In the unlikely region of Elephant and Castle is a recommended Chinese restaurant, making two Chinese meals in two days for me. This one is the request of my daughter for her birthday outing. A bit of research on the Internet shows varying opinions, from universally liked in 2010 to some discontent in 2011. Anyway it is not my choice. In a somewhat unprepossessing position on Walworth Road, opposite a block of council flats, is the entrance.
You don't get in through the dragons, and its actually the door on the right. Once inside, it is more confidence inspiring, and there is a big hall with about 120-150 diners. It is not the panic crowd that I found some time ago at the Peninsula (now closed down due to health breaches, and resurrected under a different name), and if you cold called at Sunday lunchtime, you might get a table, but possibly not for a group. There was a small queue for tables. We were 6 and were taken to an area with bigger tables with lazy Susans. Just what you expect. It was also comforting to see as many Asian faces as I did. I hoped that all the people had not been fooled.
The object of the day is Dim Sum. There is a dedicated dim sum list and as I knew no better, I just left it to my daughter to order.
I can't give you a good description of what we had, as I don't know what a lot of it was. There were many dumplings, cake like things and things rolled in wide noodle. I think I had prawn, scallop and crab. There is also an a-la-carte menu, and we ordered some chicken in chilli, and some seafood Ho Fun with scrambled egg sauce.The service was patchy and things turned up in slow succession building a table full. Some reviews recently had commented on the greasiness of the food, but I failed to register this. The food was a mixture of strong and delicate tastes, a variety of textures, and we had a huge variety between us - about 11 dishes. We had one failure that no one wanted to eat, and that was the chicken feet with pickled vegetables. That was certainly not my choice. By the way, Baby had his lunch separately as his parents think he is not yet ready for MSG.
Whether or not you think the chicken feet look yummy is a matter of taste, but suffice it to say, there was too much skin and slippery stuff for my taste. We wont be ordering that again.
The place is popular for Sunday lunch, and again it is child friendly, but there would be a bit of work finding lunch for a little one if they were not used to Chinese food. The a la carte is a little pricey. However the Dim Sum seemed reasonable, many costing under £3. We had lunch for 6 including two beers, tea, and a few diet cokes for £93 without service. Service was patchy.
As to the hotness of the food, it was a complete mix with some of the dishes scoring a 9 and some a 6 on the CHOF scale. There was no means of keeping things warm, and in a well air conditioned room, the food became lukewarm all too quickly, but there is nothing you can do about that. I would certainly be interested in trying a meal of the menu some time. So if you like Chinese, I would give this a whirl for an off the tourist route establishment.
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