London Restaurants

Chef of Hotel Elysée’s Monkey Bar (for Vertu)AT 75 years-old, this Manhattan institution, bordered by banquettes and wrapped by an urbane mural of caricatures by Vanity Fair cartoonist, Edward Sorel, has been refreshed and reinvigorated by Graydon Carter. The libertarian and editor of Vanity Fair is co-owner of this and the Waverly Inn, both venues glittering with an A-list clientele.‘I enjoy working for Graydon Carter’ says head chef, Damon Wise cheerfully. ‘In the early days of the re-launch, I’d take regulars’ feedback to heart, but Carter said: “see through moments of failure – keep pushing towards something positive.”’Wise, who also goes by the nickname, ‘Diamond D’, inexplicably conferred by celebrity chef, Marco Canora, needed to make major changes to menu and brigade early into his tenure. ‘I don’t ever want to do that again!’ he shudders. ‘Three days-in, the night-time crew left because I told them they couldn’t drink on the job anymore. So it was just me and two others left in the kitchen. But we went ahead anyway.’A student of psychology, Wise planned to enter that profession. ‘But I found it hard to figure myself out as a young man, which I still do as an older man!’ he says. ‘Nonetheless, psychology applies to the kitchen where you deal with so many attitudes and personalities day-to-day. Understanding people makes them more realistic.’Wise also considered becoming a doctor after undergoing surgery. ‘There are lots of similarities between operating theatre and kitchen’ he says, and I look confused. ‘When I had a knee operation I refused general anaesthetic because I wanted to watch what was going on. Seeing interaction between doctors was almost a déjà vu. There’s fowl language, jokes and knives.... It’s the same thing as butchering an animal in the kitchen! I’d never do it again, but I did enjoy it at the time.’Despite fantasising about other careers, Wise insists he remains a cook at heart. ‘Unlike most restaurants in New York City, which don’t ordinarily have their own butcher, our cooks do it themselves, which keeps us interested. The meats and fish I’m getting are just pristine. A gentleman who delivered a crossbreed of three different ducks saw me butchering a red snapper. “Oh my God” he said, “it’s the best fish I’ve seen - so fresh!” That makes me proud.’Not long ago, Wise dreamt of running a fine dining restaurant. ‘But people haven’t got time to sit down like that anymore. They want wholesome food in a comfortable environment like ours. Who doesn’t want to share dishes when eating with friends? It’s memorable.’ Unlike the dense previous menu, Wise’s dishes, which draw on America’s regions with Asian influences, are crisp and simple. These include: braised pork belly, crispy oyster and kimchee; Colorado lamb with matsutake, Swiss chard and horseradish; and cinnamon pannacotta with roast pumpkin and rosemary. For Vertu

Over the years I've had an on-off relationship with Sainsbury's. Actually, I tell a lie, scrub out the "on" bit. Back in the mists of time, probably before many of you were born, Sainsbury's had a reputation for quality. There may have even been a hint of smugness in the middle class housewife's "I bought it at Sainsbury's".  I can just about remember the Sainsbury's in Gerrard's Cross High Street, used as a location in Noel Coward's "Brief Encounter"- which says it all (actually, I tell another fib, as it was nearby Beaconsfield High Street, but you will get my drift); an old fashioned shop with a Mock Tudor shop front (circa 1914), with glazed Edwardian tiles, and a meat-counter, where a butcher in white apron and straw boater (or am I imagining this?) sliced out decent bits of ham on one of those stainless steel slicing machines.      So where did it all go wrong? Some might point the long finger of suspicion at Tesco's. In the 70's "Tesco Reject" was a term of mild abuse, doled out by little boys in long shorts and grubby, bloodied knees. Today, in London, if you compare the two flag-ship stores of Sainsbury's (Nine Elms) and Tesco's (The Hoover Building) Tesco's wins hands down. I'm a frequent (if reluctant) shopper at Nine Elms (purely, I admit, out of sheer laziness) and although the staff are hardworking and cheery, they seem to be constantly let down by bad stocking policies; at times, this so-called "Super Store" feels like something out of the good old German Democratic Republic, circa 1968. It's pretty tired and shabby, too. There are plans afoot to replace Nine Elms with a shiny, new mega-store; part of the huge re-generation project in the area: so I'm watching this one with interest. Please don't get me wrong on this, I want Sainsbury's to succeed. There, I've had my say. Which brings me to this fascinating book I discovered at the Artwords Bookshop in the fabulous Broadway Market. It's Jonny Trunk's Own Label, Sainsbury's Design Studio 1962-1977. It's a terrific book and a reminder that packaging of relatively recent years is an often-forgotten or overlooked phenomenon. In this case, I think images work better than words:

