Sichuan Po Po [London, Kensington]

Regional Dining Discussions U.K., Ireland
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Food was very good (no photo of the king prawn ho fun). But we were rushing at the end to catch our train and I got suckered into adding an additional tip on top of the already applied 12.5% service charge on the bill (which I didn’t notice and now I think the server was deliberately blocking that bit of the bill with her finger while prompting me for a tip on the card machine). That strikes me as a big sneaky and left a bit of a bad vibe afterwards. But the food was good. I’ll be more careful about checking the bill next time. At least we caught our train ok.

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The Sichuans seem to have a thing about naming after their food-related creations after old ladies. first the ma po tofu, now the Sichuan PoPo.

Were the noodles ma, i.e. numbing?

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I couldn’t make out any particular ma la in the noodles. The spicy oil in the king oyster noodle dish was very flavourful. And the chilli oil in the wontons was very good as well. Maybe I’m not the best judge of Sichuan flavours :thinking:

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Agreed. But then it does seem to be rarity to come across a London restaurant not adding a service charge

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I meant to say bit sneaky, not big sneaky!

I suppose I took my eye off the ball, because I was worried about missing our train back to the south coast.

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Those dry-fried green beans look righteous!

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It all looks delicious!

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I stick with big sneaky.

There used to be a restaurant in Manchester’s city centre which had frankly disreputable practices in this regard (restaurant is still there but is now reputable). It was well reported on blogs and wotnot, so I was prepared. Conversation went something like this:

Them - press that button (on card machine) to add a tip

Me - but you’ve already added a service charge

Them - service charge isnt the tip

Me - I think you’ll find it is, mate.

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Not been a local Sichuan place for quite a while but, when we did, the green beans with nuggets of fried pork were a regular order. These look the business.

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It’s one of my favorite Sichuan dishes, although picking one is like picking one’s favorite cat: impossible — whereas picking a favorite child is not at all, according to a recent NYT article :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:.

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Lol :joy:.

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I woulda, too, as I also thought it was on porpoise. Like ‘big mad.’ :slight_smile:

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