Euphorium Bakery review - British bakery at Angel Islington

Address: 203 Upper Street, London N1 1RQ
Tel: 020 7493 8988
Nearest Tube station:Angel

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £5 pp
Service charge: N/A
Taste: ***
Service: ***
Ambience: ****
Suitable for: a lazy weekend afternoon"Shall we go there for breakfast?" Wife asked on a Sunday morning.

I know that she wasn't referring to S&M but I might just get lucky. "Oh, I don't mind really. I could do with some sausage buttie." I replied.

"You know where I was talking about." Darn. Like most women, Wife is not exactly a meat person, she is more of a, well, cake and pastry person. And she of course referring to the Euphorium Bakery along Angel Islington's Upper Street.



We used to give the Emphorium a miss when it was located at the Chapel Market. Other than dropping in occasionally for a loaf of artisan bread, we avoid dining in. The cosy layout meant that there was barely any empty tables to begin with. Also, the buzzing crowd in the market, which was a few feet away, didn't exactly make dining in a pleasant experience at all.

So imagine the excitement from Angel's community when the Euphorium Bakery opened up just beside Masala Zone along Upper Street. When the new branch first opened its doors, it was virtually impossible to get a seat for weekend breakfasts even though the seating capacity had quadroupled. People would ponder over the Sunday Times and Guardian (provided by the bakery) while nursing a cup of tea with perhaps a croissont or two.



For some reason, Emphorium Café was quite popular with families with toddlers. On a typical weekend morning, there would bound to be some young ones running amok through the café with their parents not far behind. The staircase that leads down to a bigger seating area on the basement level only seemed to encourage the kids.


The mock fireplace with two huge leather sofas in the basement seating area sure made Euphorium Bakery more welcoming. Definitely a place to spend a lazy weekend afternoon in.

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Kai Mayfair review (revisit) - reasonably priced set lunch with excellent service

Address: 65 South Audley Street, London W1K 2QU
Tel: 020 7493 8988
Nearest Tube station: Hyde Park Corner, Green Park,
Marble Arch, Bond Street

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £30 pp
Service charge: 12.5%
Taste: ***
Service: *****
Ambience: ****
Suitable for: those looking for excellent service
and decent Chinese cuisineAfter a fantastic experience at the Michelin-starred Kai the last time round, Wife and I thought it'll be a good idea to have a simple lunch over there again on the first day of the Chinese New Year.

To make sure we get a table, we called two weeks in advance and was pleasantly surprised that Kai still offers its £19 set lunch despite the Chinese New Year - I would expect to be charged a premium to dine in a Chinese resturant then, that was what many restaurants in Chinatown did.



We were a good 40min late for our lunch but Michael, the head staff when we were there, quickly held open the door for us and welcome us with a smile. When told that I was late for my reservation, he smiled warmly,"No worries at all, Sir. We have got two tables for you, one at the front and the other at the back. I would recommend the one up front, that's the better seat." I took his word for it.

Unlike the many Chinese restaurants in London, you could hardly tell that it was the Chinese New Year - there was no lion dances (like the one at Bayswater's Kam Tong two years back) and no noticeable decoration other than a single huge lantern in the waiting area. In fact, the only hint were the bright red sweaters worn by two other couples sitting on two seperate tables. I must admit that it takes quite a bit of self assurance for a guy to go around in a bright red sweater, Chinese New Year or not. I, for one, could never pull that off.



The starter, 'A Little Something From The Chef' turned out to be salad sprinkled with freshly cut fruits and cashewnuts. It was meant to cleanse our palate but we couldn't help but noticed that unlike mine, Wife's portion was totally devoid of strawberries.



The Szechuan miso soup arrived in a small cup, which was generously filled with mushrooms cut into cubes and a single red date. As the cup was scathing hot when it first arrived, we asked a waitress for a spoon but was told that we were supposed to hold the cup and drink it directly. I was a bit taken aback by that really but perhaps we didn't make ourselves clear. Another staff quickly brought us two metal spoons when it requested it the second time round. "We did tell the Chef that it was too hot but still!" he jested.



The tiger prawns, which was cooked in milk and butter crumble, though a bit underwhelming tasted quite fine. It reminded me of the fried cereal prawns (mai pian xia) that is a popular street fare dish back home.