Back in the day, Katrina Kollegaev from food blog Gastronomicalme use to host a series of lunch clubs at her home in North London. Being of Russian decent, her focus was on food with Soviet roots. The lunch I attended centred around Ukrainian food and it proved to be tasty and interesting. It was also an insightful glance into the eating habits of Ukrainians (for that post click here). Since then, Katrina has gone on to form the Russian Revels with another Russian lady Karina Baldry. Russian Revels specialises in hosting Russian themed supper clubs with a twist, and their latest project is a series of Secret Soviet Suppers at a secret location near Farringdon. The backdrop of these Secret Soviet Suppers is 1920s Russia, and in keeping with this theme the location was kept secret until two days before the event. We were charged with a Soviet ‘bourgeois’ dress code and impressively almost all the forty or so guests made an effort to dress up. We were also given a Soviet identity and an ID card for admission (I was Olga, a nurse), as well a special, secret password for use at the door. How fun! Soviet ID Arriving at 7pm, we had a good hour for mingling and some drinks before dinner. For a bit of fun, Russian Revels had hired actors (who doubled as waiters later) to go into ‘Soviet’ character and engage with the guests. Some of the acting was a bit dubious but the spirit of the evening was all good fun. There was also a cabaret violinist that performed a fairly entertaining solo act after the meal. And the fact that most guests made an effort to dress up really helped to set the tone of the evening. The menu had a seasonal spring focus and for zakuski (Russian hors d’oeuvres) there were ‘gilded’ pickles, rye breads with parsley and foraged dandelion butter, and some home made organic bacon caramelised with buckwheat honey. The pickles were tasty and the pickling was gentle and well judged for its acidity. The breads were delicious and I thought the choice of butter to be very original. However, the bacon didn’t quite work as the flavour wasn’t quite mature enough. ‘Gilded’ pickles Rye breads & home-made bacon Next up was a cold cucumber and sorrel soup with pink salmon caviar. It was interesting, but not quite to my taste as it had quite a strong flavour. Cucumber and sorrel soup Next was a selection of items to be eaten together including an “arancini”, so named as it resembled the Italian version in construction and shape. It had been made with rye grain, and was delicious and hearty. It was served cold, but would have worked better had it been hot. Nevertheless it was still scrumptious and served with were some lovely sweet pickled cucumbers. Rye grain “arancini” Alongside the arancini was a beetroot salad and an ‘allotment’. A beetroot salad is a quintessential part of a Russian table and the one served this evening was exquisite with the salad gently being sweetened with prunes, a touch that really worked. The fine chopping of the beetroot gave the salad a good texture, and its cooking had been well judged for doneness. There were some walnuts running through the salad for crunchiness, although more walnuts would have worked better. Georgian beetroot Allotments are a big part of Russian life, and the allotment here consisted of a variety of vegetables perched on ‘rye soil’, a mayonnaise topped with some toasted crushed rye bread. The vegetables were fresh and tasty. Allotments with rye soil The main course was a Cornish cod cooked in a cognac-soaked rye blanket with cranberries. A take on an old Russian recipe, this dish was a disappointment. The fish was dished at the table and it looked messy. Also the portion of fish was tiny and stingy, with the amount of fish measuring about 1/3 the palm of my hand. The cod was rather bland, and the rye crumb added little flavour. The fish was served with a green seasonal salad. Cornish cod with salad For dessert, we had a sweet charcuterie platter that consisted of c

