Tasting Britain was invited down to try out the Royal China restaurant (not the club) on Baker Street. As their flagship restaurant, I think we had some pretty high expectations, and on the whole – those expectations were met. The Chinese are pretty good at ‘being affluent’, and also building places that convey affluence. Hell, they’ve been doing it for thousands of years.
Of course, The Royal China group aren’t THAT old (nor are they associated with any of the imperial dynasties…). No, they apparently have grown from humble beginnings in 1996, where they made a name for themselves in Dim Sun. That’s as much info as I can find about them without digging too deeply. Maybe they’re secretive – or maybe I’m just being lazy. I dunno. They’ve done pretty well since then though – I think there’s 8 restaurants at this point, including one in Singapore.
So yeah, the Baker Street restaurant itself is real ‘flash’ – not quite at the ‘fine dining’ type level where your wallet starts screaming at you when you get within a few hundred meters of the place (legit phenomenon) but sure getting there. I guess prices are on the slightly high end, with a few very expensive offerings in both food and drink (rare and fine Paulliac wines, or dishes made with abalone, for example). But you don’t have to break if you don’t want to. you could do a dim sun lunch and be satisfied with the whole thing.
Anyway, I’m not a huge expert on the foods of China but this is some of the better stuff I’ve had. Tasting Britain’s cofounder Bryony rated most of it (and she definitely knows what she’s talking about). Stand out dishes (for me) include rice served in a palm leaf (I think it was a palm leaf, can’t find a bloody menu or anything). Plus the sweet and sour beef served in a ‘bird’s nest’ of fried noodles. Also when we want, most of the diners were Chinese – which is always a good sign if you’re going for Chinese…right?