What’s the most confusing area of London to choose a restaurant? Chinatown! Passing through all of the streets, filled with so many brightly lit restaurants – it can be a hard task to choose the right one and not get stuck in an overpriced tourist trap. Peking ducks hanging from windows, queues at nearly all of them stretching out onto the streets and people touting for your business because competition is so fierce. It’s a reason in fact why I rarely eat out in Chinatown, because I simply don’t know its restaurant scene enough to ensure a good meal. That’s definitely about to change.
When I recently got an invite to Orient, right in the heart of Chinatown on Wardour Street – I thought it was good enough reason to finally explore this bustling part of London. It was raining outside the day we arrived, freezing in fact – but the restaurant was warm, insanely busy and the service was welcoming. Decor wise it’s probably ready for a little refresh soon, but as it stands it’s perfectly fine and doesn’t distract from its offering which we discovered is authentic, traditional Chinese cooking with a focus on the Szechuan and Cantonese regions of China.
The restaurant has family heritage at the heart of their menu and are one of the only remaining Chinese restaurants in China Town to make dim sum daily by hand with a dedicated dim sum chef (the full dim sum menu is only available at lunch). We started our meal here with the steamed dim sum platter to get a taste of what we might expect at lunchtime. Tucking into eight pieces of juicy and plump dim sum parcels, all packed with different fillings. Prawn dumplings, prawn & chive, mushroom and succulent scallop dumplings. They were all delicious.
One of my favourite dishes here was the fried soft shell crab with chilli & pepper. I had this dish countless times in so many other places, but this was so much more satisfying than a lot of the others. The batter is spot on, to the point that it crumbles away on the plate leaving a chilli batter mess to mop up with a dab or two of soy sauce (my favourite way to eat it). The chilli heat level was just right, the crab meat was juicy and the spring onions – well it wouldn’t be this dish without them.
Thinking back about that Peking duck gets me all excited. Price wise it was probably on the high side for Chinatown, but it’s worth it. Succulent slivers of duck, with the juiciest and crispest pieces of skin which is always my favourite part to enjoy first. Served with pancakes, spring onion, cucumber & hoi sin sauce – this is a classic they’ve clearly perfected. I didn’t like the presentation served on prawn crackers, but at the same time it didn’t affect the dish.
Sizzling fillet beef with black pepper sauce, need I say more? This is another dish a lot of us are familiar with in Chinese restaurants and I always get worried because if the beef isn’t good – it’s going to be tough. That wasn’t the case here. It was lovely and juicy still and the overall flavour of the sauce was great. It went especially well with the chef’s special brown rice which was filled with dried shrimps, sweet corn, vegetables and mushroom. Portions here at Orient are huge, so come hungry and bring an army of friends.
I’m not sure if this was a side dish or meant to share, but this plate of Chinese broccoli with ginger was so big we felt like we’d consumed a whole Chinese broccoli farm. Easily enough for six people and a must order. All of this expertly cooked broccoli is smothered in what I think was butter and doused in plenty of ginger (though garlic and oyster sauce were also options). This green is great with just about every dish so don’t give it a second thought and order a plate.
To finish, mango cheesecake. Dessert was nice enough and I’ve most certainly had better cheesecakes in my time, but somehow this version sort of worked after our meal. It was slightly in-between cheesecake and ice cream in texture, meaning for a refreshing end to our meal and most importantly it satisfied my sweet tooth craving.
I really enjoyed our meal at Orient and as far as seeking out good places to dine in Chinatown, something tells me this is one of its best. It’s casual, the service is lovely and no long waits for food meaning it’s a great pre/post theatre stop or Friday night feast with friends. Would we come back to Orient if in the area? Yes!
NB: My meal was complimentary. All views are as always, my own. My views are not influenced by anyone other than my own palate and slightly poor eyesight.
You had me at homemade dim sum!