Quail egg croquetteBest new Chinese restaurant opening in recent memory or a case of the emperor's new clothes? While most reviews of A Wong have been praiseworthy, some have been a bit negative. I guess that's the risk one takes when diverging from more tried-and-trusted Chinese restaurant formulae. And it's the risk taking approach that appealed to me when I visited A Wong twice within the space of a few days. Twice? Give me a break, I had to check out both lunch AND dinner menus. For lunch I decided to go for a familiar combination of dim sum and noodles. As the dim sum is sold by piece (from £1.30 each) this enabled me, as a solo diner, to explore more of the menu than I might otherwise have done. Xiao long baoMy favourite was a pair of soup-filled xiao long bao – one a Shanghai-style pork dumpling, the other a Yunnan mushroom, pork and truffle one. I liked both although I would've preferred the vinegar and ginger on the side rather than mixed in with the soup inside the former. It's not Din Tai Fung, but you're not going to find many better examples of XLB in London. Less enjoyable was the much written-about clear shrimp dumpling with citrus foam; it was a decent enough example of a har gau but the citrus foam didn't really do anything for me. And nor did the pork crackling atop a perfectly adequate open-topped pork and prawn dumpling aka siu mai.Baked cha siu baoThe baked roasted pork bun with a sugared coating is a copy of Tim Ho Wan's famous baked cha siu bao. While it isn't as good as the original from Hong Kong, I enjoyed this crispy-topped bun although I would've favoured a sweeter filling. I also liked the quail egg croquette puff with its nicely runny yolk and crispy shell. However, I would've ditched one of the conflicting accompaniments of 'seaweed' and a ginger-dip. Sometimes less is more. Crossing the bridge noodlesThe only real disappointment of lunch was the Kunming 'crossing the bridge' noodles, a dish where ham, quail egg, preserved veg, fresh veg and rice noodles are served on a separate plate ready to be 'cooked' in the broth. Compared to traditional versions I've sampled in China, there were a few toppings missing, but I could forgive them that if the dish delivered. It didn't. The main problem was the temperature of the broth, which wasn't hot enough to cook the pak choi. And while I wasn't impressed by this dish, I was impressed by my server who listened to my comments and promised to pass on my feedback to the chef. Dong Po porkFrench beans with porkOnto dinner, and I'm afraid to report that it was, on the whole, a tad disappointing, as most dishes were far too aggressively salty. So much so any citrus flavour in the beef with dried orange peel and chilli was drowned out. The Dong Po slow braised pork belly wasn't tender enough and it lacked the sweet and comforting aromatic notes that define this dish. It was just too salty. As were the twin offerings from Sichuan of dry fried French beans with pork and Sichuanese aubergine – the pork in the former was the saltiest thing we ate all night.Steamed sea bassThe only respite from the salt assault was the two fish dishes: steamed wild sea bass with Jinhua ham and five-spice and chilli smoked cod cheeks. These were the undoubtedly highlights of dinner, in particular the perfectly steamed portion of sea bass, which was nicely complemented by the Jinhua ham. The cod cheeks were a joy, because it had been seasoned with a light hand.The fact the mains were so disappointing was a shame, as before that, the pickles, peanuts in sweetened black vinegar and pickled cucumber kicked off the meal well. And the dim sum basket was none too shabby although a couple of our party (from Suzhou and Shanghai) who know a thing or two about xiao long bao were less than enamoured with these soup-filled dumplings. Yet again, the inclusion of the vinegar and ginger inside the dumpling proved controversial, as they felt that the sweetness of the meat was drowned out by the vinegar

