…tonight, after work Bradley, Sayoko, Hans Robert Weiss and I had drinks at the Dorchester bar, quite nice and buzzing place. (we used to go to the Four Seasons Hotel for drinks but the Dorchester bar replaced the 4Seasons because it’s all, dusty, boring and expensive although the service is amazing).
CHINA TANG, PARK LANE
Then of course we got hungry and decided to check out China Tang, David Tang’s latest restaurant, at the Dorchester. This is worth visiting for the design only already, which is featuring Shanghai colonial style and is super cool, the restaurant is full and buzzing. First there was no table, the usual London thing, wait 25 minutes at the bar which results in 1 hour waits and we decided to only have a drink and then leave, but we got the table anyway. The restaurant general manager, a freaked out Austrian guy was very friendly, cool and helpful in getting a table. The bar staff, all Asian have no clue and are not over friendly. The drinks we had there got mixed up when brought to the table. They then offered to take the drinks back to the bar to sniff and find out which one is the Vodka Tonic and which one is the Gin Tonic….!!!!….after a gentle exchange of words we got new drinks. The Australian waitress was very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. We ordered Peking duck, which was carved at the table, excellent. I wondered first what they would do with the rest of the meat on the duck…eat it themselves? No. It was served later stir fried with bamboo shoots, very good too. The other dishes were also fine, a bit westernised in accessibility of flavors but OK, I prefer the no-fuss Chinese restaurants on Queensway or in China Town.
Dishes we ate were; Peking Duck: just delicious, the best one I had in a long time. Aubergine Hot Pot with minced pork (a favorite dish of mine) was good though not spicy and tasty enough. Stir fried beef with garlic: great beef sirloin cubes, tender and juicy with awesome garlic chips on top. Shrimps Szechuan with for once really good quality large tasty shrimps, the Szechuan could have been a bit spicy hotter. Choi sam with oyster sauce. Crispy fried chicken with chili, pepper and salt and some other stuff plus steamed rice and dried salted fish fried rice. A bottle of Gewurztraminer from New Zealand was recommended by the sommelier in a nice non obtrusive and not patronizing way proved to be outstanding. (the sommelier was not French)
MAGIC WOK AND FOUR SEASONS, QUEENSWAY
However, the best Chinese meal I had so far was early January at the Magic Wok on Queensway, it was the best I had maybe so far in London! Images below are from Magic Wok except the Roast Ducks on the left is next door from the Four Seasons.
The service is not over friendly but not as rude as at the super Roast Duck place Four Seasons (not the hotel) and the decor non existent but who cares if the food is good?! We hat the aubergine hot pot with minced pork, so juicy and flavorsome the best I ever had, the Cha Siu Pork was ueber outstanding, the duck delicious, the vegetables, noodles, all of just great. We were 6 and the waiter mentioned to us that the order was enough for 10, ate it ALL. A great place for Food.
cliffwaterford