Ah, Chinatown. One can only love it and loathe it, at the very same time. I despise Chinatown like the way I despise the way Justin Bieber’s bobcut falls over his forehead. I may well be the last person in London who will write nice things about the state of Chinese food in London but at the same time, I love it for the very same reasons. Firstly, for the rude service, what was once a spectacle at Wong Kei, has now become a culture spreading rapidly across restaurants in Soho, perhaps even an act worthy of its own Westend matinee; Secondly and more pressingly for the transient standard of cooking – It could be great on Monday nights, but total piss by Friday noon.
On the otherhand, whenever I exit Leicester Square station, the smell of roast duck, bbq pork (and piss) takes away any and all anxieties, hope is immediately restored in this culinary wasteland.
The Sichuan fad was something I never fully understood, and am still scratching my head over. To me, it’s oil, sichuan pepper, luncheon meat, more oil, more bud numbing pepper and yet more oil. But you lot love this stuff, no doubt with a helping article or two from the revered queen of Sichuanese writing – Fuchsia Dunlop. Which leads me to the Empress of Lisle Street, the Queen of Sichuan food in London, as far as the blogs will have you believe. I don’t think I’ve seen so many positive reviews about a Chinese restaurant before. Opened last year, the kitchen is helmed by Kang Dong, his track record includes stints at a presumably upmarket Hotel in the Sichuan Province in China. His profile graces the opening page of the menu describing how his style had conquered many palates in the Far East before he was whisked away to London.
Curiosity had the better of me, and for the smell of siu lap, as well as the positive scribblings of Mr Coren and Ms Maschler plastered outside, it was inevitable that I give this crowd favourite a sample.
Marinated Chicken in Spicy Sauce, £7.
Or Saliva Chicken as it is, in Mandarin.
I took Mark, Carin and the better half, who is much better versed in Chinese cooking than I am. The chicken was cold, wet, oily and spicy – as saliva chicken should be. A regular feature of Sichuan restaurants.
Hot and sour Rice Noodle, £6.
The glass noodles, made from potato starch, were bouncy and chewy and generally tasty. The hot and sour soup was merely adequate. I’m not quite the fan of this contrast, but it is adored by the Taiwanese. The perfect balance of being on the verge of just spicy enough and tethering on the edge of being just sour enough is a highly sought after equilibrium. It is, I am told by the fiercest lovers of this soup, a condition that is hardly satisfied. This version was much too toned down.
Hot and Fiery beef slices and tripe , £7.50.
Ah but it is so much more exciting in Mandarin, called ‘Husband and Wife Lung Slices’. The name is either meant to symbolise a kind of duality, in this case the combination of tripe and beef, or it’s suppose to indicate the mythology behind the genesis of this dish – that it was first served by husband & wife who operated a food cart in Chengdu in the 1930s, or point to the traditional myth that the recipe could use either lung, heart or tripe to accompany the beef slices. It was pretty salty.
Five spice dry beancurd, £5.
Seasoned with Five spice powder or ‘Wu Xiang Fen’. It comes as a premix which you can get in a jar at your local Sainsbury.
Steamed ‘Dong Po’ Pig’s joint, £13.80.
Su Dongpo was a famous 11th century Chinese poet, he wrote stuff like this:
Morning came, rain past.
What trace is left?
A pond full of broken duckweed.
Deep no?
Aside from playing his part in shaping Chinese literature, Mr Su is also credited for accidentally a pork dish, which by our best guesstimation, is what this dish is named after. As it is claimed (on Wiki) :
It is said that once during his free time, Su Dongpo decided to make stewed pork out of boredom. Then an old friend visited him in the middle of the cooking and challenged him to a game of Chinese chess. Su had totally forgotten of the stew during the game until a very fragrant smell came out from his kitchen and he was reminded of it. Thus Dongpo’s Pork (東坡肉), a famous dish in Chinese cuisine, was created by accident.
So goes the story.
I’ve never had steamed trotters before, or at least not trotters in a sort of braised stew fashion. I thought this was a great trotters recipe. The meat was so tender, it fell off the bone easily, very juicy and full of flavour. I enjoyed it immensely. Most of all, the sauce was very good. Rich, salty and also a little sweet. I liked it because it carried no hint of numbness, no spiciness, no pepper, who knew if it was or was not Sichuan, all we knew was that we loved it. Oh weeping duckweeds.
