Irene and I came here for dinner on Saturday night after finding ourselves stranded in the City of London with no restaurants open for dinner on weekends. I have heard many good reviews about this restaurant from colleagues, both Chinese and westerners, and so have been keen to try this place out.
As we approached the restaurant, we saw another party walk in and by the time we got to the door and smelt the scent of delicious food akin to that of hawker stalls in Hong Kong, we saw a bunch of people waiting to be seated. Shortly after we arrived, another couple joined the queue behind us. Given the popularity of the place and seeing the many tables of happy diners with large plates of deliciously looking food, we knew we have found a place worth visiting.
After waiting a while, a waitress finally came and rounded us all to the downstairs dining area. There, we ordered a plate of spicy stir fried beans, a sweet and sour deep fried pork, a bowl of rice, two large prawn skewers and four lamb skewers. I also ordered a bottle of Sing Tao while Irene ordered plum juice.
It didn't take long for the food to come. First came the drinks, then the beans, followed by the rice, sweet and sour pork, prawn skewers, and finally, after a short wait, the lamb skewers. Every dish was cooked to perfection. Chinese people like their stir fry to be cooked on a well heated wok and the beans were definitely stir fried on a well heated wok. In addition, it's seasoning was spot on, culminating in a delicious dish of stir fried beans. Sometimes, the simplest things are the hardest to do well and so this one simple dish goes a long way in saying how good this restaurant is!
The sweet and sour pork was well battered. This version is not the same as the HK version in that the pork are not little pieces but rather large thin slices. Most sweet and sour pork that I have these days have batter that are too thick and so does not end up being crunchy. Not this one. The batter on these sweet and sour pork were still crunchy even with the last piece eaten at the end of the dinner. Furthermore, the sweet and sour sauce with this dish was superb! Literally mouth watering!
Finally, the prawn and lamb skewers. The prawn skewers were not in skewers and was more like two average BBQ prawns - a bit of a let down in terms of size and presentation. The taste, however, was great. With the lamb skewers, unlike at Little Lamb where there was hardly any meat to bite into, here they had a decent amount of meet for the teeth to get into. Furthermore, the seasoning was spot on!
Overall, a fantastic Chinese meal, the best that I've had in a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment