Looking for the best, high end Chinese in London. We prefer Szechuan or Hunan style cooking to cantonese.
MarkC
Jun 16, 2006 09:31AM
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Had a wonderful meal at Hakkasan last month. But beware the place is a scene.
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Limited choice.
Hakkasan is the best, and probably the only high end Chinese restaurant in London (unless you count China Tang in the Dorchester Hotel).
Bar Shu on Frith St. the the best, and probably the only Sichuanese option.
Thankfully both are worth it
J
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Hunan in Pimlico/Chelsea is also quite good.
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The Good Earth on Brompton Road is great Chinese.
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Good Earth is a 'high street' Chinese. Nothing special.
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Do not wish to be a pedant, but does Taiwan Village serve Chinese food?
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It serves Taiwanese, Hunan and, to some extent, Sichuanese. I've just thought of another Hunan option which is Shangri-la. It's probably the most authentic option but has more of a cafe feel than Hunan or Taiwan Village. It's also a way out from town - at the Oriental City shopping centre in Colindale.
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Fuchsia Dunlop had some positive things to say about a place called Chinese Experience, which appears to have an eclectic but not particularly Cantonese menu.
http://www.timeout.com/london/restaur...
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Chinese Experience is good, but quality has gone down in recent months as the owners offer heavy discounting to keep the roof over their head. Still worth a trip but it's not Sichuan or Hunan food.
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I thought the menu at Chinese Experience looked interesting, but I had a terrible meal there last year. I don't remember all of the particulars but the prawns with tea leaves were smallish specimens that had clearly been cooked twice (boiled then stir-fried), mixed in with bits of black stuff. It didn't taste like anything. The other dish that I can recall was a variation on ja jang myun, and it was barely a step up from Top Ramen. None of this was cheap, and it seriously damaged my food credibility with the (Chinese) friend that accompanied me.
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I had some fantastic meals at Chinese Experience last year. I've never ordered the dishes you mention though - they just didn't excite me.
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Why wouldn't Taiwan Village serve Chinese food? After all, Taiwan is a part of China!
My parents like Green Cottage in Swiss Cottage, though they say they overcharge for rice (something like 11 pounds for 4 bowls - ridiculous!). They've tried Bar Shu twice after the inimitable AA Gill wrote it up - their verdict? Good, but they use stale hua jiao (not enough tingle).
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Green Cottage is really a Cantonese caff. I don't remember being overcharged for rice last time I was there two months ago. Bar Shu imports hua jiao from Sichuan and it had a fine tingle when I went. It makes me wonder if supplies ran a little dry when you went on account of their initial popularity... Oh, and if it sounds like I've eaten in practically every Chinese restaurant in London, I'm afraid I have...
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High End? I think the Blue Orchid is not too bad for SzeChuan.
But Cantonese is probably the best bet at Pheonix which is around the Corner from Baker Street Tube, although Royal China is also very, very good. I wouldn't consider either of them high end though. Certainly a cut above the usual.
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Is that Phoenix Palace on Glentworth? A NY friend of mine highly recommended that place after he'd been here on a holiday. I haven't tried it yet but trust this person.
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Where's Blue Orchid? I don't know it :-(
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HI Zuriga,
I think it is, the service is much better than most Chinese places, the decor is definitely more refined, but brighter than Royal China.
Dim Sum there is really quite good, Cheong Fun is light and fluffly not thick and gelatanous.
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Dragon Castle in Elephant & Castle (Walworth Road) is streets ahead of both Royal China and Phoenix Palace.
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I would put Dragon Castle above Phoenix Castle but below Royal China for Dim Sum based on this meal a few weeks ago
http://majbros.blogspot.com/2006/07/dos-hermanos-do-dim-sum-at-dragon.html
The specials were better than the more standard dim sum.
Better was an evening meal a few weeks before that
http://majbros.blogspot.com/2006/05/d...
The hotpots in particular were excellent.
Wherever one places it in a ranking, it is a welcome addition.
S
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Royal China is more expensive and uses cheaper ingredients than Dragon Castle, e.g. canned bamboo shoots instead of white fungus. The standard of Royal China's dim sum seems to differ from branch to branch too - the Canary Wharf outlet is the best of the bunch nowadays.
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After reading some great reviews, tried Dragon's Castle for the first time recently, and would suggest anyone - visitor or local - looking for really fresh, properly prepared Cantonese food should brave the wilds of the Elephant & Castle and get there ASAP. The "other" menu is now incorporated into the main menu, so all the hotpots and other goodies are easy to find - our only disappointments were the indifferent rice and that dim sum had stopped being served for the day :( Still, an excuse for another visit very soon. Their way of celebrating a birthday is pretty special, too! A great addition to the usual stalwarts (Royal China, Yming, Fung Shing, Phoenix etc)...
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Singapore Garden on Fairfax road near St. John's Wood.
Delicious food. Quite pricey but worth it for the quality and range of the food on offer.
Other choices are Yauatcha in Soho for dim-sum, HK Diner in Leicester Square for proper Hong Kong style Chinese food and Hakkasan if you want to splash out.
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I had a really bad meal at Yauatcha recently. I was there with two Chinese chefs. We ended up cutting our losses and going to Hakkasan instead. Luckily, it was much better. I also had a bad time in HK Diner - most of the interesting stuff is on a Chinese language only menu and I had to ask three staff before one would translate. When the food arrived, I must confess it wasn't bad but I didn't appreciate the ordeal of ordering.
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Check out the Observer Food Montly's top 5 picks by Alan Yau. Yauhatcha is definitely worth a visit, IMHO, although the die-hard dim-sum eaters still insist on Royal China.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmo...
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Hakkasan, and if you like Thai, then it's little sister of Alan Yu @ Isaarn.
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Shanghai on the Kingsland road is very good
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It's an above-average high street Chinese.
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