Zhong’s (secret) dumplings, £4.40.
We overheard on twitter about these secret house dumplings. They were ok. Homely, nothing special to shout about.
Crab with salted egg yolk, £17.50.
Salted duck eggs to be exact. Salted egg yolk sauce is Cantonese, as far as I know, but if you get a chance, either here or Pearl Liang, you must order something with salted egg yolks.
Anything with salted egg yolk is a winner. Deep fried prawns with salted egg yolk is win, fish fillet with salted egg yolk is a win and so is an entire fried crab crusted in a salted egg yolk armour.
I thought this was sensational, mostly because they used alot of egg yolk in this recipe. The more the merrier really. The eggs are cured either in brine or salted charcoal. The yolk usually comes out florescent orange. My mum used to make congee with salted eggs and dried scallops for Sunday breakfast, but personally I used to love mixing boiled salted eggs with steam rice, or even with fried rice. I could eat this stuff everyday.
Anyway I do digress, so the only problem with the chunky crab was that it became a little messy to take the monster apart. Otherwise, what an awesome dish.
We drank alot of Sunlik beer, and we paid £103.50 in total for four.
This was a reasonably good meal. I can understand the fanfare and I feel that it is largely justified. Good Chinese restaurants are getting harder to come by, so considering the slim pickings, Empress scores well above the average, in my opinion. In any case, a meal out at any Chinese restaurant won’t break the bank, so even if it didn’t live up to the hype, you won’t have to deal with any alarming financial ramifications.
So let’s see, that’s Pearl Liang, Wing Yip Cricklewood and Empress for the slightly posher (very slight) but still good valued Chinese dinner.
The Gist of It
Empress of Sichuan
Chinese, £35pp
6 Lisle Street WC2H 7BG
Tel : 0207 734 8128
Tube : Leicester Square
I’ve been to Empress of Sichuan a few times but there’s only one dish I always order, the “Farmer’s Fish”. A lovely baked fish with an unusual (for me) spice combination (lots of cumin). I also quite like their spicy aubergine with mince pork. But other dishes I’v ordered (can’t remember their names but it involved meat) were quite disappointing. So, I’ll stick to what I know they do best…
Their bear’s paw tofu was a stand-out dish for me, although I also tried, and enjoyed the farmer’s fish. Kinda kicking myself for not noticing the crab with salted egg yolk now though. Will try it on next visit though so thanks Kang!
You should review this Sichuan restaurant in Liverpool st called laodifang. Terrible service but affordable and authentic sichuan cuisine.
For the real taste of China I really think you’ll have to venture further afield. The BEST Chinese food I’ve had in London is at a restaurant called Ye Ye in highbury. Really reminded me of the dishes I had while travelling there!
Thanks for the link. I haven’t tried those trotters and crab. Tend to stay away from messy dishes if I can. You do have to try the Farmers Fish next time if you can.
If you like your Sichuan, I thoroughly recommend checking out a restaurant on Hanbury Street, near Shoreditch High St Overground station, called Sichuan Folk (http://www.sichuan-folk.co.uk/menu.html), opened at the beginning of the year.
The food is fantastic and full of flavour. We had the Special Flavoured Chicken, Twice Cooked Pork with White buns, and the Boiled Tender Beef in Spicy Sauce. All were unique and one of the best Chinese restaurants I have eaten at for some time. They are fully packed Fridays and Saturdays despite no marketing effort via usual channels as they currently rely on word of mouth.
In fact, the road this is located on is becoming quite a good place for foodies! A couple doors down from this excellent Sichuan place is Rosa’s (a delicious Thai house, which has also opened a second branch in Soho), a tasty fish and chips house, and a small fresh italian restaurant.
Hi Kang,
My name is Layne Mosler, and I’m the editor at Rama Food, a new digital food tour company. I’m not sure if you got my email, but I love your blog and wonder if you’d be interested in writing a tour for our iPhone app? If you’d like to send me an email – layne@crimsonbamboo.com – I’d be happy to tell you more.
Cheers and good eating,
Layne
PS – No, I’m not going to ask you to write for free!
We had an unbelievably BAD experience at the Empress of Sichuan! We got to know this restaurant in conjunction with Terracotta Film Festival 2012 as it was advertised in Terracotta programme booklet.
Basically, their staff refused to honour the 15% discount clearly offered in the booklet for the festival and charged our credit card the full amount, saying they’d not heard of the offer. When we complained and asked to speak to someone more senior, the two waitresses working claimed they could not reach the manager and had no way of refunding credit cards. They stated they’d be happy to refund us if we’d paid cash but couldn’t do so for a card payment, despite my husband offering to show them how a refund is done on the card machine. Whilst the £6 in question isn’t a huge deal, it was the conduct of the staff charging us which really annoyed us. The two waitresses were smirking and giggling while talking to us and didn’t handle the matter with professionalism. They also showed us a number of leaflets for other offers, which had nothing to do with the matter at hand in an attempt to change the subject. It’s hard to believe they had not heard of the Terracotta offer when literature for the festival was placed on the tables as well as piled in the area near the front door.
Most importantly food wasn’t up to the standard we had hoped for. That, combined with the poor service from their staff was a huge disappointment. We ordered ma po tofu, marinated chicken slices in spicy sauce and boiled fish slices in extremely spicy soup. All the dishes were bland and the spicy soup had no kick to it. We expected spicy soup to be served hot and not luke warm. The chicken slices were more chicken skin than meat.
When we entered the restaurant there were set menus referred to on the windows but at no point were these offered as an option whilst we were inside. We initially thought the decoration was nice but after being brought to our table, we realised that the table cloths and wallpaper were stained. The leather seats for the tables along the walls were damaged and repaired with tape! We were asked to sit at a table for four in the middle of the restaurant, despite a smaller table for two being available. At no point was the restaurant busy, and by the time we finished our meal (4:30pm on a Sunday afternoon) we were the only ones in there aside from staff.
We asked to check the bill; they gave us a receipt displaying the total amount being charged with no mention of a service charge being included. Then I realised there was a small itemised bill below the receipt stating a 10% service charge was charged whether you liked it or not. When making our payment with the credit card we were handed the card machine to add a tip on top of the 10%!
Since this negative experience, we have confirmed with Joey Leung, the Terracotta Festival director, that the restaurant was well aware of the 15% discount offer and should have honoured it. He passed our details onto the restaurant manager but we have yet to hear anything from him/her, which is in keeping with the poor service we experienced at the time.
Nothing will make us return to Empress of Sichuan restaurant. Beware!
Ah, Chinatown. One can only love it and loathe it, at the very same time. I despise Chinatown like the way I despise the way Justin Bieber’s bobcut falls over his forehead. I may well be the last person in London who will write nice things about the state of Chinese food in London but at the same time, I love it for the very same reasons. Firstly, for the rude service, what was once a spectacle at Wong Kei, has now become a culture spreading rapidly across restaurants in Soho, perhaps even an act worthy of its own Westend matinee; Secondly and more pressingly for the transient standard of cooking – It could be great on Monday nights, but total piss by Friday noon.
On the otherhand, whenever I exit Leicester Square station, the smell of roast duck, bbq pork (and piss) takes away any and all anxieties, hope is immediately restored in this culinary wasteland.
The Sichuan fad was something I never fully understood, and am still scratching my head over. To me, it’s oil, sichuan pepper, luncheon meat, more oil, more bud numbing pepper and yet more oil. But you lot love this stuff, no doubt with a helping article or two from the revered queen of Sichuanese writing – Fuchsia Dunlop. Which leads me to the Empress of Lisle Street, the Queen of Sichuan food in London, as far as the blogs will have you believe. I don’t think I’ve seen so many positive reviews about a Chinese restaurant before. Opened last year, the kitchen is helmed by Kang Dong, his track record includes stints at a presumably upmarket Hotel in the Sichuan Province in China. His profile graces the opening page of the menu describing how his style had conquered many palates in the Far East before he was whisked away to London.
Curiosity had the better of me, and for the smell of siu lap, as well as the positive scribblings of Mr Coren and Ms Maschler plastered outside, it was inevitable that I give this crowd favourite a sample.
Marinated Chicken in Spicy Sauce, £7.
Or Saliva Chicken as it is, in Mandarin.
I took Mark, Carin and the better half, who is much better versed in Chinese cooking than I am. The chicken was cold, wet, oily and spicy – as saliva chicken should be. A regular feature of Sichuan restaurants.
Hot and sour Rice Noodle, £6.