As we gear up for Summer, London’s restaurant scene shows no sign of slowing down – read on for Bon Vivant’s guide of the best new London restaurants to keep on your radar for the next few months. Hutong at The Shard On the 33rd floor of The Shard, Hutong will showcase the cuisine of Northern China from the team behind Hong Kong’s Aqua Group. The 130 cover restaurant will be based on the restaurant of the same name in Hong Kong, with a menu inspired by the culinary styles of Peking, Shandong and Sichuan provinces. Hutong’s signature dishes in London will include Crispy deboned Lamb; Red Lantern crispy soft shell crab with Sichuan dried peppers; ‘Kung Po’ wok fried prawns with cashew nuts and chilli; Chilli spiced bamboo clams steeped in Chinese rose wine and chilli sauce and Imperial Peking. Hutong will be open for lunch and dinner as well as late night drinks with a three-storey high atrium bar, serving cocktails with an emphasis on gin and tea. Hutong will open in July. Tartufo, Chelsea From a chef who has worked at Gauthier Soho as sous chef and management who have worked at Galvin at Windows, Le Gavroche and Roussillon, Tartufo is a new Modern European restaurant on Cadogan Gardens in Chelsea. Situated on the lower ground floor of a red-brick Victorian mansion-block, Tartufo offers a fine dining experience with reasonable set menus (two courses £25, three courses £30, four courses £40). Casa Negra, Shoreditch Following last year’s successful Soho hit La Bodega Negra, Ricker Restaurants will launch Casa Negra in Shoreditch on 6 June 2013, adding to the group’s portfolio that also includes E&O, XO, Cicada and Eight Over Eight. Casa Negra will offer a menu of Mexican style street food, including ceviches, coctèls, aguachiles and tostadas, along with a number of different tacos. Casa Negra’s signature dish will be the Carnitas de lechon – a suckling pig ‘served at the table with fresh salsas and traditional garnishes’. Casa Negra’s dining room will seat 82, with space for 30+ at the bar, which will be open until 2am. The Grain Store, King’s Cross Following the success of Bistrot Bruno Loubet at The Zetter Townhouse (one of our favourite boutique hotels in London), chef Bruno Loubet will open Grain Store on 10 June in the redeveloped Granary Square area behind King’s Cross station, next to Caravan King’s Cross. The menu is said to be eclectic – ‘a culmination of Bruno’s extensive travels and the years dedicated to his beloved vegetable patch’. The bar will be headed up by Tony Conigliaro, the man behind some of our favourite London cocktail bars, including 69 Colebrooke Row and The Zetter Townhouse bar. aqua shard Aqua Restaurant Group will also launch ‘aqua shard’ on level 31 of The Shard offering contemporary British cuisine from chef Anthony Garlando, who previously worked with Pierre Gagnaire for several years. The 220-cover aqua shard will be split into two areas, with the Gin Wing focusing on gin and tea that will link up to Hutong on level 33 of The Shard. aqua shard will be open all day, serving breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. Christopher’s Christopher’s reopened in the middle of May following a 4 month closure for a full refurbishment. Christopher’s offers a menu of modern American cuisine in a gorgeous dining room. A grand, sweeping staircase with gentle candle light takes you to a dining room with stunning detailing on the ceiling. The ground floor martini bar feels glamorous and elegant. Menu highlights include Maryland crabcakes and the lobster bisque with lobster dumplings, along with classic main dishes of USDA Prime steaks and surf ‘n’ turf. The Five Fields, Chelsea The Five Fields launched in Chelsea on 21 May 2013 as 40-seat restaurant with a modern, seasonal menu with a focus on rare herbs and vegetables, grown at the restaurant’s own East Sussex gardens. The Five Field

Will this latest gay/ straight friendly concept prove to be a winner at a hostile site that, in fairly rapid succession, has seen off numerous passing fancies, among them Geisha, Piano Lounge and Longshots? Let's just say, I wish the owners luck but won't be betting my best Turnbull and Asser double cuff on it. Like the FTSE's miners, gay bars' stock is low these days. I blame social media. Like Video Killed The Radio Stars, Grindr and Gaydar killed the gay bars. Let's face it; If a thrusting blade aims to cop off, why hang around in bars hawking his harris when he can show it online and have hot top - 10 Inches/ cut/ into uniform, red, yellow and Paris Hilton - Hector from Honduras's cock up his tail in less time than it takes a barman to make a Carol Channing cocktail? Hoping to strike it lucky on the gay bar