Two reviews for the price of one,
A few weeks ago we were entertaining some guests from out of town. We met in Covent Garden and after a few drinks decided to head out for cheap meal in Chinatown. We basically stumbled into the first restaurant we saw on Gerrard Street – The Friendly Inn. I won’t go into detail here but in summary it was terrible. So when we found ourselves hungry in the west end on Monday night I decided we should find somewhere better in Chinatown… We had received a good tip from a friend that the Four Seasons was the place to go – especially if you like Duck, and who in their right mind doesn’t!
There are two Four Seasons, one in Bayswater and the other on Gerrard street, we ended up in Chinatown and luckily got seated straight away (it is notoriously busy, even on weeknights). The place is obviously not fine dining it’s cheap and cheerful Chinese but that is exactly what we were after. We ordered sparingly (for us) only four dishes. To start we had spare ribs in sticky sauce and prawn dumplings. The dumplings I had eaten at the Friendly Inn were horrible, worst than the frozen ones from Iceland, and that’s saying something. The Four Seasons however were fresh and filled with big juicy prawns – they also came sizzling hot! The spare ribs were equally delicious, with a spicy BBQ sauce that we couldn’t get enough of.
When people talk about this place they talk about the Duck. Heston Blumenthal even famously tried to re-create it in one of his shows. You can order it on or off the bone – we figure less bones = more duck, so that’s what we did. We also ordered Crispy Pork Belly. Both arrived on a plate of sad looking greens, the greens didn’t matter though, these guys know how to cook meat! The Duck was delicious, quite fatty but I like that, with a rich sauce. This is not the crunchy Peking duck you see hanging up in the windows but the traditional roast Cantonese Duck, it really is delicious. It was however blown away (in my humble opinion) by the crispy pork belly! I have recently tried cooking the belly a few times and it’s a tuff one to get right. You want super crispy skin, creamy fat and juicy meat.. Which is exactly what we got plus the meat had been either marinated in brined as it was bursting with a garlicy flavour! The pork came with a mustard sauce but it didn’t even need it, it was so good on its own! As great as it all was we still managed not to finish and they were more than happy to box it up to take home (best lunch at work the next day ever!).
The whole meal with a few beers came to just under £20 a head and the bill arrives with a few slices of fresh orange and Kool Mints, which is a nice touch at a no frills Chinese joint.
If that isn’t enough Chinese for one review then read on….
The night after this we were out again (busy times) this time out in Camden to see a gig at the Roundhouse. We were both starving and a 50% off Dim Sum caught our eye. I have walked past the Silk and Spice Yum Cha dozens of times and always passed it off as a cheap tacky place. Inside however it’s actually well fitted out and the staffs are friendly and drinks are cheap! All good signs…
The menu was also a nice surprise. It had your typical Dim Sum fare but also some more exotic option with ox tongue, crunchy chickens feet and ducks liver. We didn’t get to adventurous and ordered a selection of greens, pork dumplings, salt and pepper squid and Gyoza. Everything came pretty much right away and it was all very good. Well fried homemade Gyoza, delicious spicy dumplings and big slices of seared squid with a nice spice (not your usual chew rings). The whole bill with two beers came to £17 – I’m not sure I would have been so happy had it been £30 which it would have been on any nights other than Mon-Wed but if you are in Camden during the week then Silk and Spice is most definitely a hidden gem!
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