The glass noodles, made from potato starch, were bouncy and chewy and generally tasty. The hot and sour soup was merely adequate. I’m not quite the fan of this contrast, but it is adored by the Taiwanese. The perfect balance of being on the verge of just spicy enough and tethering on the edge of being just sour enough is a highly sought after equilibrium. It is, I am told by the fiercest lovers of this soup, a condition that is hardly satisfied. This version was much too toned down.
Hot and Fiery beef slices and tripe , £7.50.
Ah but it is so much more exciting in Mandarin, called ‘Husband and Wife Lung Slices’. The name is either meant to symbolise a kind of duality, in this case the combination of tripe and beef, or it’s suppose to indicate the mythology behind the genesis of this dish – that it was first served by husband & wife who operated a food cart in Chengdu in the 1930s, or point to the traditional myth that the recipe could use either lung, heart or tripe to accompany the beef slices. It was pretty salty.
Five spice dry beancurd, £5.
Seasoned with Five spice powder or ‘Wu Xiang Fen’. It comes as a premix which you can get in a jar at your local Sainsbury.
Steamed ‘Dong Po’ Pig’s joint, £13.80.
Su Dongpo was a famous 11th century Chinese poet, he wrote stuff like this:
Deep no?
Aside from playing his part in shaping Chinese literature, Mr Su is also credited for accidentally a pork dish, which by our best guesstimation, is what this dish is named after. As it is claimed (on Wiki) :
So goes the story.
I’ve never had steamed trotters before, or at least not trotters in a sort of braised stew fashion. I thought this was a great trotters recipe. The meat was so tender, it fell off the bone easily, very juicy and full of flavour. I enjoyed it immensely. Most of all, the sauce was very good. Rich, salty and also a little sweet. I liked it because it carried no hint of numbness, no spiciness, no pepper, who knew if it was or was not Sichuan, all we knew was that we loved it. Oh weeping duckweeds.
Zhong’s (secret) dumplings, £4.40.
We overheard on twitter about these secret house dumplings. They were ok. Homely, nothing special to shout about.
Crab with salted egg yolk, £17.50.
Salted duck eggs to be exact. Salted egg yolk sauce is Cantonese, as far as I know, but if you get a chance, either here or Pearl Liang, you must order something with salted egg yolks.
Anything with salted egg yolk is a winner. Deep fried prawns with salted egg yolk is win, fish fillet with salted egg yolk is a win and so is an entire fried crab crusted in a salted egg yolk armour.
I thought this was sensational, mostly because they used alot of egg yolk in this recipe. The more the merrier really. The eggs are cured either in brine or salted charcoal. The yolk usually comes out florescent orange. My mum used to make congee with salted eggs and dried scallops for Sunday breakfast, but personally I used to love mixing boiled salted eggs with steam rice, or even with fried rice. I could eat this stuff everyday.
Anyway I do digress, so the only problem with the chunky crab was that it became a little messy to take the monster apart. Otherwise, what an awesome dish.
We drank alot of Sunlik beer, and we paid £103.50 in total for four.
This was a reasonably good meal. I can understand the fanfare and I feel that it is largely justified. Good Chinese restaurants are getting harder to come by, so considering the slim pickings, Empress scores well above the average, in my opinion. In any case, a meal out at any Chinese restaurant won’t break the bank, so even if it didn’t live up to the hype, you won’t have to deal with any alarming financial ramifications.
So let’s see, that’s Pearl Liang, Wing Yip Cricklewood and Empress for the slightly posher (very slight) but still good valued Chinese dinner.
The Gist of It
Empress of Sichuan
Chinese, £35pp
6 Lisle Street WC2H 7BG
Tel : 0207 734 8128
Tube : Leicester Square
In other news… Giles Coren ; Guy Dimond ; London Chow ; Asian Food Adventures ; Catty ; ILTEAETL ; Pig Pig’s Corner ; Mr Noodles ; Chopstix to Steaknives
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Comments (10)
I’ve been to Empress of Sichuan a few times but there’s only one dish I always order, the “Farmer’s Fish”. A lovely baked fish with an unusual (for me) spice combination (lots of cumin). I also quite like their spicy aubergine with mince pork. But other dishes I’v ordered (can’t remember their names but it involved meat) were quite disappointing. So, I’ll stick to what I know they do best…
Their bear’s paw tofu was a stand-out dish for me, although I also tried, and enjoyed the farmer’s fish. Kinda kicking myself for not noticing the crab with salted egg yolk now though. Will try it on next visit though so thanks Kang!