The braised chicken breasts, cooked in ginger broth, had an interesting texture. It had a tender yet bland consistency, quite unlike the chicken that I had come across. There was something amiss about the dish that I just couldn't place my finger on. But I thought that the dish was saved by the gingery gravy and the accompanying bamboo stalks.



Even though the lunch set comes with a fruit sorbet - below, we specially ordered the Peranakan Mango Cake (£9) - above as it was really during when we first had it. For some reason, it wasn't as good this time round - the cake was overdone and crumbled when I tried to cut it, there was also no sago in the gunung melaka syrup unlike the previous time.



Was Kai still as good? Perhaps we had subconsciously raised the bar after our first visit that we couldn't help but felt a bit let down on our second. However, at £19 per person (excluding service charge and beverages), Kai's set lunch was still reasonably priced. But one thing's for sure, Kai's service was still as excellent as ever.

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Tenshi review - Angel Islington cheap and cherry Japanese restaurant & sushi bar

Address: 61 Upper Street, London N1 0NY
Tel: 020 7226 4655
Nearest Tube station: Angel

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £10 pp
Service charge: N/A
Taste: **
Service: **
Ambience: **
Suitable for: those looking for affordable
and refreshing mealDespite Angel having a large concentration of restaurants and eateries along Upper Street and Essex Road, there is not a single sushi bar north of City Road and Pentonville Road. Although we first saw Tenshi along Upper Street sometime back but for the longest of time, it seemed to be shut even though there was always a staff milling around within. For one, I thought the name, which literally meant 'Angel' was rather refreshing. Not to mention that I was longing for some lighter tasting food.

We were on our way to Chinatown to do our Chinese New Year shopping over the weekend when we decided to drop by for lunch having read Krista's review on Tenshi the day before.



Upon stepping into Tenshi, we came face to face with the chef who was just walking out of the kitchen cum sushi preparatory counter. "Hi!" I gave him my widest grin but he returned a stony stare and walked past me. To be honest, I had come to realise that Japanese chefs weren't the most sociable of people - that was the case even at Soseki.

The waitress quickly came up to us and with a pleasant smile showed us to our table. With a takeaway sushi counter just beside the kitchen, Tenshi's setup reminded me of a sushi takeaway with seating provided but we found out that it did boost a full menu that included chicken teriyaki rice and katsu curry rice. Knowing that we would be in for a feast for the reunion dinner that night, we opted for a light meal and ordered tempura soba and nigiri set.



I thought that the sushi roll's rice in my nigiri set (£6) was a tad too compact to the point of being hard but I had no issues with the freshness of the accompanying fish, squid and prawns though the texture was somewhat tough. At just over one quid per piece, I couldn't really complain, could I?



Wife was enamoured with her tempura udon (£7.25). "You should try the udon, it's good!" she insisted on passing me some to try. Udon had never been one of my favourite noodles but Tenshi's udon had that silky smooth texture to it. Very nice indeed. The tempura was slightly damp but it was priced at a fraction of that at Mitsukoshi.



All in all, Tenshi with its friendly service, being the only one of its kind in the vicinity of Angel, was defininitely a welcomed addition to the area's culinary scene. If you are looking for an affordable and refreshing meal, Tenshi's the place to go.

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Crispy Duck review - some atmosphere, pity about the food though

Address: 7 Gerrard St, London W1D 5PH
Tel: 020 7434 1888
Nearest Tube station: Leicester Square

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £15 pp
Service charge: N/A
Taste: *
Service: **
Ambience: **
Suitable for: those who are looking for a relatively quiet
place to dine and don't mind the quality of the foodFor some reason, I had not been to Chinatown since my last visit to Special Zone 1997 and I was determined to take a trip down after work to soak up the Chinese New Year atmosphere a bit.

Every year, there would be lines of lanterns criss-crossing Gerrard Street. I had the impression that the lanterns were recycled and they would all be taken down and stored in some warehouse only to resurface the next year. Well, apparently Cathay Pacific sponsored some (if not all) of the lanterns for this year. Although you couldn't really see it from the ground, but Cathay Pacific logo on each lantern was obvious enough from Crispy Duck's first floor where we had our dinner.



