It’s a couple of years since we last ate here - probably the best Cantonese in Chinatown. And they’ve done some refurbishment. Half of the restaurant has been converted to booth seating – including booths for two. The other half remains as before with mainly tables for larger groups. Some folk like booths. Other aren’t so keen. And we’re in that latter group. I think you lose something of the general buzz of a restaurant, when you can’t see people or see the servers bustling round with trays of food. On midweek evening, the place was packed – I can’t recall ever coming here and finding it so busy, so there was still some atmosphere.
But we were here to eat, not to do an interior design critique. And the eating side of things is certainly unchanged. So, some dim sum to us to share. Really crisp vegetarian spring roll. Steamed dumpling stuffed with prawn and lots of Chinese chives; Another where the dumpling wrapper had been rolled round a chicken filling, into a sort of cigar shape, before steaming and then coated with oyster sauce. The two dumplings were new to us and were really good, in both texture and flavour. There was a tangy soy and black vinegar dipping sauce.
Mains were a game of two halves. Kung po is the Cantonese take on the Sichuan gong bao. It’s traditionally prepared with chicken but here, they also do a vegetarian version – pepper, onion, Chinese mushroom, bean sprouts, cashew nuts and the like - in a lovely sweetish sauce with a hefty poke from dried chilli. It’s a longstanding favourite of ours. And there’s something to be said for ordering favourites, even though it’s good to order something new. So, pork with ginger and spring onions was new. But it really needed more ginger to bring it alive. As it was, it was just a fairly basic pork and veg stirfry, in a somewhat gloopy sauce, that was OK but nothing to set the tastebuds tingling.
Service is efficient but, as seemingly everywhere in Chinatown, lacks any real hospitality.
As we came out, we spotted a new Chinese supermarket. Up to now there’s been three longstanding places - all of them like little rabbit warrens with no much sense to where goods have been stacked. This one looked modern, well lit and well organised. We had to have a quick look round - we could have spent longer but they were starting to close for the day. Got a few bits - noodles, jarred sauce. And, from the chilled bakery shelf , two mango pancakes. So, a large thickish pancake - thicker than a normal British one, not as thick as an American one - folded round what we later discovered to be chopped mango and lots of whipped cream. Eating one when we got home was probably a mistake after a large dinner and was probably the cause of the indigestion an hour or so later. But it did taste bloody lovely.
