Adam had been reccommended a place about 15 minutes walk from our house which is ideal as we do not have to catch a tube to get there. So there we were strolling down Fulham Road to get to the Royal China restaurant where we waiting in the line for about 8 minutes and were then finally served and told that as we did not have a booking we were required to wait half an hour. Now as we had not eaten since 7pm the preivious eve, and the time now was 1230, you could say we were pretty hungry and decided to hit the pavement for another Dim Sum location.
Note to self: Remember you are now in London. In London there lives 7 million, eight hundred and twenty five, and one hundred people approximately. You are used to being in Wellington where there are three hundred and eighty nine thousand and seven hundred people approximately. This means you can no longer expect to turn up at a restaurant and get seated immediately. One must book in advance.
Strolling around Fulham we noticed the Dim Sum options were rather scarce. Time now to pull out the ole iPhone and look Dim Sum locations up, and this is how we ended up at Mai Thai in Parsons Green, after a good 45 minute stroll (should have waited at the other place!) We had a quick glimpse at the menu as we were walking in but with no time to spare we were seated at a table, kitted out with cloth napkins, and three sets of cutlery (bizarre considering we were at a Chinese restaurant and no chopsticks were to be seen!) After taking in the modern un-Chinese surroundings we started to peruse the menu. Our eyes fixated on two things, one that they had dumplings, and two the price; £18.50 for Dim Sum basket of 10 pieces. This sounded like a great idea at the time - one way to get an assortment of dim sum! We also settled on Peking Duck spring rolls and pork and ginger dumplings, a Chinese Jasmine tea (all the way from Canton apparently according to the menu) and an orange juice for the gent.
The Dim Sum basket was nicely presented and had lemongrass and a type of vinegar soya sauce to accompany it. The basket consisted of a mix of steamed pork and prawn dumplings none of which I really recognised except for the siu mai (steamed pork dim sum) which was pretty standard compared to others in NZ that I have tasted.
The pork and ginger dumplings and Peking Duck spring rolls were probably the best tastes of the meal. However the highlight for me was definitely the Jasmine Tea. This arrived in a tall water glass, filled with hot water and with a ping pong sized ball of what looked like a dark green straw decoration. This ball was actually a dried jasmin flower, which continued to expand to produce a beautiful bright red colour in the middle as it settled at the bottom of the glass. The jasmine flower gave the tea a very light infused taste and which was refreshing compared to the tea normally served at a Yum Cha restaurant back home. So it was a welcomed modern change to the traditional tea - although I am partial to both!
The one word that comes to mind when thinking of this meal is: expensive. The food was fresh but not overally traditional and I did miss the whole authentic experience where the waiters walk around carrying the Yum Cha on plates and you choose whatever you like the look of. This experience was more of a fine dining cusine version of Yum Cha and not one that we would be fast to repeat again. It was expensive, had a limited range of Yum Cha items on the menu and we were still left feeling hungry. I was impressed with the modern and more European take on the Chinese restuarant and I would be tempted to go there for a fine dining Chinese meal if we felt we could splurge one night. However with so many Chinese restaurants and take aways on offer in London we could probably find a better option more in our price range!
Chinatown - your up next!!!
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