lighting was better than the restaurant), if it's this big it's too big. And Pearl remains a vacuous monstrosity. I felt as if I were about to be run over by a docking jet as we hunched around our table.

When food came, I was almost tempted to ask the waiter where the rest was. I'm not referencing there being paltry portions or pretentious servings, but when you serve a long plate of appetisers which are so clearly for one person to two people and expect them to share, it smacks of either gross incompetence or the stingiest cost-cutting. The trough of pre-starters we received actually tasted pretty decent, but I don't really understand how two people are supposed to share one stuffed tomato (left).

One more slight inconvenience to get through before food was the chilled cucumber soup with ricotta. I wish they had stayed true to form and only bought one bowl of this bland excuse for an appetiser so we could've got through it sooner. Depressingly thin and lifeless.

The menu (we were dining from a limited £40 for three courses deal) was designed to be modern and simplistic. Each course was headed by the main ingredient ("TOMATO", "LAMB", etc...) before explaining what came with the dish. Something about even this approach didn't quite sit right with me. Surely in a building such as this it should be simple all the way? Then again, all these pearly fixtures suggest opulence of the highest calibre... There is definitely a clash of styles afoot here.

Starters proved to be something more to write home about. It seemed as if they were upping the game when they needed to by presenting us with some light and well-dressed Pollock brandade - a mixture of salted fish with cream and seasoning (right). I'd never knowingly eaten this before and I have to say it was lovely: very smooth and packed with salty punch. Served superbly with smoked haddock crisps, quail eggs coated in breadcrumbs and parsley, suddenly I didn't really care that they couldn't count guests at the table or serve worthwhile soup - this dish really warmed me up.

The quail starter on the other side of the table wasn't quite as amazing, even though it looked lovely (left). Presented with figs, burrata cheese (creamy, mozzarella-esque stuff) and crisped ham, it was a little dry and didn't quite hit the mark the way the Pollock had.

Unfortunately, main courses weren't up to the same standard as the starters had been. The "SALMON" turned out to be some meagre fillets needlessly sprinkled with almonds, propping up broccoli and baby sweetcorn. This is the sort of thing you might find charming at a friend's dinner party but was nowhere near the standards Pearl should be setting. Likewise, the roast saddle of lamb with trimmings - despite what the menu would have us believe, they were merely trimmings - just wasn't what you would hope to be eating in somewhere with a reputation like this (above right). Cooked rare but cloyingly fatty and cruelly under-supported by the strong garlic and non-existent mint jelly, it was so far away from the sort of stuff we'd eaten at Corrigan's Mayfair that it didn't merit the price we were being charged.

Desserts proved to be showiness for showiness's sake (left). Some panna cotta which was listed as "PEACH" on the menu turned out to be an almond and lavender affair. Confusing description and confusing flavours for sure. The combination did not work, even with the peaches and peach coulis it was served with. They also decided littering the top with some kind of granola was the the way to go too. I can tell you It wasn't.

Slightly better was the strawberry and champagne jelly which was packed into a pot with some lemon and almond sponge. The interesting part of the dish was in the vanilla foam which sparkled and crackled in the mouth as you ate. The flavours were a bit tricky to pick out though, which made the whole thing rather unimpressive and quite disappointing after how good the stuff looked.

Desserts were a good representation of not only the meal, but of Pearl in general. It's big, full of promise and looks good. Unfortunately, the food and the ambiance leave you feeling exactly as the restaurant feels: empty. Jun Tanaka is clearly one of the most pleasant and charismatic men in the cooking public eye, but his restaurant leaves much to be desired. He has attempted to incorporate elements of cuisine from the top chefs he has worked under and has consequently been caught in a middle ground which is a bit of a mess.

It's hard to know what will happen to Pearl. I doubt a Michelin star is in the offing which, let's face it, is what any restaurant serving food like this is after. Having said that, they have been in this huge building for a good few years now and clearly they are making money. Personally, I would recommend Tanaka sells up and re-launches himself in a more moderately-sized venue, takes things back to basics and remembers what makes French food great. You can only pull off high-end French cuisine with twists and gimmicks if the quality is exceptional. Pearl are charging moderately exceptional prices without the pay-off.

Looking back on this Saturday some months ago, it's clear which restaurant I enjoyed more and which restaurant I'm likely to go back to. Now there's some knowledge that would've saved us some money if we'd had it at the start of the weekend.



Imperial China

Pearl

Hitting the Top 50 – Hakkasan: Soho, Saturday 12th December, 2009

I don’t eat enough Asian food. It’s a problem I’m trying to rectify, but it’s set to be a long process of rehabilitation. As an interim, what’s the best way to get a snob like me to a Chinese? Put it in the top 100 UK restaurants.

I’d heard of Alan Yau’s Hakkasan before the other half mooted that we try the food there, and I was relatively interested. After all, good Chinese food is still cuisine that holds its own with anywhere else in the world. Especially good dim sum, which is what we went for, given that it was a Saturday lunch time.

