The grand entrance of Golden Phoenix does make you more likely to take notice of a restaurant and walk in to try. However, as you will have heard “never judge a book by its cover”.
Although the restaurant looks grand, the dim sum here is reasonable price. I felt my overall experience was like Wong Kei, which was once known for bad service and cheap pricing. Golden Phoenix might not provide bad service like Wong Kei was once known, but with no service charge do expect a lack of service.
You order your dim sum by marking on a dim sum order form, which is in both in Chinese and English. There is also a separate dim sum menu with colourful photos to reference against the order form.
The egg tarts (£2.80) was the traditional version with the flakey pastry which I prefer over the butter shortcrust pastry. I thought the egg tart was better than the BBQ Roast Pork Puff Pastry (£2.90). They are not usually served as the photo shown below as our portion was a complimentary.
The Deep Fried Scallop Rolls (£4.40) came served with a salad sauce.
We ordered variety of steamed dim sum to tried and each one was resonable quality. Although, I was not keen of the filling in the Mixed Meat “Fun Gor” Dumplings (£3.10). The mixed meat did not work for me and I have tasted better version in other restaurant.
The Spicy seafood dumplings (£3.50) was actually seafood dumpling with each topped with X.O sauce (a spicy seafood sauce). Although it refer to being spicy, I didn’t find it spicy.
It might not be the best Scallop Cheung Fun (£5) I have had in London but it was not bad.
Custard & Egg Yolk Buns (£3.60) was disappointing. When it first arrived we saw leaking yolk oil and thought this must be good. But when I made my first bite in to the bun, not only was it not a fluffy bun there was a lack of filling. If you follow my blog then you will know what you should expect from this bun.
The BBQ Roast Pork Buns (£3) was better as the bun as it was soft and fluffy.
Traditional Sponge Cake (£3.90)
Overall the dim sum was average with the exception of the custard and egg yolk buns which was the worse dim sum we had on the table.
We were seated upstairs and there are many large tables which reminded me of Wong a Kei layout. May be I have found a Wong Kei experience for dim sum. Well just almost!
(Not sponsored. Prices and menu correct at the time of dining)
Golden Phoenix
37-38 Gerrard Street,
London,
W1D 5QB
What originally was Jade Garden in London Chinatown has changed name to be known as Orient. It has had a complete renovation which now reminds me of Royal China, using the combination of black and gold.
Orient serves dim sum in the afternoon with an all day à la carte. As with many Chinese places, you would order dim sum by marking the choices on a form. I’m not sure if they offer a English version, but there is a menu which is in both Chinese and English. So you can match up the numbers from the menu on to the order form. Otherwise I am sure you could place your order with one of the staff.
We tried Orient’s siu mai which had a fancy name as Crab roe & pork dumplings 蟹皇蒸燒賣 (£3). But it is just the typical siu mai!
I was glad to see the Mini egg tarts 酥皮蛋達仔 (£2.80) made with flaky pastry instead of the modern shortcrust.
The cheung fun at Orient are served with steamed Chinese greens which seem to bring the plate to live. We tried the stuffed dried beancurd with prawn cheung fun 鮮蝦腐皮腸 (£4.20) which has a mixture of texture. The outer layer is a soft smooth cheung fun, follow by the crispy dried beancurd and finally biting to a bouncy prawn paste filling.
We also tried some of the dim sum from Orient chef’s recommendation. This included the crystal king prawn dumplings with black truffle & X.O sauce 黑松露蝦餃 (£4). This is smiliar to har gau but was topped with X.O sauce (a spicy seafood sauce).
The Spicy Shanghai veal dumplings 四川牛湯飽 (£3.80) is smiliar to Shanghai dumplings (siu long bao). Instead of pork this was filled with veal meat and it was slightly spicy. The pastry was nice and thin, but I felt the taste was weird and it did not work for me.
The steamed salty egg buns 秘制流沙包 (£3.50) was not the best in London that I have had, but it is not the worse. As expected, the bun has a grainy liquid filling, but I prefer if there was slightly more in each bun. The main thing that disappointed me was the bun was not fluffy enough.
