Empress of Sichuan review - a serving of chili oil

Address: 6 Lisle Street,
London WC2H 7BG
Tel: 020 7734 8128
Nearest Tube station: Leicester Square

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £20 pp
Service charge: 10%
Taste: ***
Service: ****
Ambience: ***
Suitable for: a family dinner or large groups
and those who are fine with chiliWe were walking along Lisle Road one day on our way to watch Bedroom Farce last weekend when we noticed that KeeLung was no longer in operation. In its place was a Sichuan restaurant with a flashy name – Empress of Sichuan (Er-Mei Yi Pai, no less).

Mount Er-Mei, a dominating geographical feature in China’s Sichuan province, was one of the favourite backdrops for countless Chinese martial arts novels. By calling itself “Er-Mei Yi Pai”, Sichuan Empress has effectively counted itself as the best in Sichuan. With that in mind, we stepped right in for a simple pre-theatre dinner.



Frankly, I was surprised that the facade and interior décor remained pretty much the same compared to KeeLung. Even the huge picture of KeeLung Market remained in the main dinner area (you can’t miss it). While we were dining in KeeLung, I used to wonder where did all those vintage prints of artists come from. Well, looking at it, they might be cast offs from previous occupants.

The place was packed when we were there. Granted that it was a Saturday evening but still. We were told that that the table allocated to us had to be vacated at 7.30pm, which we have no problem with. In fact, we stayed right till 7.30pm before dashing off to Duke of York’s Theatre.

Anyway, the last thing we want was to doze off in the theatre later so we opted for a simple fare – bear paw tofu (xiong zhang tou fu), Sichuan chicken (quan shui ji) and dan dan noodles.



Rest assured that the bear paw tofu (£8.50) contained no traces of the endangered animal though I wasn’t so sure about the original dish. This one was simply stir fried pork with thin triangular slices of fried tofu and black fungus. Like most Sichuan dishes, bear paw tofu came immersed in a wide bowl of chili oil. The pork cubes were well seasoned though I thought they could go a bit easy on the starch. I thought that the gravy went well with my bowl of steamed rice.



The Sichuan chicken (£13), in my opinion, was a bit overpriced and underwhelming. It was essentially a large bowl of chili oil with chicken chunks (stir fried). Perhaps it was the spice used but I was a bit puzzled as to how this dish could have caused so much more.



The dan dan noodles (£4.80) was quite good really. The noodles reminded us of the better quality instant noodles, which we recognized instantly as a comfort food. All in all, the mild chili that went into the broth was just about right. But as the portion is a bit small, I would advise against sharing.



We still had some time after clearing the table and we decided to go for some sticky rice balls (tang yuan) for desserts. The rice balls (£4) came with some small coloured balls made of tapioca flour, which was a key ingredient for the popular Taiwanese bubbled tea (pao pao cha). I thought that its chewy texture complemented the black sesame filled rice balls. One recommendation here, instead of gobbling down the entire rice ball at one go (which is what I normally do), take a bite at it and take a sip of the filling within before shoveling the rest in.



Service was way more attentive than the usual Chinese restaurant. Even though we were seated in a secluded corner, the staff always made it a point to refill our tea every so often. Interestingly, even the bill included a 10% service charge, I was given an option of adding a gratuity when keying in my pin. Empress of Sichuan even inherited the same system as KeeLung in that aspect.

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Jamie's Italian review - Italian cuisine with a healthy twist at Canary Wharf

Address: 2 Churchill Place,
London E14 5RB
Tel: 020 3002 5252
Nearest Tube station: Canary Wharf

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £20 pp
Service charge: NA
Taste: **
Service: ****
Ambience: ***
Suitable for: winding down after work
(prepare to wait a minimum of 30min)It was one of those nights again when the last thing I want was to trudge back home with an empty stomach. Wife has always been a bit resistant to coming over to Canary Wharf, with its glass and steel skyscrapers, reminds her of Raffles Place back home.

Not that I can blame her really. Given a chance, I wouldn't want to be stuck on the DLR as well especially with the congestion at Bank station during peak times. But this time round, I tempted her with Jamie Oliver's new offering in Canary Wharf - Jamie's Italian.



I was thoroughly fascinated with Jamie even before I stepped foot into London. For some weird reason, the people scheduling TV slots back home thought that it was a good idea to do replays of Jamie's Kitchen at 4pm on weekdays where no one other than housewives and sorry sods like me would be home watching TV. Between long winded Taiwanese serials (housewives' favourite) and Jamie's Kitchen, I guess the choice was pretty clear. To be honest, I was more intrigued by the name "Jamie - the naked chef". Throughout the program, I was half expecting scantily clad nymph coming to the screen. Couldn't help but felt cheated when I realised that the chap prancing around a long kitchen table was in fact Jamie himself.

Anyway, both Wife and I cowered under a flimsy brolly and braved the chilly winds and the typical English drizzle to Jamie's Italian only to find that there was a long queue at the front not to mention those hanging around in the bar with a beer in hand. As Jamie's Italian doesn't take reservation, the only way of even hoping to get a table would be to get a pager (which beeps when it's your turn) and join the line.

I must say that I was impressed by the crowds.  Being right in the heart of Canary Wharf, you would expect most diners to be working within the vicinity. While that was true, there were quite a number of families with kids as well when we were there on a weekday evening. I was crestfallen when told that I had to wait for at least one hour. I duly collected a pager and headed towards the bar.

After 20 minutes of fidgeting around the bar, a staff came by with a huge (and I mean huge) platter of finger food - cut rolls of ham, pieces of bread and a generous bowl of olives. "Any tidbits while you wait, Sir?" Nice one, Jamie. I was just about to walk out in frustration and you come bribe me with some light bites. But I did feel happier after munching on some ham and olives. Some time later (I didn't bother to look up the time as  I feel obliged to stay after succumbing to the finger food), our pager finally sprung to live. Yes, we got a table at long last!

Unlike his Fifteen, Jamie's Italian is clearly meant to cater for the wider audience. While there was a healthy buzz around the extensive floor space, individual tables were set rather closely together and long tables dominated the area (think Cha Cha Moon and Wagamama). While the furniture was more flimsy, Italian's service was top notch - pleasant, efficient and always served with a smile.

My carbonara was the most peculiar ones that I had ever encountered - that was the first time I had perciatelle (fat spaghetti with centre hollowed) for carbonara, not to mention with a healthy sprinkle of greens topping it up. Was I missing something? Being famished, I was all for something sinful, something unhealthy, some creamy. Instead, I had vegetables and had to struggle with thick perciatelle that was served with barely there carbonara sauce. I should had expected that, shouldn't I? He's the crusader of healthy diet and a wiser person would be really suspicious if anything deemed as capable of clogging up the arteries was present on the menu.



Wife wasn't too impressed by the prawn linguine as well. Perhaps she wasn't exactly in favor of linguine done in al dante but she couldn't help but felt a bit let down by the unimpressive sauce. However, I suspect that our palate was spoilt by La Forchetta but I started to wish that we had been to Tenore instead.

For desserts, we went for another safe choice - the tiramisu. We gingerly pushed aside the wallop of cream sitting on top of the thin slice of tiramisu. We found out why the it was stated on the menu that it was a 'specially made' tiramisu - there was orange grating intermixed in each layer of the tiramisu. That made the dessert taste like a soft fruitcake instead of the coffee and chocolate (among other ingredients) concoction that we were familiar with. We didn't finish the dessert and asked for the bill very soon after.

Would I return again? Maybe. But I'm really not sure whether it was worth the hour's wait for a table, pleasant service and free finger food or not. However, Jamie's Italian is definitely for those going for a healthy twist in the usual Italian fare.

Read Jamie's Italian (revisit) - Strike Two

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Gama review - Korean restaurant with Japanese menu and karaoke sharing the same address

Address: 42 Dean Dean Street,
London W1D 4QA
Tel: 020 7728 7788
Nearest Tube station: Liverpool Street

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £15 pp
Service charge: 10%
Taste: ***
Service: ****
Ambience: ***
Suitable for: groups of four heading for
a warm Korean barbecueWe really need to plan our meal times properly.

After a couple of days of gloomy weather, we skipped off to Regent's Park hoping to catch a whiff of spring the moment BBC reported a favourable weather for London on Sunday. So there we were, merrily strolling through the acres of greenery with budding shoots until the all too familiar growling of the stomach brought us to a premature halt.

"Erm, what's for dinner?" I ventured when I recalled that I had gobbled up the last morsel we had in our larder just the night before. That wasn't a good sign. With the supermarts closing early, there wouldn't be a chance for any grocery shopping. Then again, it meant eating out, which was always welcomed.