Around £80 later (which included two pricey non-alcoholic cocktails and some water), we were full as could be and pretty satisfied. The short story is come to Hakkasan if you want to eat just about the trendiest Chinese food in London. It’s occasionally spectacular, at times a little lacklustre but more often than not, they’ve got it right. I am speaking from the experience of one meal here, but after the money we spent and the number of courses we got, I now feel like a Hakkasan veteran.

I will provide some pictorial evidence of the very good side of things, because my layman knowledge of Chinese food just isn’t going to be able to describe how good some of this stuff was. Here are some quite excellent barbecue pork puffs:


These are brilliant for two reasons: 1) The tender chopped barbecued pork inside the puffs; 2) The flaky, buttery and tremendously sweet pastry that makes the puff. When you bite into these, you almost expect to be eating dessert, but there’s something better afoot. Maybe it’s my unsophisticated western taste buds, but these always taste great to me.

On the right is something I’ve eaten before, but not really. Um… That is to say I’ve eaten dim sum roast buns before, but not venison ones. This really is my kind of Chinese. Needless to say, they were superb.

Some Taiwan-style dumplings (left) were also as liquid-filled and correctly fleshy as tradition requires. The method of eating these always entertains and challenges me: you have to slit the side of the dumpling and then drink the thin soupy sauce out of it before eating the pork and/or seafood filling.

You now have a luncheon top three from Hakkasan. Leading me to a final verdict, I’d have to say that the food wasn’t as stellar as the £80 price tag suggests it should’ve been. Other bits and pieces we got through were at times delicious, and at others just misleading. (How can duck and pumpkin puffs look and sound amazing and taste so banal?) Still, I did enjoy myself and I didn’t feel cheated, so make of that what you will.

There are a few reasons to go to Hakkasan. It’s very hip and popular and the décor is exceptional: think like a kind of spotlit dojo. It’s also worth visiting just to walk down Hanway Place with its utterly decrepit surroundings and wander into a sliding-door warehouse of luxury: think private members’ club. Lastly and most importantly, the food is rather good. It’s also exceptionally fresh. However, it can be a bit of an either-way affair, as our lunch was, and as various associates have mentioned to me. Check it out if you can, but if budget restrains, try this.

Hakkasan

Mandarin Kitchen: Queensway, 3rd of October, 2009

There is an inherent problem with English attitudes towards Chinese food: people think takeaway Chinese is good. “Oh, you should try the one near me, it’s great”, “Just give the sweet and sour chicken balls a go”, “I love the free prawn crackers”… Give over. Chinese takeaways are horrendous. Sugary, over-filling, too salty, poor quality and so on and so forth… I won’t keep railing against Chinese takeaways because we’d be here for a while too long. What I will say is there are places you can go which will put into perspective how rubbish Chinese takeaways can be.

Bayswater is one of the places to go for Chinese food in London. It was the original China Town before the franchise (which is what I visualise it as) moved to Soho. There are a few different places to try, notably another branch of Royal China which is always good for dim sum, but for this Saturday lunch, it was never going to be anywhere other than the Mandarin Kitchen.

Famed for their lobster noodles, that’s what we ate. Twice. So that’s two between four. Plus some duck. So that’s about £100 for four on lunch. I don’t care – the lobster noodles here are that good. Comparable to the uber-modern Pearl Liang in Paddington, the lobster is broken up into four pieces and distributed over some finely cooked noodles with thick sauce, slices of ginger and greens, and…no, actually that’s about it. Simplicity is king, especially when it comes to eating something as fine as lobster. And I’ll tell you something else: the art of serving this dish at the table is an exhibition in elegance.

These noodles are excellent. Great for lunch or dinner, I most heartily recommend them. Also, the barbecued duck with pineapple and plum sauce is delectable. There are other areas of the menu that I’m sure I’ll explore one day, but I’ll be surprised if I can ever tear myself away from the lobster noodles.

Dim Sum lunch at Royal China, Putney - 9th of August, 2009

I have briefly mentioned Royal China before in my bit on egg tarts. I went there for lunch with a friend on a glorious sunny Sunday and even though I've been there a few times, it never ceases to impress and satisfy. Dim sum is, I believe, the very zenith of Chinese eating. Small and condensed, intensely flavoursome portions of loveliness (almost always served in threes), they're a million miles away from the greasebox takeaways so much of the UK associates with Chinese food.

My friend and I split a plate of Shanghai pork noodles to share, then proceeded to eat our way through yam croquettes (like mushroom in a deep-friend casing), tsim-sha-tsui (thin and long barbecued pork dumplings with soy sauce), roast pork buns (gorgeous parcels of pork baked inside large fluffy white dumplings), pork puffs (similar meat inside sweet and buttery pastry cases) and the aforementioned egg tarts.

It's a lot of pork (it tends to be mainly pork and seafood at dim sum places), but the quality is high and it's a great lunch to treat yourself to once in a while. It is a very convenient way of eating too. The service is always prompt and efficient. It's also super quick - within five minutes of ordering, your first couple of dishes are at the table. It's the proper way to eat Chinese and more people should get involved in it.

Royal China