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Orient serves a variety of dim sum and one of my favourite is their spare ribs and chicken claw rice 鳳爪排骨飯 (£5). This is served in a pot with black bean spare ribs and chicken claws sitting on a bed of steamed rice. It is topped with a sweet soya sauce and accompany with steamed Chinese greens.
If chicken claw does not take your fancy then there are other steamed rice pot options including chicken with Chinese mushroom.
(This is not a sponsored review. Prices and menu correct at the time of dining.)
London first conveyor belt hotpot Shuang Shuang has landed in Soho. The restaurant has been brought by the same group of people behind a range of popular restaurants around the world, including Boon Tong Kee which is one of Singapore famous restaurant for their Hainanese chicken.
How does it all work?
Step 1, you will pick a broth (£7 each) from one of the three selection (Mala 麻辣, Black Bird 烏雞, Lamb Tonic 小肥羊, Fish Pond 魚泉, Temple Brew 蝦頭海鮮草本)
The selection of broths will cater for a large variety of people. If you want a sense of fiery and numbing then Mala is the spicy broth option. However, if you want a non-spicy option then there should be one of the other options to suit you.
If you are not a big fan with the flavour of lamb, then I do not recommend the Lamb Tonic broth. I tried the broth and found the lamb meat flavour too strong, even for some one who does eat lamb.
My favourite out of the broth I tried would have to be the Temple Brew which is Shaung Shuang’s vegan broth. According to the menu this broth is made with soy milk (豆奶), shitake mushrooms (香菇), White Turnip (白蘿蔔) and Dried Liquorice Root (甘草根). I did not see any shitake mushroom or turnip in the broth. But to my surprise it was a broth full of flavour.
Alternatively the black bird broth we could see some of the ingredients it had used which included Jujubes (黑棗) and Chinese Wolfberries (枸杞).
Step 2, Mix your dipping sauce ready to use, for your cooked ingredients.
Hotpot is never with out a range of sauces and this is where you can be creative to mix a sauce of your choice. We were automacticlly served three different sauces with our broth.
Step 3, Choose your ingredients from the conveyor belt and add them to your broth to cook.
Each plates are colour coded to reference the different prices which range from £1 to £4.30. You can use the menu booklet to obtain the exact prices of each ingredients that are available.
The ingredients included a selection of beef, chicken, lamb, pork, fish and shellfish, vegetables, tofu and noodles.
Each raw ingredients on the conveyor belt are covered with a lid and will have a label to try to tell you if it contains seafood, pork, chicken, beef or a combination. But it was not always easy to know the exact ingredients when providing with just a general category.
The label will specify at least how long you need to cook from boiling the broth. This is a guidance and I always recommend that ingredients such as meat need to be cook throughly before consuming.
Two of the ingredients that I found worth picking or ordering (if you can’t see it on the conveyor belt) is Shuang Shuang’s house prawn balls (£2.90) and house prawn & pork balls (£2.30).
They come in a cool looking bamboo looking tube with a matching spatula. You would use the spatula to scrape a ball of paste in to the broth to create your own funny looking prawn ball or prawn & pork ball.
You will find a lot of the typical ingredients for hotpot such as sliced meat, sliced fish, fish balls, chopped vegetables and lots more. There were some that I would not commonly would had used for hotpot such as Chinese dough (油條), which surprisingly work with the broth. But you will have to make sure you do not leave it in too long or it will become too soggy.
The bow beancurd (豆皮結) was the complete opposite where you can leave it in as long you want, as they will take a while to become soften. So you do not worry about over cooking them too long.
Although upstairs there are sharing broth, most of the seats you will get your own individual broth. Although traditionally hotpot is one pot shared between the table it can be great to have your own broth. You know what ingredients you have put in the broth and to suit your own dietary requirement.
You can add different ingrediants to your chosen broth and make it to your own, such as using fragance shitake mushroom. Here is how my Temple broth started and then looked like after adding a few raw ingredients.
To complete your hotpot meal you can order one of Shuang Shuang’s dessert. We were unable to try the Brandy-infused Persimmon (£4) so instread tried their Soy milk ice cream served with Candied Ginger (£4.50).