"Let's head for some Korean, shall we?" In fact, I had Korean Kitchen when I suggested that. "Sounds good. What about the Korean restaurant along Dean Street that KL recommended the last time round?" Wife suggested. Not being to recall the exact name of the restaurant, I did a search using my phone and  Gama is the only restaurant that turned up along Dean's Street.



Ironically, we stood outside Gama for quite some time and very nearly wanted to skip it when we reached there 30min later. Firstly, there was karaoke within the same premises and that reminded me of Arang's karaoke located in the basement, which was promptly turned into pseudo nightclub with scantily clad hostesses after dinner time. Also, besides a relatively scant Korean offering, Gama's menu also boosted complementary Japanese options as well.

But I must say that Gama's interior held more promise than its facade. Each table, which seated at least four, came equipped with a barbecue pit. With a comfortable mixture of slow numbers playing in the background and ever pleasant all Korean staff, Gama was turning out better than we expected.



Gama provided us some beansprouts sprinkled with sesame seeds and pickled seaweed as complementary  'services' (a term told to us by a Korean). However, I noted that each portion was prepared way beforehand and left on the serving counter but I guess it didn't matter that much since they weren't exactly fresh to begin with.



The ka pong gi (fried chicken in spicy sauce) - £6.80 was a tad mushy. However, the spicy sweet sauce that it was mixed into packed a punch. However, I wouldn't put in the same league as that served at Cah Chi. That said, I did cleaned up all the crunchy cucumber bits in the sauce.



We ordered the only pancake - £6.50 in the menu and that turned out to be the ever popular Korean seafood pancake. Gama's pancake, which could be thicker, turned out a bit over-burnt. I wasn't sure whether there was any 'seafood' in there but I thought I tasted some calamari bits in it.



That was only the second time in my life that I ordered bimbimbab - £6.50. Perhaps I needed to fill up my stomach fast and needed a sugar fix. Short of serving a salmonella infested egg, it was hard to get a bimbimbab wrong. Seriously. Gama's bimbimbab was of a good size and I was perfectly fine with its ingredients as well.



Gama was fast filling up when we left at around 7pm. Save for a comparatively surly looking gentleman who handed our bill, the Gama experience turned out quite fine. In fact, we would definitely return for its barbecue the next time round.

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Sweet Basil review - a family run Italian restaurant on the fringes of Spitalfields Market

Address: 65A Brushfield Street,
London E1 6AA
Tel: 020 7375 3484
Nearest Tube station: Liverpool Street

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £20 pp
Service charge: 12.5%
Taste: **
Service: ****
Ambience: ***
Suitable for: a relaxing dinner with pals
or a quiet meal for twoWe were still nursing our jetlag even after a week or so after our 13 hour direct flight from home and preparing dinner was the last thing on our minds. We were in the Spitalfields area when Wife had a craving for pasta. We spent some time strolling around the place, which was surprisingly quiet even for a weekday evening - we found out later that there was the Chelterham Race and St. Patrick's Day just round the corner so it might be due to that.

Those familiar with Spitalfields would agree that the area has got an interesting mix of eateries and restaurants. Brick Lane, which is a mere stone's throw away, has a huge variety of quirky fueling stops not to mention a host of Bangladeshi curry restaurants. Not only that, you have Hawksmoor (definitely one of the best steak place I've been to) and St. John's Bread and Wine along Commercial Road. And that's not counting the restaurants within Spitalfields Market itself.



In short, we were spoilt for choice. We had walked past Sweet Basil a couple of times before but didn't have the chance to try it so we decided to give it a go this time round.

There was a notice outside saying that the pizzeria is above the main restaurant so I popped my head into the restaurant and asked for the directions to the pizzeria. "Oh, we serve pizzas in the same place as well!" a staff beamed. Nice. Wife and I promptly stepped into the almost empty restaurant.

After visiting quite a number of eating places, I came to realise something - it's often not the food or ambience that matters but the service. More often than not, it's the service that will entice you back again and again. If anything, Sweet Basil's service was genuine and attentive if the food is half decent. Sweet Basil's website introduced the Italian restaurant as family run, perhaps that was why.

Truth to be told, we have had better pasta and pizza elsewhere (Tenore for example). The spaghetti gamberetti  (£13.75), with its shrimps and slightly spicy tomato base, was hardly inspiring. Unfortunately, I couldn't very well recall the name of the pizza I ordered but it came with a egg (sunny side up) on it with spinach strewn across the surface. Honestly, spinach doesn't go well with pizzas. Period. I should really have gone for some of the safer choices like margherita maybe.

