Dinner @ Sichuan Restaurant (Sichuan), London

Recently, Su-Lin mused about 'food blogger-dominoes' in her blog, Tamarind and Thyme. More often than not the dominoes tumble down so much so that you get sick and tired reading about the same old places. However, sometimes only a couple of dominoes fall and that’s certainly the case when it comes to the imaginatively named Sichuan Restaurant in Acton.

I mean you would've thought more bloggers would've beaten down a door to this place following the three four glowing reviews on Tamarind and Thyme and the two gushing write-up's by Delightful Eggtarts. The only other slight interweb murmur was on the Randomness Guide to London but otherwise, there’s a deafening silence that I can only attribute to its Zone 3 location.

On rolling up to Sichuan Restaurant, there's little indication of its true potential. After all, it looks pretty humdrum and its menu consists mainly of Anglo-Chinese crowd pleasers like sesame prawn toast, crispy aromatic duck, and chicken & cashew nuts. There is page after page of this stuff on the main menu and it's only after 120 or so dishes before we come across the Chef's Specials. There's also a separate menu card with more Sichuan goodies on it, which has been translated into English.

As it was her review that lured me here, I was delighted that Su-Lin accepted my invitation to dine here. I was looking to her to unlock the secrets of the menu as this place is her local. Also joining us was Bellaphon and some peeps from the Randomness Guide to London for a follow up visit. Our party of seven meant that we could give the menu, a good going over.

One dish I would never have thought of ordering was corn w/salted egg yolk (£6.80) but Su-Lin insisted this was a must-order (judging by her latest post, I think she really likes it!). This dish was sensational and who'd have thought corn would be the star dish of the evening? Although fried, it wasn't greasy and the salted egg yolk gave it an addictive quality. I meant to ask the management about the origins of this dish but I got bogged down talking about.....

...........the dan dan noodles (£5.80/bowl) which were also excellent. I loved the way the spicy sauce clung onto these noodles of exceptional quality. The owner proudly told me that the noodles used were hand pulled Shandong la-mian. Don't hold me to it though, as my Mandarin is sub-schoolboy.

Although not described as such, the sweet & sour eggplant dragon (£9.80) can be considered Sichuan Restaurant's signature dish. Technically, there's nothing wrong with this dish but I think it looks better than it tastes. I guess that's because I remain unconvinced that sweet & sour and aubergine go well together. Kake and some of the other Randomness peeps also thought this dish was a bit too sweet.

Given the size of our party, we chose a few dishes that we might not normally go for. Of these, I liked the baby cuttlefish w/spicy sauce (£12.80), which pretty much did what it said on the tin. I was less impressed with the Dongpo pork leg (£9.80) – a 'red cooked' dish originally from East China, as it should have been more tender. Mind you, I'm not totally surprised as slow cooked dishes like these often disappoint in restaurants. The sour & spicy potato thread (£6.80) was well seasoned and had a nice crunch but it got a bit boring after a while.

You didn’t think that was it? We also checked out some old favourites such as la zi ji known as chicken with chillies (£8.80) here. The chicken bits were larger than usual and were authentically on the bone. Tossed with generous amounts of dried chillies and Sichuan peppercorns, this had real fire and is one of the better versions, I've had in London. I particularly enjoyed the bits of fried skin! I also liked the si ji dou or stir fried green beans (£6.50), which were generously laced with minced pork and preserved veg. That said Kake thought the beans were on the mature side.

Less successful was the shui zhu niu rou or spicy beef in a pot w/chillies (£8.80), which inexplicably lacked heat. It was a bit disappointing compared to the rest of the dinner and better versions can be found elsewhere. Considering we ordered ten different dishes, I could forgive the one duff dish of fried minced pork w/vermicelli (£6.50) or ants climbing up a tree. It was far too salty as too much soy had been added. Su-Lin reckons thinks this might be a one-off as she didn't remember it being as salty on previous visits. 

Service veered from the efficient to the eccentric. When the management were overseeing things, there were no problems but when the waitress was serving us, it was a bit 'Fawlty Towers'. In particular, she seemed over keen to clear the table when there wasn’t a real need. The poor girl nearly started a riot when she made a move for the corn as there were still a few kernels left. Mind you she probably thought we were a table of nutjobs as we took multiple photos of our dinner.

The bill came to a scarcely believable £154 which equates to £22/head including rice, tea, three bottles of wine and 10% service. Take out the booze and our dinner would've cost around £15/head – amazing value for food of this quality.

Verdict: I'll be returning to Sichuan Restaurant for its inventive and imaginative cooking. I don't say this lightly but I think it ranks alongside Chilli Cool and Empress of Sichuan in the top flight of Sichuan restaurants in London.

Other Stuff: They also serve hotpot (steamboat), which Su-Lin reckons is superior to that served by Chinatown hotpot specialist, Little Lamb. 