scene, Titania's vision is a mere cosmetic rehash of what went before. Conspiring against them is the space's tricky layout - a narrow bar in a narrow corridor serving a claustrophobic windowless box-room beyond and, upstairs, a vast lounge detached from any downstairs buzz....should there ever be any. Overseen by the Shakespearian Queen herself - imagined in a mural that I can't imagine anyone is about to tear down, banking on auctioning it, like a Banksy, for six figures - here's a gauche mix of lumpen furniture, clichéd feature floral wallpaper/ chandelier combo and, in that airy upstairs cream space, bland cream seating groups, cream candles and display table units (in cream) in which copies of Boyz and Pride await your perusal. What was the design brief, I wonder? A gay Guildford GUM clinic's reception room? If the interior is not your bag, you can groove along to Barbara Bush's disco ditties -no, not Dubya's mummy; a bloke from Battersea sporting fake titties, I'm told. If Babs is not your bag, enjoy your £6.95 cosmo or caipirinha - or a bottle of Ayala (£45) if you're a piss elegant poseur - in Titania's ‘beautiful outside space with relaxed seating, candlelight and stunning plants' - aka a dreary covered patio overlooking fume-choked, charmless Charing Cross Road. I'm confused. Weren't gay bars once the most cutting-edge joints in town? Or was that - like Rock Hudson's image as as a straight stud muffin - a load of old bollocks too? As it is, another old closet case springs to mind here, currently being admirably played in cinemas by Michael Douglas. And if you reckon Titiania's Liberace-lite pose will pull in the punters in their gazillions, then you might be 'away with the fairies' as my grandmother used to say. 75 Charing Cross Road WC2H 0NE www.facebook.com/pages/Bar-Titania/476857759053491

Up in the hills, Ubud is a gorgeous Balinese town a dozen or so miles north of the capital Denpasar. At first sight, Ubud seems like a sleepy provincial town, its streets lined with banyan trees, where tourists, street-vendors and Balinese women carrying heavy goods on their heads jostle for space on the narrow pavements. The town centre, however, reveals a plethora of temples, spas, museums and art galleries, cafes and restaurants to rival any Southeast Asian tourist destination. This charming town is tiny, and its development has been sympathetic. Surrounded by a stunning landscape of mountains, rivers and terraced rice paddies, it is a great spot for hikes, cycling and photography. It also has a wide variety of small hotels of all degrees of luxury, making it a fine base for a week or more in Bali. Where to Stay Uma by COMO Uma by COMO is a 29 roomed hotel and spa set by the Barat river among the paddy fields and hills of Sanggingan, a village about 1 mile northwest of central Ubud. The hotel is part of the Singapore-based COMO group that includes The Halkin and Metropolitan hotels in London, as well as fashion brands DKNY Jeans and Armani Exchange. Unsurprisingly its properties also have a strong sense of style, presenting a sleekly modern and elegant design, while blending unobtrusively into the surrounding forested hillside. Each room has its own veranda and lawned garden overlooking the forest, where the ever-changing chorus of cicadas, birdsong and frog calls provide a mesmerising soundscape. Our Veranda Our room was one of the entry-level villas, but was nonetheless elegant. Being mainly in white, it had a large 4 poster bed draped with mosquito nets, distressed white woodwork and a semi open-air shower, a huge bath, and lovely Venetian mirrors, as well as standard mod cons. The resort has a fine infinity pool surrounded by trees, overlooked by the equally elegant bar and dining room. The hotel is about to be expanded to almost double the current number of rooms, with a new restaurant currently being built which will also be open to non-guests. It has an on-site spa, a yoga pavilion with classes twice a day, and a well-equipped gym. Breakfast at Uma by COMO was outstanding - particularly these highlights: A wonderful laksa A platter of tropical fruit Breakfast nasi campur Pancakes and fruit One of the most endearing features of the hotel was that each suite was a separate villa. They are scattered along various forested paths, each villa with its own wooden gate, leading into a small garden and porch, which gave a very private and intimate feel to the hotel. Where