Beijing starter’s gun fires blank
On Saturday evening I dined at the Beijing Noodle House (West Street) to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. So did I get an Olympic meal? Read on…
The menu featured many Chinese dishes, as expected, but also Japanese and South-East Asian items.
My starter was “mouth-watering” pork dumplings and I chose Indonesian Mee Goreng - deep-fried noodles with chicken and shrimps - for my main meal. To drink I ordered the Chinese beer Tsing Tao.
The pork dumplings were indeed “mouth-watering”. While my table companions were happily digging into their chicken satay, my mouth was salivating over the vacant spot on the table where my starter should have been.
My dumplings eventually did arrive - after my main course was delivered to the table. So I started on the Mee Goreng. Verdict? The noodles were like cardboard and quite bland, not spicy, as advertised on the menu. The chicken and prawns were alright. I was looking at my friend’s Singapore Laksa with envy; it looked divine. The dumplings were better, much better: hot and drippingly delicious.
The price came to a tenner, which was pretty fantastic. My overall impression is that the Beijing Noodle House is a good Hong Kong-style restaurant. The food won’t set your tastebuds alight, but the choice is good and you will have much cash left over for your assault on the town’s bars.
December 15th, 2005 at 6:14 pm
That place does some good vegetarian dishes - but watch out if you’re doing a takeaway via their collection service. They not speak good on phone, and I got wrong things.
(they made it up next time though)