New Pages

Eat Noodles Love Noodles has been going through some growing pains so I've decided to make life easier for readers, new and old. The observant amongst you will have noticed the appearance of a section entitled 'Pages' on my sidebar.

These pages have been under construction but they are now fully operational. Rather than trawl through archives or use the search toolbar, you can now track down the review or post you were looking for more easily.

A-Z London Restaurant Reviews - this pretty much does what it says on the tin. The restaurants are categorised as Chinese or Other and I've highlighted my favourites. As well as links to individual restaurant reviews, this page also includes links to the 'Off the Blog' series and other London guides.

Cooking & Culture - this page includes links to my posts on Chinese food culture as well as the occasional series, World of Noodles. If you want to have a good laugh, you'll also find links to my efforts at recipes.

Food & Travel - this page rounds up my eating adventures outside of London. These include links to individual restaurant reviews and city guides.

By the way if there are any restaurants that you think I should visit then please send an e-mail to eatlovenoodles@googlemail.com

Happy Easter ! 

Off The Blog 2

Here's another round-up of some places that I enjoyed 'off the blog'. As with my previous round-up, these are places that I liked but for one reason or another, I didn't give them the full blog treatment.

Despite living all my life in Britain, I'm pretty ambivalent to the charms of the native cuisine. I guess it's because I grew up eating home cooked Chinese food and my experiences of school dinners nearly put me off British food for life. That and an intolerance to some dairy products means that I can never enjoy gwei-chaan, in the same way as a gweilo can. A weird side effect of my upbringing is that I view British food with a degree of exoticism, which means I like it as a change from my usual diet of rice and noodles.

For 'a decent British', Canteen, where I had a breakfast of bacon, eggs and bubble & squeak at their Royal Festival Hall branch, is none too shabby. A special mention goes to their front of house as they dealt with a long delay caused by a table number mix-up with courtesy and charm. I almost felt guilty in accepting my breakfast for free. They were indirectly rewarded as I went to their Baker St branch for lunch, which I preferred to their breakfast. I really enjoyed my pint of prawns, smoked haddock w/mash, and apple crumble. My dining companions also liked their kippers, pies, and cheese plate although they reckon it wasn't as good as the best home cooked British food.

Whilst I liked Canteen, the best 'British' I've been to this year is Medcalf whose pig cheeks, parsnip & bramley apple is one of the finest starters I've eaten since I started blogging. As the Chinese are the masters of duck, I usually avoid it in places like this but the barbary duck, rosti & wild mushrooms was a winner too. Dessert in the form of Bakewell tart was in danger of giving British food a good name! With an ever-changing seasonal menu, I definitely recommend making a trip to this restaurant that's located in Clerkenwell's Exmouth Market. 

Canteen

Medcalf

Now I don't know whether it was because she felt sorry at my indifferent soup noodle experience there or whether it was because she caught me casting envious glances at her bibimbap but Catty kindly invited me to Koba for a Korean BBQ. Joining us was The London Foodie and Dr G and we all enjoyed the BBQ including bulgogi (sirloin slices), kalbi (beef short rib) and baby octopus. 

It isn't just about the BBQ here and whilst I left the most of the ordering to the others, I did insist on the pajun, as this seafood pancake is one of my favourites. It was very good here and not at all greasy but for a more 'grown-up' starter, I really liked the yook hwei. Raw beef and pear with a raw egg cracked on top may sound rank but it was surprisingly delicious. I can fully understand why Catty lives here eats here all the time.

Koba is in the foodie paradise of Fitzrovia, where most foodie needs are catered for on Rathbone St and Charlotte St. But if you’re not in the mood for Korean then I 'kind of' recommend nearby Fino for tapas. I say 'kind of' because I think the subterranean dining room is over-lit and the bar looks like it belongs in a nondescript business hotel. Most of this can be forgiven by its superior tapas of which my favourites include; grilled octopus, Spanish cold meat platter, and tuna tatar. I'm still a little undecided about this place and it's also bloody expensive.

Koba
Fino

To round off this edition of 'Off The Blog', I'm recalling a late January night when I ended up going for a pit-stop part way through a stag night. That's what I've become, even when I'm seven sheets to the wind, I’m thinking about the blog. Noodle Bar is on Cranbourne St inbetween the twin hells of Leicester Square and Covent Garden and their USP is their Lanzhou-style hand pulled noodles aka la-mian.

I stood transfixed watching the noodle maker convert a block of dough into la-mian to go into a bowl of soup with roast duck. Sadly, the duck was a bit tired and the soup was full of MSG but frankly standards are lower when you're pissed so I didn't really care at the time. Besides the noodles were the best tasting work of art, I've eaten in a long time.