to Eat Mozaic About 50 metres away from Uma by COMO, Mozaic is the fine-dining option in Bali, and has been included in the San Pelligrino Top 100 Restaurants of the World list. The restaurant is owned by Le Cordon Bleu graduate-chef, American Chris Salans who worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris and the US, head-cheffing at some prestigious restaurants including Thomas Keller's. The restaurant's current head chef is a Frenchman, Xavier Mauerhofer whom I was lucky enough to meet. Xavier has had an impressive career too, having worked at some of London's best restaurants for a good ten years including The Square (one of my favourite London restaurants), No. 1 Lombard Street and Sketch, as well as restaurants in Shanghai, Singapore and Beijing. Mozaic offers 4 different tasting menus at various prices, all with an option of wine pairing at £37 or £57 per person for premium wines. We went for the Discovery Menu which uses primarily Balinese ingredients and is priced at £47 per person. Commendably, Mozaic offers an entirely vegetarian tasting menu at £40 per person for 6 courses, as well as the Chef's Tasting Menu at £60 that uses some top ingredients like foie gras, pata negra ham and truffles. There is also a Chef's Surprise Menu priced at £83, which tempted me, but I preferred to stay local and sample the Balinese menu. The wine l

Balthazar80 Spring StreetSoHoNew YorkNY 10012USA+1 212-965-1414www.balthazarny.comPosted in the run-up to the US release, on 28 May, of The Breakfast Bible.by Malcolm EggsBreakfast at Balthazar, which turns up on listings websites when you Google 'best New York breakfast', is probably meant to be a bit of an event. For Seggolène Royal and I it was just opportunism. We stumbled across it – oh, that's Balthazar! – on the way to eat eggs somewhere else and I argued that we needed to seize the moment, that here was an unmissable chance to gain standing amongst my peers. A breakfast writer who has never tried Balthazar, I reasoned, is like a film critic who has never seen Titanic.When we left the restaurant about an hour later, I felt less like I'd been watching an important blockbuster than had been skipping through a CD-Rom labelled 'what people say when they free associate about Paris'. There had been dusty old bottles of wine on out-of-the-way shelves and meticulous waiters in black and white uniforms. There had been backlit Art Deco panels and the recorded sounds of melancholy violin quartets. Everything had been dark red, dark brown, goldy yellow or yellowy gold. A large part of the atmosphere in Balthazar is to do with the height of its ceiling. Few things make a person feel more instantly wealthy than breakfasting in a place where you can't imagine how they change the lightbulb. When my companion told me that the clientele generally consists of "tourists and powerbrokers" it made perfect sense, both categories tending to value high ceilings, along with pomp in general and a sense (real or synthetic) of history, above food.The food in Balthazar was forgettable. I feel about it as I feel about normal journeys between one mundane place and another, journeys in which nothing in particular happened and of which I have no recollection. I had brioche French toast with bacon ($18). My companion had sour cream waffles with warm fruit ($18). It wasn't bad (that would be memorable) and it wasn't good. By the twenties I will have no mental impression of it whatsoever. I will possibly remember the fact that they had toilet attendants complete with one of those trays of aftershave and boiled sweets, an unexpected echo of the terrible nightclubs I'd go to in the nineties (right up to the pang of guilt I felt when I left without paying for the privilege). I will also remember the fascinating and admirable way with which the waitress took on the task of defining 'granola' and then 'oats' to a quizzical couple from Germany. But I won't recall the tasteless bowl of cafe au lait or the French toast with applewood smoked bacon that came within a few minutes and without maple syrup.I'd been looking forward to visiting the new London branch of Balthazar but now I'm not so sure. If the original is such an underwhelming homage to a sort of fantasy version of a Paris bistro, do I really want to try a copy of that homage? The answer is yes, I do, but only because a breakfast writer who has never tried Balthazar London… etc, and so on.