The ice cream was creamy in texture and light ion flavour. The candied ginger went well with the soy milk ice cream and gave it another level of flavour to the dessert.
Shuang Shuang also offers a range of Chinese tea including the beautiful flower tea. Not all tea you will be able to top with water to and will only be for one round.
The cost of having hotpot at Shuang Shuang can add up. Just as you do at a conveyor belt sushi, the plates can get taller which means the cost also goes up. We had 25% off during the soft launch and manage to eat £30 per head.
Dining out for hotpot is generally expensive and there are now fewer places in London offering buffet hotpot. But in the Asian community, hotpot is regarded some thing you would have at home as a family or for hosting a big group because it is easy to do.
Shuang Shuang is probably a place to consider if you were dining alone. It is especially great for the colder season as you can warm up with a steaming broth and watch the ingredients go round and round on the conveyor belt, keeping you eyes open for some thing delicious to add to your very own broth. But just beware of your money bank as you could easily find yourself paying for a fine dining bill.
Autumn 2015 saw a trend of Vietnamese restaurants in London opening. The first one I want to share is Viet Food that has took over a previously Vietnamese restaurant in London Chinatown. The owner has transferred the place to give it a rustic atmosphere.
There are a range of drinks on the menu including cocktails and mocktails. Viet Food also offer two of their own juice. I tried the Wow Wow which came served in a mini milk bottle for £3.50. Although it was a cute way to present juice but it was too expensive for the amount of juice that was serve at that price tag.
For hot drinks, Viet Eat offer a lemongrass tea (£1.90) that is served in a teapot and better value then the juice.
We tried the Tradition rice paper summer roll with prawns (£5).
We ordered two of the chef selection dishes to try and the portion size was small. These dishes are good to have with one rice and give an alternative to having noodle.
The tender belly pork (£7.50) only had 3-pieces of belly pork and the portion size reminded me of House of Ho. But I did not think it was as good and thought it need to brasied longer as it was not soft enough.
Chargrilled lemongrass chicken (£6.50) was nice with succlent moist chicken. Full of flavour and goes well with pickle vegetables.
There are five different phos to select from the menu. We tried the pho with the lean rare beef. The broth was fragrant as you expect from a Vietnamese pho.
Bun is a vermicelli noodle that is served like a salad. Each one is toped with cucumber, bers, peanuts and a choice of pork, beef or prawn. They all are serve with a fish sauce which you need to pour over the dish, otherwise the dish is dry and bland.
I do like the decor of Viet food but the food didn’t stand out for me to say “Woah”. I would visit again but not in a rush to. However there will be some dish I would not order such as the belly pork. I probably stick to their pho and bun.
(Prices correct at the time of dining)
Viet Food
34-36 Wardour Street,
London,
W1D 6QT,
UK
London Chinatown has changed over the many years since I was a child. I remember those childhood days when we would travel in to London Chinatown once a week to have dim sum for a family lunch. Now a day you have considerately more choices around London that you can easily get a decent Chinese food with out going in to Chinatown.
Chinatown has and still changing due to the trend, rent and the increase in competition around other local areas. It is no longer just an area that offers cantonese cusinese, it has extended to other part of region in Asia.
This year we saw a new addition, Little Penang in London Chinatown. The restaurant aim is to concetrates on serving Malaysian cuisines.
Satay skewers (£6.80)
Asam Seabass (£19.80) felt like the fish did not connect with the rest of the ingredients on the plate. The fish seem to be cooked separately from the sauce with the vegetable, then pour over the the sauce. The fish was missing the infusion of the flavour from the sauce.
Kam Heong Crab (£15.80) was better than the fish with stronger flavour.
Instead of Hainan chicken rice, Little Penang serves their version of a Malacca Chicken Rice (£9.80). It is smiliar to Hainan chicken rice but the Malacca version is serve with rice ball.
If you are looking for freshly made roti than this is not the place for them.
The dish was okay but comparing to what I have had at other places in London, than it does not compare.
If you make comparison with other place in London serving smiliar cusines than Little Penang would not come out on top. Although not all dishes was the best the food is okay, but there are some I wouldn’t order again.
Little Penang
18 Gerrard Street,
London,
W1D 6JF,
UK
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