A fairly famous name among the London Chinese community and Chinese cuisine lovers, but little known to many of us outsiders. This opulent restaurant brings together well known dishes and showstoppers into one (rather extensive) menu.
Suitable for: large family gatherings, date nights
In one word: opulent
Rating:
The venue
Located along the infamous Baker Street, from the outside it looks unsuspecting and a little on the small side, but once you enter the lion guarded doors the full splendor of the restaurant is unveiled and it’s huge! With a mural running down one wall, grand tables, beautifully crafted seat covers and a scattering of traditional Chinese icons scattered through the restaurant, it does well to live up to its ‘royal’ status. But all in all it’s pretty homely and inviting.
On arrival
We were seated round the corner in the rear part of the restaurant, which started out as the quiet part, but soon became as bustling and busy as the other areas. There was a dish of peanuts and some kind of pickled, spiced cabbage awaiting us, which was nice, but I dearly missed my prawn crackers!
The starters
We started out with the mixed starter in order to get an overview of what’s on offer. This included [Note the menu said it included squid and butterfly prawns but we were given the pork chop and prawn toast instead]:
Spring rolls – two medium sized Vietnamese style rolls. They had a great, crispy texture, avoiding the greasy, soggy texture that often occurs with these treats. They do have quite. Strong fishy taste though, so don’t order if you aren’t aren’t fish fan.
Baked Pork Chop with Mandarin Sauce – beautifully soft pork bathed in a sweet and sticky, fruity sauce.
Smoked Chicken – this was a little on the dry side and while it had the traditional smoked flavour, lacked done of the sweetness and crunch I’ve enjoyed from smoked chicken elsewhere.
Prawn Toast – this was great. While it’s not often prawn toast is bad, really good prawn toast is fairly rare. The prawn topping was meaty and rich instead of the minced and mushy texture of many.
Seaweed – not much you can say as this is pretty standard, but it did seem much more finely shredded which made it easier to eat (harder on the chopsticks).
Sauces – there was a vinegar based dip, similar to those served with dumplings and a thicker, chilli based one. But for someone who is very much about the condiments, I was a little disappointed not to get some sweet chilli or even sweet and sour (probably sounds very English of me).
We then rounded this off with some chicken satay – 4 sticks of meaty goodness. They seemed thinner sliced than usual, but this had allowed them to crisp more on the outside while staying moist in the middle. The sauce was very oily, which was probably made more obvious by the fact it’s served separately but had some lovely spicing to it.
The duck
I have to say that this was the best shredded duck I’ve had to date! It was full of flavour, beautifully seasoned and really moist. The server brings it to the table and presents it as a whole but then asks whether you’d like them to shed it – if yes, then it’s whisked off to a sideboard and expertly shredded and de-boned. There are plenty of pancakes, veggies and sauce, which is often an issue in other places. If anything there’s slightly too much of these and not enough duck to match.
The mains
Royal China Lotus Leaf Rice – the presentation of this is phenomenal, a huge leaf parcel, bursting at the seams with fried rice – there’s enough in there to go around 3 or 4 people if you’re just having some as an accompaniment. The overall flavour is a bit fishy, which seems like more than just the prawn flavour – so not sure if some fish stock is added? The duck is certainly drowned by the other flavours, but it’s delicious nonetheless.
Boiled rice – we also ordered this as we thought we may need to bulk out the meal but little did we know how big the portions were and that there was no need. It was your standard slightly sticky white rice, but was nice to have alongside the meat dishes as it didn’t down the flavours like the Lotus rice did a bit.
Sauté prawns with red chilli sauce “Szechuan style” – really succulent, meaty prawns – great quality! The dish isn’t spicy on first taste but certainly warm the throat after eating. Not for the faint hearted. There was a generous portion too.
Shaolin Monks Vegetables in Clay Pot – I live vegetable dishes at a Chinese, they are always full or really different produce and flavoured in a subtle, yet delicious way. The clay pot was rather strange and looked like it should have had a candle underneath but didn’t. The contents were exciting though: crunchy carrot, celery, pak choi, Chinese mushrooms, baby corn, sugar snap peas, broccoli and glass noodles. All in a slightly garlicky broth – which meant it stayed very hot for a long time!
Lemon chicken – this has the same syrupy look and texture as always but I found the batter coating on the meat to be much crunchier (not soggy) and the sauce to be much sharper (not sugary). So even the non-sweet-tooth Jack found the dish to be very pleasant. Again it was a huge portion.
Shredded Chilli Beef in Bird’s Nest – this was a bit of a twist on the common chilli beef dish. Firstly, while the meat was still very crispy, it remained a little more moist than this dish often is. Then there was the present – a deep-fried ‘bird’s nest’ made from noodles – a crispy and crunchy delight, but would have loved something to dip it in.
The service
The service was slightly slow at points when the restaurant was in full swing but the waiting staff were generally a delight. The food is brought to the table on a tray by one (less happy) server and dished up by another. They will even dish up items like your rice to make your life easier. There were fresh plates at every course and lemon wipes after the duck to clean up with.
Value for money
I can’t lie, compared to my local Chinese restaurant this place was expensive and some of the more adventurous dishes came with price tags to match, which we steered clear of with our limited budget. The quality of the food, however, is generally above and beyond that of a local and so are the ingredients. All in all it’s Andrew great place to go for a more luxury Chinese meal, perhaps perhaps a family party, an anniversary or even Chinese New Year.
Contact info
Location: 24-26 Baker Street, London, W1U 3BZ
Tel: +44 207 487 4688
Email: info@royalchinagroup.co.uk
Web: http://rcguk.co.uk/rcbs.html
