Mandarin Kitchen, London: “Seriously good” – restaurant review
Mandarin Kitchen, 14-16 Queensway, London W2 3RX (020 7727 9012; mandarin.kitchen). Starters and soups £4.30-£13.90, large plates £8.90-£55 (to share), desserts £4.20-£8.20, wines from £27.90
London has many Chinatowns. They may not be as numerous as the crowds around Gerrard Street, but they are there. When I was a child, braised in the sweet soy broth of privilege, my family went once a year, just after Christmas, to the theater; bathe in the punctual thrill of the opening, the sequin and the jazz hand. As it is the non-practicing Jewish way at this time of the year, we would eat Chinese. It was usually somewhere in little Chinatown at the south end of Queensway, near Hyde Park, where intense men stood at windows hand-pulling noodles, both for cooking preparation and passing marketing. They had to do it somewhere. Might as well do it in public.
But time and fashion pass. Each generation rediscovers a city. I have rarely eaten on Queensway. I could happily review restaurants on the ends of the UK. But home is a different place and I've always been a little wary of anything to the left of Marble Arch. Then a few months ago I wanted to eat somewhere before a show at the Royal Albert Hall. Pink Martini - fabulous concert. The choices around our biggest concert hall are depressing, so I looked north across Hyde Park. That's how I ended up in the seafood temple that is Mandarin Kitchen, in the middle of Queensway's tiny Chinatown. I quickly remembered that this was where we used to go as a family in the 80's, for lots of goodies, including a huge pile of smashed crab with ginger and spring onions. We considered the mess left on the tablecloth afterwards as a mark of both success and family culture. That was who we were.
I did a little bazaar again. It wasn't the fried squid with garlic and chilli. It was tidy. If any crumbs fell from the rustling heap of tentacles and crusty rings, I had them. The salty rubble of fresh red chilli and garlic are also gone. You can get a lot of grip between a big finger and this stuff, especially on a linen tablecloth. No, it was the whole ginger and spring onion steamed Dover sole that caused the stains, as I filleted it from the bone, spraying fins and sauce here and there. It is listed on the menu at "market price". Don't be embarrassed to ask them what that price is, because they won't be embarrassed to tell you. Currently it's £38, compared to £48 at Scott and £65 at Wiltons. And oh dear: the cooking of this fish was perfect. There is nothing soft here. It's a soft, taut net, slipping out of the frame, like a silk robe over an inviting shoulder.
In a city where restaurants come and go , Mandarin Kitchen flourished. It first opens...
Mandarin Kitchen, 14-16 Queensway, London W2 3RX (020 7727 9012; mandarin.kitchen). Starters and soups £4.30-£13.90, large plates £8.90-£55 (to share), desserts £4.20-£8.20, wines from £27.90
London has many Chinatowns. They may not be as numerous as the crowds around Gerrard Street, but they are there. When I was a child, braised in the sweet soy broth of privilege, my family went once a year, just after Christmas, to the theater; bathe in the punctual thrill of the opening, the sequin and the jazz hand. As it is the non-practicing Jewish way at this time of the year, we would eat Chinese. It was usually somewhere in little Chinatown at the south end of Queensway, near Hyde Park, where intense men stood at windows hand-pulling noodles, both for cooking preparation and passing marketing. They had to do it somewhere. Might as well do it in public.
But time and fashion pass. Each generation rediscovers a city. I have rarely eaten on Queensway. I could happily review restaurants on the ends of the UK. But home is a different place and I've always been a little wary of anything to the left of Marble Arch. Then a few months ago I wanted to eat somewhere before a show at the Royal Albert Hall. Pink Martini - fabulous concert. The choices around our biggest concert hall are depressing, so I looked north across Hyde Park. That's how I ended up in the seafood temple that is Mandarin Kitchen, in the middle of Queensway's tiny Chinatown. I quickly remembered that this was where we used to go as a family in the 80's, for lots of goodies, including a huge pile of smashed crab with ginger and spring onions. We considered the mess left on the tablecloth afterwards as a mark of both success and family culture. That was who we were.
I did a little bazaar again. It wasn't the fried squid with garlic and chilli. It was tidy. If any crumbs fell from the rustling heap of tentacles and crusty rings, I had them. The salty rubble of fresh red chilli and garlic are also gone. You can get a lot of grip between a big finger and this stuff, especially on a linen tablecloth. No, it was the whole ginger and spring onion steamed Dover sole that caused the stains, as I filleted it from the bone, spraying fins and sauce here and there. It is listed on the menu at "market price". Don't be embarrassed to ask them what that price is, because they won't be embarrassed to tell you. Currently it's £38, compared to £48 at Scott and £65 at Wiltons. And oh dear: the cooking of this fish was perfect. There is nothing soft here. It's a soft, taut net, slipping out of the frame, like a silk robe over an inviting shoulder.
In a city where restaurants come and go , Mandarin Kitchen flourished. It first opens...
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