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Address: 8-9 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, OX1 2EW. Between Oxford Town Centre and Railway Station
Telephone number: 01865 202888
Website: N/A
Date of visit: 22 September, 2010
Approximate cost per head: For lunch, you can get away with less than £10. Maybe £20-£30 in the evening depending on what you ordered.
Comments on wine list/beer: Didn’t see a wine list but I assume it exist. Tiger is £3.40 a bottle
Summary:
I went there whilst I was in Oxford because of a great review by Giles Coren in The Times.
He mentioned that they had a great Shanghainese Chef and the owner used to own Opium Den on George Street.
Lets get a few non food issues out of the way:
- This place has done well out of the review, it is moving to bigger premises in George Street later this year. There are 2 copies of the review within the restaurant. One on the window facing the street and one on the way to the loo.
- According to Giles, the owner used to own the Opium Den. However, there were several promotional posters (in Chinese) in the restaurant promoting the Opium Den, so may be the links with Opium Den are still there.
- The dark wood furnishing is remarkably similar to the Opium Den.
Now, onto the food. The place advertises Shanghainese and Szechwan cooking as well as Mongolian Grill. The Mongolian Grill is a very large heated griddle. You go to a buffet table, take you selection of shreds of meat, vegetables and noodles. The chef then stir fries it on the griddle for you. The restaurant charges £5.50 for the first plateful and £4 for seconds.
The place was half full when I entered at 1.30. The clientele were mainly Chinese students.
I was offered two menus as I sat down. There was a lunch menu offering dim sum (from £3 a dish) and various rice and noodles for around £6 a dish or bowl. The main menu that promotes set meals, the Mongolian Grill as well as the a la carte dishes.
I have to say that menu was not particularly Shanghainese or Szechwan. In fact I am not aware of an autrhentic Shanghainese restaurant in the UK. Most of the dishes were Cantonese. I then looked at the dim sum menu and they were all standard items – 90% Cantonese. For example, onion cake or pancake is a must menu item in Shanghainese restaurants, another one is eels. They are not on offer here.
I had pork and vegetable dumplings, wok tip dumplings (pot stickers), beef brisket, vegetable spring roll, shanghai dumplings – shao loong pao.
The pork and vegetable dumplings (£3.50) were essentially pao dough pan fried with a mixed minced pork and Chinese cabbage filling. This was fine. The vegetarian spring rolls (£3.00) were as they should be and it was served with a sweet chilli dip.
The wok tip (£3.50) were ok but were covered in sesame seeds – a first for me world wide and I have eaten quite a few of them. The base of the pot stickers could have been crisper. The shao long pao (3.50) had exactly the same filling as the wok tip and no soup or stock inside the dumpling. It’s the soup that makes these dumplings famous. What was also disappointing was that the wok tip and shao loong pao were served with a black vinegar that had no ginger in it. Traditionally these items are served with a slightly sweet vinegar with shreds of ginger in it.
Next came the five spice beef brisket (£8.00). This was cubes of tender beef in a sauce. The dish was served hot. Traditionally this should be served cold in aspic, sliced up like brawn.
With 2 Tiger Beers and service, the bill came to £28.80. Not cheap but not pricy.
My conclusion is that the food is all right but it is not 100% authentic and certainly, the menu is dominated by Cantonese dishes not Shanghainese dishes.
I am off to New York in mid October. I shall certainly visit an authentic shanghainese restaurant.
Giles, may I suggest that you go to Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York or Vancouver and try out a proper Shanghainese restaurant. The food is very different from Sojo. There is a shanghainese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur but I do not recommend it. This is not an invitation, so, please don’t send me the bill.
E
PS. So Jo means burning wine, a type of hash spirit in China.
PPS I am sure that you all know that chop suey is an american invention. Did you know that crispy duck is a british bastardisation of the original dish. In China, it is a salty duck deep fried. No pancake, no hoisin sauce.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/aug/09/chinese-food-takeaway-glass-fat
I am glad that some one is looking behind the PR based research.
E
August 2010
Address: 59-63 Queensway, London W4 4QH
Telephone number: 0207 229 6065
Website: N/A
Date of visit: 13 June 2010
Approximate cost per head: £10
Comments on wine list/beer: basic wine list, Tsing Tao beer £2.90 per bottle
Summary:
This restaurant has been around for over 30 years. I used to eat here on a regular basis in the 80s as it’s one of the few decent (authentic) Chinese (Cantonese) restaurants outside Soho that served dim sum. It was easy to park in the evenings and at weekends along Hyde Park.
At the beginning of 2008, the place suddenly closed down – was it a tax or debt problem? It re-opened some three months later under “new” owners. The staff were exactly the same. (Updated on 27 July 2010 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100727/tuk-mouse-jumps-from-bowl-in-restaurant-6323e80.html .Well, that was bad news!)