The other guys I was with couldn't wait for a bowl of noodles so they went for a selection from the buffet counter where lurid sweet and sour pork and other take-away classics lurked. I must confess I went for a giant spring roll whose greasiness soaked up yet more of the booze. For a proper assessment, I need to come back here when I'm able to walk in a straight line.

Ramsay's Best Restaurant

Love him or loathe him, Gordon Ramsay is never far from our TV screens. His most recent series of The F Word was based around his quest to find Britain's best local restaurant. You may remember Birmingham's Lasan overcoming Cambridgeshire's The Pheasant in the final.

This strand of the show was so successful, Channel 4 are spinning off a whole new series, Ramsay's Best Restaurant to find the best independent restaurant in Britain. That's where we come in, as those peeps on Channel 4 need our nominations.

I'm in two minds whether to nominate my favourites as part of me wants to keep them under the radar. That said, it'd be great to see some of them on TV just as long as old craggy face doesn't give them too much too grief.

Anyway the choice is yours so if you do want to nominate your favourite restaurant, click here. You can nominate as many restaurants as you want but remember it has to be independent so sorry guys, you can't vote for KFC or Burger King.

Bloggers' Event @ Pho

Full disclosure. Miss Rachelle from Qype invited me to this bloggers' event for which I received free food and drink over the course of the evening. Such a get-together is never going to replicate the experience of being a paying customer so please read on with that in mind.

Pho has three London branches, Clerkenwell (the original), Westfield Shopping Centre, and Oxford Circus, where this event was held. Further branches in Brighton and Soho will open later this year. I hadn't been here before as I was a bit sceptical about what on the face of it seemed to be a high street chain cashing in on the trend for Vietnamese food.

Not for the first time, my preconceptions were a bit off the mark, as Pho isn't run by some faceless corporate behemoth but by a couple. Stephen and Juliette Wall gave up the drudgery of the nine-to-five to follow their dream of opening a café inspired by their travels in Vietnam. For those of you staring at the elephant in the room, they've hired Vietnamese kitchen crews to do the actual cooking.

Truth is, you'd have to be made of stone not to be inspired by their story or to warm to their enthusiasm. The other thing I have to mention is that like me, Stephen is from the North West of England, where we're renowned for our intelligence, keen sense of humour, and generous spirit. Not to mention our modest self-deprecating manner.

Now heartwarming tales about living the dream are all well and good but what about the food? A quick look at the menu is encouraging as it's pretty much 100% Vietnamese with no faddy interpretations of classic dishes. We kicked off with starters such as salads (goi), summer rolls (goi cuon), spring rolls (cha gio), and grilled pork & lemongrass meatballs (nem nuong). But before we tucked in, we had a stab at making one of my favourites, summer rolls. Thankfully, my effort tasted better than it looked!

I can't get over excited about salad and spring rolls but both were freshly made and clean tasting. However, I did find the nem nuong meatballs incredibly moreish with the lemongrass giving a contrast in both taste and texture to the pork.

In between starters and mains, we had a quick tour of the kitchen where the highlight was a giant vat of beef stock. When the lid was lifted, the kitchen was filled with a beefy aroma infused with star anise.

As Pho specialises in pho, I had to go for pho noodles with beef stock, steak, brisket and meatballs (pho bo dac biet). Now, I may have had my expectations raised by the giant vat of stock but I thought the soup lacked a bit of oomph. It wasn't quite as beefy as the pho from Song Que (my favourite Vietnamese in London) and I added more chillies than I normally would. Of the three types of beef, the brisket was my favourite with its melt in the mouth texture. I also liked the meatballs and whilst there was nothing wrong with the steak, I'd probably give it a miss if I came here again.

I also adore bun dishes so being a greedy sod in the interest of research, I sampled some cold rice vermicelli topped with salad, herbs, spring roll, peanuts and lemongrass chicken (bun cha gio ga). This was served with nuoc cham, a spicy fish sauce based dressing and it was a decent bowl of bun. A minor gripe was that there weren't enough noodles but this was a sample bowl and I'm sure you'd get more in a normal sized bowl. By the way, their normal sized bowl is quite large – perhaps this is Stephen's influence, as Northerners don't really do small portions.

After more than my fair share of starters, two bowls of noodles and several beers came dessert. I plumped for a refreshing strawberry and fresh basil sorbet. Others went for banana fritters - which I had nibble on - to round off the meal. I'm not really a dessert man but these were all fine.

All in all, it was a top night out and it was good to meet other bloggers, many for the first time. Our hosts were charming and convivial as were the PR peeps. But one question remains – would I come back here as a paying customer?

Well I wouldn't describe Pho as a destination for Vietnamese cuisine as that's obviously the 'Pho Mile', which is located in that part of town where Shoreditch becomes Hoxton. That said if I was out and about around Oxford Circus then I'd happily pop in here for a bowl of noodles.