As I have noted earlier, in my opinion, the undisputed king of roasted duck in Chinatown is still Four Seasons. The only reason why we ended up at Crispy Duck, a few doors down, was because there was a queue at Four Seasons. Also, I'm a fan of roast pork (the one with crispy skin) and the takeaway from Crispy Duck was decent enough. So I thought that if they could do a decent roast pork, surely their roast duck couldn't be too bad.

I was wrong.

There was a guy sitting by the Crispy Duck's door who beckoned passerbys into Crispy Duck. Obviously, if there was a need to do that, the restaurant couldn't be really that good, could it? I mean, you don't see Leong's Legend, Rasa Sayang or Four Seasons doing that, do you? That was his sole function - to get people in. The same guy ignored us when I gave him a smile on our way out.

Anyway, we were led upstairs as the ground floor was filled. The first thing that I noticed was that there were no ethnic Chinese among the customers on the entire ground floor, even two Chinese ladies seated on the first floor were looking quite miserable. It's like walking into a Italian restaurant with no Italian customers or walking into a sushi bar that Japanese avoid. That couldn't be good. But still we persisted.

In the spirit of comparing like for like with Four Seasons, we ordered a san-pin (combination of charsiew, roast pork and roast duck) and a beancurd dish.



I looked at the san-pin (£9.50) with dismay when it arrived. It was presented in a manner that reminded me of the hawker stalls back home - the three roast varieties were strewn all over a circular plate. Not only that, the roast duck was dry and came with relatively large bones, roast pork was a bit limp and its skin could be crispier, and its charsiew was rather uninspiring.



The fried beancurd with chilli and peppercorn ($4.50) had a curiously flaccid texture. I thought it could do with a bit more salt but Wife found it fine as it was. However, I must admit that the sliced red chilli and fried shallots went well with the otherwise bland beancurd.



We were pleasantly surprised when we asked for the bill. Other than the sliced oranges, which any half decent Chinese restaurants in London would provide, Crispy Duck offered a bowl of red bean soup for each of us as well. I don't believe any other Chinese restaurant in Chinatown actually served that, not complimentary anyway.

With the Chinese New Year songs, which were understood probably only be the staff and us, blasting in the background, we were sitting by the window happily sipping our red bean soup while watching the Cathay Pacific sponsored lanterns swaying gently to the chilly breeze that was slowly building up outside. At that moment, it became clear to me why anyone would return to Crispy Duck despite its sub-par food.

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Cay Tre review - Old Street Vietnamese food that slowly grows on you

Address: 301 Old Street, London EC1V 9LA
Tel: 020 7729 8662
Nearest Tube station: Old Street

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £15 pp
Service charge: 12.5%
Taste: ***
Service: **
Ambience: **
Suitable for: those looking for a healthy dose
of lemongrass, mint and fish sauceThere are quite a number of Vietnamese restaurants along Kingsland Road, but one of Vietnamese restaurants that I regularly frequent is Cay Tre, which is located along Old Street, a couple of minutes' walk from Old Street Tube station.

To be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of Vietnamese cuisine to begin with. That was probably due to the rather uninspiring experience I had of the Vietnamese fare back in Singapore. To me, Vietnamese cuisine was pho (flat rice noodles in soup with slices of beef) and nothing very much else.



Years later, I would find myself still ordering pho (not exactly adventurous was I?) at Cay Tre. The 'classic' beef pho (£6.50) was fine though not spectacular. The raw beansprouts added some welcomed crunch to the full bodied soup and the lemon slice provided gave it a certain tanginess. However, I thought that the beef was a bit flaccid and didn't quite acquired the soup's taste. I got over that by dipping it into the bottled chilli sauce that was placed on every table.


Beef pho

Next up was the luan rang (£7). That was one dish that would get me return to Cay Tre again. The rice field longfish was cut into large bitesize pieces, marinated with salt and pepper, and thrown into hot boiling oil for a couple of moments before serving it with sliced lemongrass and chilli.


Luan rang - crispy longfish

The simplicity of the dish astounded me. Unless you have a large gas stove at home, it will be virtually impossible to replicate the dish. I am not sure whether a electric deep fryer will work but I know for sure that a simple work over an electric stove will produce pieces that are damp and oily, totally lacking the lightness that makes this dish special.

If you happen to order this dish, I would recommend that you first take a bite without any of those lemongrass and chilli. Though it does add to the flavour, I thought it masked the taste of the fish itself.