Halfway through our meal, more customers streamed in. There was a group of around six, which came in with a toddler. They seemed to be regulars as the staff were exchanging warm pleasantries with them. The mother promptly handed her toddler over to the staff, who began carrying her around, gently tossing her to her delight as her family gathered around a long table.

At that moment, I felt as if we were having our dinner in a huge family dining hall instead of a proper restaurant (with nice ambience to boot) on the fringes of Spitalfields Market.

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Song Que review - a bustling Vietnamese eatery along London's Kingsland Road

Address: 134 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DY
Tel: 020 7613 3222
Nearest Tube station: Old Street

Ratings (out of 5 *)
Price: below £10 pp
Service charge: N/A
Taste: **
Service: **
Ambience: **
Suitable for: a quick chow with palsKingsland Road is probably the centre of Vietnamese cuisine in central London and numerous Vietnamese eateries and restaurants can be found along a stretch of less than a kilometre long north of Old Street's intersection with Kingsland Road.

We were first introduced to Kingsland Road by K when he brought us to Tay Do almost three years back. Though I was able to recall that the pho wasn't too bad, I didn't take much notice of it as it was before the days of London Chow. This time round, I offered to return the favour by bringing K to Cay Tre instead. Despite it being a weekday evening, Cay Tre, which is located a distance away from Kingsland Road is fast becoming popular and a reservation is strictly necessary. For some bizarre reason, the staff at Cay Tre claimed that they didn't receive my reservation (I was even asked to leave down my phone number during the reservation as a reference) and we were asked to wait for at least 40min.


Famished, we decided to trek to Song Que, which was wildly purported to be the best Vietnamese restaurant along Kingsland Road - in other words, probably the best in central London. We had high hopes for it while we trekked for a good half an hour along Old Street and then Kingsland Road, past all the rest of Vietnamese restaurants before reaching Song Que. For a moment, I actually thought that we were lost as Song Que was quite a far bit of distance away from the nearest Vietnamese restaurant.

The initial impression was promising - although its ambience wasn't exactly what I expect of a proper restaurant, it was packed and a queue was starting to build up. Because we didn't make a reservation, we were urshered to one side and the people who actually did call were quickly led to their allocated tables. Even so, we didn't have wait for long and were shown to our table soon enough.

To say that the whole place was bustling would be an understatement. At times, one would probably have to speak at the top of his voice just to hear himself. Dishes were literally flying out through an indiscreet door, which I could only assume led to the kitchen. An army of staff were running all over the place but the place was clearly understaffed and we had to wait for quite some time just to have the menu presented.

Even after that, we had to asked for the rice crackers that were given as a complimentary to all customers. "Didn't you have the crackers?" the staff questioned when we asked for them. He muttered something under his breath and went get us some.

We were pleasantly surprised once we did eventually get the menu. Compared to Cay Tre, Song Que's menu was way more extensive - there were more than twentry varieties of pho alone. Other than having a pho each, we ordered (Vietnamese) spring rolls, stewed fish in pot and prawns with ginger and spring onion.


My well done flank, tendon and tripe pho (£6.30) was easily one of the best pho that I had ever eaten. The tripe and tendon wasn't overdone and retained some of its rubbery texture. The soup base was thick and flavourful but not overpowering. The pho itself was smooth and firm at the same time; Cay Tre's pho, which a bit broader and flatter, paled in comparison.



We requested to have three spring rolls instead of the usual two spring roll per portion (there were three of us) and the staff was pretty obliging in that. The spring rolls, by themselves, were rather substantial with fresh ingredients and would make a nice snack if you were not too hungry.


The stewed (caramilized) fish in pot (£6.80) was a sea bream, we were told. I thought the fish slices were fresh, tender and tasted fantastic when it was hot. K and Wife think otherwise. K in particular thought that the one served at Tay Do was much better.



Prawns with ginger and spring onions (£6.80) was nothing to shout about I would say. Perhaps we should have ordered another dish but that looked (and tasted) like something being tossed in a wok and stir fried halfheartedly.

We left Song Que just over an hour later unimpressed, particularly when a staff took Wife's specs, which was lying on the table, away with a cheeky smile when he was clearing our table. It could be that we went there with too high an expectation. Then again, the queue outside Song Que was steadily building up when we were about to leave. Clearly, Song Que had its loyal patrons.

Read my review for my subsequent visit to Song Que. This time round I ordered the right dish.

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