When your next door neighbour is Milk and Honey, you're in good company... and up against stiff competition, M and H’s head barman looks pretty satisfied with his cocktail when I spot him parked up at the butch copper-topped bar at chef/ owner Jason Atherton's new cocktail lounge upstairs at Social Eating House. As, based on the evidence of my first rinse of the night, well he might. Despite its iffy name, the ‘Ooh-Arr-Tinez’ - a Somerset cider brandy spin on a martinez - is a success. One barman totally nails a Plymouth dry martini - always a litmus test - where so many others drown the gin in vermouth: wet, wet, wet? Because my name's Marti Pellow? When I stray off menu, however, things temporarily wobbly - one enthusiastic soul suggesting vodka as a key component of a smoky mescal old-fashioned. Suggestion declined. Blind Pig owes its name to those American forerunners of the speakeasy where, to outfox the authorities, hucksters would charge a steep admission fee to spectate a (legal) novelty attraction such as a pig or a tiger in a blindfold, plying their guests with complimentary liquor while they were about it. At £9 for The Rosefield (Chase Marmalade vodka, Punt e Mes, apricot brandy and Fernet Branca) the admission price here is about right and the handsome, if not entirely original, room - all 1930s film noir, wood panelled gin joint - looks like the kind of place a femme fatale in a Mickey Spillane novella would meet a hired gun to plot her husbands's demise. I can live without some of the wackier elements on the menu: Skittles-washed Ketel One, pickle brine, popcorn-infused bourbon and choccy alcopops (not all in the same glass, mercifully) aren't high on my agenda; but factor in bar bites such as rillettes, mac'n'cheese, cod brandade and duck fat chips with aïoli, and I reckon this little piggy will soon be bringing home the bacon for his master. 58 Poland Street W1F 7NR 7993 3251 www.socialeatinghouse.com

A recent disappointing meal at Hong Kong Diner had us looking around for another restaurant in Chinatown that served good Hong Kong style cuisine. I came across a lot of positive reviews for Old Town 97, the year being significant as that was the end of British rule in Hong Kong. We had a late lunch there one Saturday not too long ago. They have a great lunch deal – £4.80 for a dish of rice or noodles with a free bowl of their daily soup. We chose the char siu on fried hor fun which came out looking quite plain but turned out to be some well fried hor fun topped with a generic Asian brown sauce and some quite good sliced char siu. A bit of chili oil (excellent stuff) and it was a great dinner. The accompanying soup (pork bone, carrot and tomato) was a bonus. I wanted to try a dish that I’d only heard about online – ‘LSE fan‘ (or ‘LSE rice’, about £9.50); the story goes that the dish was either invented or made famous by an LSE student. On our queries, our waiter informed us that it was a honey and black pepper pork served with egg fried rice. It turned out to be more of a triple eggy delight – egg fried rice, fried egg and the honey and black pepper pork was topped with an additional eggy sauce. It was definitely over-the-top, excellent and certainly almost enough for two. Their drinks are very good there – here’s a milk tea and an iced lemon tea. Sadly, a second, more recent visit wasn’t as good. One of their specialties, Hainan chicken rice (£7.30), had overcooked chicken breast but tasty enough rice and accompanying chilli sauce. A little more care, though, could have been taken over the presentation of the rice. I wanted to try their crispy noodles. Fried noodles with mixed seafood (£8.00) turned out to be mediocre noodles in a wading pool of gloopy (albeit well-seasoned) sauce. It all seems to be a bit hit and miss. While it’s likely we’ll be back to try their beef brisket (thanks for the rec, Lizzie) and their hor fun in eggy sauce (two dishes I’ve heard good things about), as in most places in Chinatown, service left a lot to be desired. Depending on which waiter you get, service can be acceptable or miserable. Why do they do that? And poor Blai is extremely upset that by default, they gave him a fork when he sat down! Old Town 97 19 Wardour Street London  W1D 6PF