You should review this Sichuan restaurant in Liverpool st called laodifang. Terrible service but affordable and authentic sichuan cuisine.
For the real taste of China I really think you’ll have to venture further afield. The BEST Chinese food I’ve had in London is at a restaurant called Ye Ye in highbury. Really reminded me of the dishes I had while travelling there!
gosh I adore reading your posts – sooo yummy!!
Thanks for the link. I haven’t tried those trotters and crab. Tend to stay away from messy dishes if I can. You do have to try the Farmers Fish next time if you can.
If you like your Sichuan, I thoroughly recommend checking out a restaurant on Hanbury Street, near Shoreditch High St Overground station, called Sichuan Folk (http://www.sichuan-folk.co.uk/menu.html), opened at the beginning of the year.
The food is fantastic and full of flavour. We had the Special Flavoured Chicken, Twice Cooked Pork with White buns, and the Boiled Tender Beef in Spicy Sauce. All were unique and one of the best Chinese restaurants I have eaten at for some time. They are fully packed Fridays and Saturdays despite no marketing effort via usual channels as they currently rely on word of mouth.
In fact, the road this is located on is becoming quite a good place for foodies! A couple doors down from this excellent Sichuan place is Rosa’s (a delicious Thai house, which has also opened a second branch in Soho), a tasty fish and chips house, and a small fresh italian restaurant.
Did love the trotter there ……
Hi Kang,
My name is Layne Mosler, and I’m the editor at Rama Food, a new digital food tour company. I’m not sure if you got my email, but I love your blog and wonder if you’d be interested in writing a tour for our iPhone app? If you’d like to send me an email – layne@crimsonbamboo.com – I’d be happy to tell you more.
Cheers and good eating,
Layne
PS – No, I’m not going to ask you to write for free!
Never been there before. Is it just me or those dishes looked so greasy.
We had an unbelievably BAD experience at the Empress of Sichuan! We got to know this restaurant in conjunction with Terracotta Film Festival 2012 as it was advertised in Terracotta programme booklet.
Basically, their staff refused to honour the 15% discount clearly offered in the booklet for the festival and charged our credit card the full amount, saying they’d not heard of the offer. When we complained and asked to speak to someone more senior, the two waitresses working claimed they could not reach the manager and had no way of refunding credit cards. They stated they’d be happy to refund us if we’d paid cash but couldn’t do so for a card payment, despite my husband offering to show them how a refund is done on the card machine. Whilst the £6 in question isn’t a huge deal, it was the conduct of the staff charging us which really annoyed us. The two waitresses were smirking and giggling while talking to us and didn’t handle the matter with professionalism. They also showed us a number of leaflets for other offers, which had nothing to do with the matter at hand in an attempt to change the subject. It’s hard to believe they had not heard of the Terracotta offer when literature for the festival was placed on the tables as well as piled in the area near the front door.
Most importantly food wasn’t up to the standard we had hoped for. That, combined with the poor service from their staff was a huge disappointment. We ordered ma po tofu, marinated chicken slices in spicy sauce and boiled fish slices in extremely spicy soup. All the dishes were bland and the spicy soup had no kick to it. We expected spicy soup to be served hot and not luke warm. The chicken slices were more chicken skin than meat.
When we entered the restaurant there were set menus referred to on the windows but at no point were these offered as an option whilst we were inside. We initially thought the decoration was nice but after being brought to our table, we realised that the table cloths and wallpaper were stained. The leather seats for the tables along the walls were damaged and repaired with tape! We were asked to sit at a table for four in the middle of the restaurant, despite a smaller table for two being available. At no point was the restaurant busy, and by the time we finished our meal (4:30pm on a Sunday afternoon) we were the only ones in there aside from staff.
We asked to check the bill; they gave us a receipt displaying the total amount being charged with no mention of a service charge being included. Then I realised there was a small itemised bill below the receipt stating a 10% service charge was charged whether you liked it or not. When making our payment with the credit card we were handed the card machine to add a tip on top of the 10%!
Since this negative experience, we have confirmed with Joey Leung, the Terracotta Festival director, that the restaurant was well aware of the 15% discount offer and should have honoured it. He passed our details onto the restaurant manager but we have yet to hear anything from him/her, which is in keeping with the poor service we experienced at the time.
Nothing will make us return to Empress of Sichuan restaurant. Beware!