Crispy tofu

The crispy tofu (£4.50) came with some kim chi. I was sure that the Vietnamese knew it by another name but it did taste like a less pungent variety of the Korean staple. The tofu was rather interesting - while its surface remained relatively dry, there was quite a bit of soupy liquid, which tasted quite fine, oozing out from the interior when I bit into it.

The couple behind us asked the staff about the dish when it was brought out to us. "Well, it's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside," replied the waiter. Not quite the description that I would go for but it was nearly there.

Cay Tre probably won't create a huge impression when you first visit. But it will definitely be one of those that slowly grows on you.


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Sun Luen Snack Bar review - London Chinatown Chinese buns and pastries, eat-in or takeaway

Address: 14 Little Newport Street,
London WC2H 7JJ
Tel: 020 7437 0251
Nearest Tube station: Leicester Square

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £5 pp
Service charge: N/A
Taste: **
Service: **
Ambience: *
Suitable for: a pitstop when you're feeling peckishI couldn't help but noticed that there would clusters of people milling around in the underground Leicester Square Tube station just outside the ticket gantry during peak hours. Every now and then, most would glance at their watches with irritation and then their mobile phones with frustration.

I understood their predicament. The worse place to be waiting for someone at Leicester Square would be in the underground station itself where air could be stuffy and the mobile phone reception was non-existent. I used to be shuffling around impatiently (in the rare occasion that I was early) until I found salvation in Sun Luen Snack Bar.



Sun Luen Snack Bar, along Little Newport Street, was a mere 20 metres from Leicester Square Tube station entrance. The cosy bakery, which doubled up as a snack bar, could barely sit fifteen souls shoulder to shoulder. But it boasted an array of freshly baked Chinese pastries and buns that included charsiew (roast pork) and ham & egg buns, custard egg tarts, sesame balls filled with black bean paste, you-tiao (fried dough) just to mention a few.



Just step through the door, take your pick from the trays that lined the window displays, order a milk tea to go with them and settle down in an empty seat. The pleasant Chinese lady who runs the place (I didn't get a chance to ask for her name) would heat up your order and deliver it to your table within minutes.



I would always go for the charsiew buns and egg tarts. For just over a quid each, I have to say that the portion and fillings are rather generous. If you're in for a heavy snack, definitely go for a bowl of soy milk with you-tiao on the side. Alternatively, order a dou-hua (sweetened beancurd) instead.



A staff lugged a couple of trays of freshly baked cheese buns from bakery in the basement when I was there. And I was so nearly tempted to one of those even though I just had my fill. Now, that's one place to hang out when you're trying to kill time in Leicester Square the next time round.

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Special Zone 1997 review - the best beef hor-fun in London

Address: 19 Wardour Street,
London W1D 6PF
Tel: 020 7734 2868
Nearest Tube station: Leicester Square

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £5 pp
Service charge: N/A
Taste: ***
Service: **
Ambience: *
Suitable for: A quick and cheap biteIt was interesting how I could walk past Special Zone 1997 every time I stop by London's Chinatown for groceries and never even thought of stepping in. For one, it looked suspiciously like Cafe TPT, which was next to it along Wardour Street. I had been to Cafe TPT twice and was really disappointed by the run of the mill dishes served by it. So I guessed that rubbed off on 1997.

A couple of weeks back, KL told us about 1997. "It serves the best beef hor fun (flat rice noodle) that you can find in London!" he claimed. After his tip off on Joy King Lau, which I thought offered value for money, I had begun to take his recommendation a bit more seriously.



Besides, I was a huge fan of beef hor fun and wouldn't hesitate braving the traffic back home all the way to Geylang for its oh so famous dry beef hor fun. Just the thought of it was enough to bring a growl to my stomach. So last weekend, I made a detour to Leicester Square just to try out the beef hor fun at 1997.

"Come on, take a seat," the waiter beckoned to us as we pushed through the door. 1997's furniture was a mix-mesh of sorts: square and round tables, which looked more at home in some of the coffee shops in Malaysia and Singapore, haphazardly pushed against the walls with heavy chairs lined up side by side. It was quite clear that 1997 did not seek to impress with its ambience, which was just as well as I didn't go there for it either. I just wanted my beef hor fun.