I have not been for a few years and was looking forward to visiting it again.
The place looked nearly the same – the only change being at the back near the staircase – there is a new bar/serving counter.
The menu looked different to what I remembered.
We had spring rolls (£3.80) and deep fried won ton (£6) , chicken with onion and ginger (£7.20), mixed meat BBQ (char siu, belly of pork and roast duck) (£8.00), choy sum with garlic (£7.20), special fried rice (£5.20), crispy noodle with chicken (£5.50 and Ho Fun Malay Style (£6.50). With a couple of beers, coke and tea, the bill came to £70.20 with service.
Let start with the positives, the service was efficient, friendly and quick, the food cheap and some of the dishes were very good – mixed meat BBQ, choi sum, fried rice and noodles.
However, the starters were poor, the deep fried won ton hardly had any fillings within the skin – we were paying £8 for a plate of deep fried won ton skins. Fresh won ton skins are £1.50 for 50 sheets in a Chinese supermarket.
The spring rolls used to be good here but its now the frozen type that you get in a Chinese supermarket. How can I tell? Factory prepared samosas and spring rolls have a somewhat mushy interior – this allowed the machine to pipe the content into an envelop (skin). Hand made ones are dry inside and the ingredients are shredded not chopped. The next disappointment was the Ho Fun. According to the Chinese characters in the menu, it’s chow kwai tu. This is seafood ho fun cooked in a curry paste – similar to Singapore noodles. However the version we got was dry fried ho fun (normally with beef) with a few prawns and chillies added. The colour should be yellow because of the turmeric but this version was brown. When I asked the manager he said that this is their version. Well, I hate it when restaurants sell you bastardised version of something and did not clearly state it in the menu.
Was the meal overall all right – I guessed so but this is not the restaurant I used to know.
By the way, they still serve dim sum during lunch time.
E
Address: 196 Stanley Road, Teddington, TW11 8UE
Telephone number: 0208 977 8679
Website: www.imperialchinalondon.co.uk
Date of visit: 15 February 2010
Approximate cost per head: From around £20 per head.
Comments on wine list/beer: Not bad for a Chinese restaurant. Most priced around £20
Summary:
This is the “sister” restaurant of China Palace in Reading. The menu and décor is nearly identical.
We went on the “2nd day of the First month” according top the lunar calendar.
It’s a medium size restaurant – smaller than the one in Reading – with ample space between the tables. There are several big round tables which could seat 12 persons. They have another room at the back for private parties and as a over mspill on a Sunday.
For drinks, we had tiger beer and a bottle of petit chablis (£26.50). I was told that the wine is ok – I was driving.
As its Chinese new year, we ordered two dishes from the chinese new year menu, the rest were from the a la carte.
On the menu was something called golden lobster. I was informed that its sauté lobster with egg. I asked for it to be changed to sauté lobster with ginger and spring onion sauce. The waiter informed me that it was not possible to order items NOT on the menu. Just then, my friend Billy turned up.
Billy is the owner of China Palace, Furama and Salt and Vinegar (fish and chips) in Reading and part owner of Imperial China. Billy soon corrected this minor problem and we had our ginger and spring onion lobster which was excellent. It must have been over a kilo in weight. The probability of Billy being there was 0.1 as he is normally in resident at China Palace.
We also had, steamed sea bass, squid with spicy salt (garlic, chilli), golden fried chicken, Singapore fried noodles, beef ho fun, mange tout in black bean sauce.
The singapore noodles were spot on. Normally, it’s slightly wet because the chef adds curry sauce instead of curry powder – I prefer the dry version. The chicken was a little bit on the salty side. The sea bass was very fresh and the sauce light rather than heavy. The squid was 10/10 – soft, chewy but not rubbery.
For desert, we ordered toffee apple and banana with ice cream. I never understood why it’s called toffee apple/banana. It’s essentially battered deep fried fruit in a crispy caramelised sugar coating – I thought that toffee is supposed to be semi-hard.
At the end of the meal, Billy introduced us to Simon – the executive chef and part owner. Simon informed me that (next time) I should ask for him if I wanted to order off the menu,
So if want to order off the menu ask for Billy (China Palace) and Simon (Imperial China). They will accommodate you.
The whole meal including service came to just under £180 – lobster was £32 and sea bass was £35 – for 4. This is not cheap but it is top class authentic Chinese cooking.
By the way, parking is on the street and there are all sorts of restrictions. So come on a Sunday or after 6.30pm on any other days.
Kung Hai Fat Choy!
Eddie
P.S. When I got back to my friend’s house, their baby sitter had a chinese take away from round the corner – we should have taken back a doggy bag for them!