Dim Sum in Chinatown

The ocean called, They're running outta shrimp?

Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld episode “The Comeback”)

The other day we were around Covent Garden and got an urge to get some Dim Sum, so decided to look for options in Chinatown. After a quick research with Timeout and Yelp we ended in one of the Young Cheng places. Quiet for a late lunch, and the only tables were Asian, wich is a good sign. Limited menu for dim sum for diner, only 12 options from 5pm to close though.

Dim Sum Time

We got a selection of the available dishes, crabmeat with pork, Shanghai style, cream custard bun, the classic barbecued pork bun, and others. Food was ok not the best dim sum I have had in London, the highlight was definitely the deep fried shrimp.

Deep fried shrimp

Good service, bill a bit expensive for similar places, quality ok, probably better options around so will keep looking.

Young Cheng

T: 020 7287 3045

Chinese Cuisine

Approx Damage: £25pp

Area: Chinatown

Borough: City of Westminster

---

---

St John is in Chinatown

Fergus & Trevor ©St John Group

It has been a while since the last time I visited St John. I love the place as much as I love bone marrow, so I was nearby Chinatown looking for a place to have dinner and decided to try my luck at the Hotel and Restaurant. Trevor Gulliver and Fergus Henderson have been running the concept successfully since they opened in Smithfield in 1994. Not bad at all so far, three places opened two of them with one Michelin star including the Chinatown Hotel and one bakery that I’m dying to visit. 

Menu

Bone Marrow

I got to the place with Marisol. we ordered a bottle of Le Clos, nice red wine, a bit fruity. Then went for the treat. I started with their classic, roast bone marrow and parsley salad. Great, amazing, outstanding, I just love the combination of marrow, parsley, capers, and sea salt on a toast. 

Perfection

Then we shared a buck rarerabit, amazing, the poached egg perfectly cooked with the cheesy toast. Then the final starter was a brown crab toast, it was ok, too much mayo and not so many crab meat, also the previous two starters were so much better. 

Buck rarebit

Brown crab toast

Then the mains, I went for the goose leg, beetroot, and pickle walnut. Marisol went for the langoustines and mayonnaise. The goose was great, perfectly cooked, great flavour, a nice sweet and sour combination, with good balance. The langoustines were fresh, tender, perfectly cooked as well, one of them came with roe, amazing. The mayo on the other hand had too much vinegar. 

Langoustines

Goose

For desert we got madeleines for take away, they didn’t last even a block, as they were hot fresh baked just taken from the oven, as soon as we tried one we ate them all. 

Take away

Madeleines

There was a big group beside us celebrating with a whole roast suckling pig, nice option for big groups. One thing the place is in administration but the food and quality is still great.

Goose reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Burning” 

George: She's still doing that?

Jerry: Yep

George: All right, I'll tell you what you do. You call her back and give her the, it's me, heh? Pull the old switcheroo

Jerry: I think that's a what's good for the goose is good for the gander

George: What the hell is a gander, anyway?

Jerry: It's a goose that's had the old switcheroo pulled on it

St John Hotel and Restaurant

T: 020 3301 8020

British Cuisine

Approx Damage: £50pp

Area: Chinatown

Borough: City of Westminster

Twitter: stjohnhotel

---

View Larger Map Get Directions View Bird's Eye

---

Pork Steamed Bun in Chinatown

I saw this review from Young & Foodish about a pork bun in Chinatown that I needed to try. Probably I have passed the place 100 times and never even though to stop and give it a try. A small stall, usually hectic with patrons waiting for their steamed buns, the name is unreadable for me as it’s in Chinese, but the stall is operated by the Yang Guang Supermarket which is beside in the corner of Newport Court. 

The busy stall

The options, seamed buns, spring rolls, rice dumplings, and pancakes, I think the expensive thing they sell is about 3 quid. But the recommendation and the objective was simple a steamed pork bun with a total damage of 1.5 quid, no I’m not joking that’s the price. 

Almost Ready

Steamed bun time

The bun is really nice, the pork inside is full of flavour, and adding a drizzle of Sriacha and soya sauce is heavenly, street food at its best.

Ready to rock

Hot and soya

This kind of hidden treasures around town is what make me love London more as time goes by… I have to thank Daniel for the discovery and sharing… 

Chinese reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Chinese Restaurant” 

George: Excuse me, I'm expecting a call, Costanza? 

Bruce: Yeah, I just got a call. I yell Cartwright! Cartwright!, just like that. Nobody came up, I hang up 

George: Well, was it for Costanza or… 

Bruce: Yes, yes, that's it. Nobody answered 

George: Well was it a woman? 