I was pleasantly surprised by what was on the menu - the wide selection of (mainly) Cantonese Chinese dishes were all going for just £3.80 each. You don't get any cheaper than that, at least not in this part of the world. I quickly spotted the beef hor fun or more precisely beef brisket hor fun on the menu. The only thing that I prefer over the peppery dry beef hor fun was the beef brisket variety thickened with gravy.



My order arrived quite soon after. The dish looked fabulous, just the way I imagined to be: generous portion of hor fun with an equally generous serving of beef brisket doused with thick starchy gravy. I just couldn't stop shovelling it into my mouth and didn't even look up for a moment.

"How was it?" Wife asked.

"Mmm… Hmmm…" I managed to let out some grunts and kept on nodding my head while struggling to take a breath in between mouthfuls. Need I say more? It was that good. The beef brisket was soft and tender, the hor fun had the 'smoky' aroma, which went fabulously well with the starchy gravy.



Wife was a bit disappointed with her fish ball noodles though. She wasn't too keen on the fish balls, which she claimed was 'a bit flat'. According to her, the noodles and soup stock rivalled that of Cha Cha Moon's wonton noodles.

1997 is one place that I would recommend for those on a budget. Who says London is expensive? You just have to know where to go. I'll be back for another round of beef brisket hor fun real soon.

Update (6th Feb 2010): I went back again and this time round the hor fun wasn't as good. Seems like it's a hit and miss thing. Also I neglected to mention that the £3.80 offer is for lunch only. However, we saw a couple request for the lunch special at 5pm, which the staff obliged.

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Min Jiang review at Royal Garden Hotel - jewel in the garden it's not

Address: 2-24 Kensington High St,
London W8 4PT
Tel: 020 7361 1988 (reservation necessary)
Nearest Tube station: Kensington High Street

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £25 pp
Service charge: N/A
Taste: ***
Service: **
Ambience: ***
Suitable for: a weekend lunch, do call to reserve
a table by the window overlooking Kensington GardenWe were understandably excited when we first heard that Min Jiang would be opening up in London. Min Jiang, named after the Min River of Sichuan, was well known for their Beijing Roasted Duck (or Peking duck) in their flagship restaurant in Singapore's Goodwood Park Hotel.

Though we didn't get to try out its Peking duck the first time round when it first opened at The Royal Garden Hotel next to Kensington Gardens, I was suitably impressed by the xiao long bao. In my opinion, comparing like for like, Min Jiang's dim sum was better than Yauatcha before the latter's recent menu makeover.

This time round, we were determined to try out its Peking duck. To make sure that the dish was available (which apparently was subject to availability), we called before way before and reserved half a duck for the three of us.

Let's get down to the food itself shall we? The xiao long bao (£6.50) were disappointing this time round. I couldn't put my finger on it but even though the soup within was still as good, the meat fillings was almost mushy without any texture.

Char siew buns (£4.20) didn't do it for me too. I had no problems with them being small if the (dough) skin was thin. But it wasn't the case here - the skin was just as thick and you could barely taste the fillings. Though they were clearly better than those obtained right off supermarkets' frozen counters, the cost cutting was clearly overdone.

Fried turnip cake (£4.60) was a bit damp and underwhelming. Min Jiang could do with less chives, which had formed a thick layer above the turnip cake.

Our Peking duck (£25 for half a duck) finally arrived with huge fanfare. A chef set up a small table beside ours and start slicing the roast duck. After the previous dishes, the Peking duck did save the day. The initial slices of honey-brushed skin were slightly crisp and went well coated with sugar. The chef then went on to present some more slices on a platter before disappearing into the kitchen with the rest of the duck.

The wraps, which were provided in a bamboo dim sum container, cooled down pretty soon. Unlike Kai, they were not replaced with hot piping ones. Then again, the bill at Min Jiang came up to almost a third of Kai's so I really shouldn't be making a comparison here. However, Min Jiang provided some chopped mango, which went well with the duck slices and cucumber stripes wrapped up.

The 'second serving', which was essentially what the chef did with the remaining Peking duck, was minced duck served on cabbage. We were given a couple of choices for our second servings and this was recommended by the waiter. We weren't terribly impressed by it - the rawness of the cabbage had overwhelmed the duck bits.

Perhaps I went to Min Jiang with too high an expectation. Though its prices were almost comparable to Yauatcha after the latter's recent price increase, I wouldn't exactly go out of the way to dine at Min Jiang.

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