Bruce: Yeah, yeah. I tell her you not here, she said curse word, I hang up

Yang Guang Supermarket

T: +44 208 494 9222

Chinese Cuisine / Street Food

Approx Damage: £5pp

Area: Chinatown

Borough: City of Westminster

---

View Larger Map Get Directions View Bird's Eye

---

Take me to WC2H

It has been a while since the last time I had a cheap and good Chinese food in Chinatown. It is pretty convenient after a night out in Covent Garden, Leicester, or Soho. So I was glad when a colleague recommended going to Cafe de Hong Kong for an Asian treat. 

A Chinese Brew

A student dinner, probably due to the prices, quite near from Leicester Square station. Offering Cantonese cuisine with some other strange items on the menu. 

Menu

We went for the typical sharing dishes, pork belly, roast duck, fried squid, chicken wings, and Singapore style noodles. The food pretty average, the roast duck was ok, the pork belly average, and the wings, the squid or the noodles pretty common. In conclusion nothing that blew our minds. 

 Pork Belly

Roast Duck

Squid

 Wings

Noodles

At least we had the chance to get a couple Tsing Tao and forget about our daily work. 

Just a couple

I can't help that every Chinese restaurant reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Chinese Restaurant” 

Jerry: Excuse me... We've been waiting here. Now, I know we were ahead of that guy, he just came in. 

Bruce: Oh no, Mr. Cohen always here. 

Elaine: He's always here? What does that mean? What does that mean? 

Bruce: Oh, Mr. Cohen, very nice man. He lives on Park Avenue. 

Elaine: Where am I? Is this a dream? What in God's name is going on here?

Cafe de Hong Kong

T: 020 7534 9898

Area: Leicester Square

Borough: City of Westminster

---

View Larger Map

---

London Pub Crawl a Beer F1 Grand Prix

A colleague is new in town and asked me to go for a pint in the centre, so I decided to give him a small tour and show him a few of my favourite places. We met at Waterloo station to get on our grid position waited for the fifth lights to switch off and started towards Embankment, our first pit stop for refuelling was at Gordon’s Wine bar. Probably my favourite if I’m in a Wine State of Mind, one of the oldest bars in London, established in 1890 with a lot of character and a amazing cavern lighted by candles.

Gordon's Wine Bar

We continue north towards Covent Garden and couldn’t resist to stop to change tyres in Porterhouse. Yes the Irish pub, with their microbeers, my favourite definitely the Plain, I love to go to the place on St Patrick’s and if you’re lucky sometimes in the tables to the left there is an Irish traditional band drinking and playing folk music on Sundays afternoon. If you want to read more you can have a look at a previous post.

The Porterhouse 

The Options

We kept going in the area and got to Punch & Judy, amazing pub in a sunny day, their terrace overlooking the Covent Garden piazza is just amazing, you can see the street artists performances and enjoy a pint of lager.

The View from the Pub

Then we hit the accelerator for the last laps passing chicanes and went to China Town in one of the curves we found a Scottish group that came for rugby match quite peculiar, I felt like in the middle of a mix between Mario Bros the movie and A Clockwork Orange. So our final stop for a splash and dash was De Hems the Dutch pub. Nice place, good selection of beers, and usually a busy place. Finally, we successfully ended the race now we can go to the podium to celebrate and open the champagne.

Only in London

De Hems

De Hems

All this F1 analogy reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Race”.

George: I can't believe you're really going out with a woman named Lois.

Jerry: I know, finally. But George, guess who her boss is. Duncan Meyers.

George: Duncan Meyers?

Elaine: Who's he?

Jerry: Elaine, only one other person in the world knows what I am about to tell you and that's George. When we were in the ninth grade they had us all line up at one end of the school yard for this big race to see who was going to represent the school in this track meet.

Elaine: Uh uh

Jerry: I was the last one on the end, George was next to me, and Mr. Bevilaqua, the gym...

Elaine: What's that?

Jerry: Mr. Bevilaqua, the gym teacher.

Elaine: Oh, of course.

Jerry: He was down at the other end. So he yells out, "Ready, On your mark, Get set" and I was so keyed up I just took off. By the time he said go I was ten yards ahead of everybody.

Elaine: No.

George: I looked up. I couldn't believe it.

Jerry: By the time the race was over I had won. I was shocked nobody had noticed the head start.

Elaine: Really?

Jerry: And I had won by so much a myth began to grow about my speed. Only Duncan suspected something was a miss. He's hated me ever since. Now he's back.

Elaine: Well what happened when you raced him again?

Jerry: I never did. In four years of high school I would never race anyone again. Not even to the end of the block to catch a bus. And so the legend grew. Everyone wanted me to race. They begged me. The track coach called my parents. Pleading, telling them it was a sin to waste my god given talent. But I answered him in the same way I answered everyone. I chose not to run.

Elaine: So now Duncan is back?

Jerry: He's back. And I knew he would be someday. Man that's some tart cider!