Tanya: There’s a new Chinese in town… Chinatown to be exact. And after 40 years of trading, the closure of Jade Garden has made way for…. The Orient – who now live on this popular, tourist friendly strip of Wardour Street.
Rating
Cuisine
Chinese (mixed)
In A Word
Flashy
I’ve never been to The Orient, but I’ve been to The Orient…
The Orient is still very much in it’s start-up phase – being open for just over a month. With most new ventures come teething problems, and some were fairly apparent upon arrival.
While waiting for my plus one, I was seen quite too quickly and ordered some Chinese Tea, which came just as quickly. However the service was also carried out in the same manner and in my waiter’s haste to pour the tea, a little spilt and was not mopped up (before he rushed off to tend to another customer).
I was left baffled – the restaurant wasn’t exactly busy, and in my opinion didn’t require such urgency at the expense of decorum. The waiter didn’t have to be a skilled marksman exactly, but a few seconds longer would have allowed a more accurate pour, perhaps?
The Décor
Although the Orient’s manager [Ed: the lovely Kenny – also takes a mean photo!] doesn’t proclaim Orient to offer fine dining, there were a few touches that would suggest so… things not found among this particular strip of Wardour street.
For example, all their crockery is branded with the house logo, and the black chopsticks provide some sort of elegance, placed upon their paper chopstick rests. Ok, not so elegant, but also not fine dining remember, and the prices seem to reflect this too.
Price? Neither cheap or bank breaking; more middle of the road, which is typical for this neighbourhood. I must say the interior in comparison was a lot fresher and modern among the masses of ageing food premises. It consisted of a rich gold and black colour scheme. The only oddity was the EDM music playing in the background, making strange bedfellows of the ambience and décor.
The Food
The Gargantuan order
As my guest and I were feeling rather adventurous, we decided to order from the less traditional menu first, according to our waitress. This included the likes of Pig’s Trotters and Jellyfish, followed by a more familiar fare of Chili and Garlic Lobster and Garlic Prawns, as well as your ‘bog-standard’ Chinese Lamb Curry.
The Non-traditional
The smaller plates of Trotters and Jellyfish came first as expected and I was surprised that the Trotters didn’t actually look like a pair of pig’s feet on a plate, but rather small slices of beef with a slight layer of rind. All those with an aversion to feet need not worry.
The taste, however, was not to my liking, not necessarily because it was inedible, just not to my taste. It had, what I could only describe as, a slight iron-y meaty taste, but not to the extent of liver.
The same with the Jellyfish, it didn’t seem to soak up its marinade, but rather swim around in it, which provided a bit of a flavourless, yet oily, chewy crunch. I just couldn’t get my head around it, so left it to my companion to finish off whole heartedly. I sometimes refer to him as the ‘human garbage disposal’ [Ed: I heard that].
Again these are very traditional Chinese dishes, rather than your ‘run of the mill’ duck spring rolls, so I had no particular expectations and don’t feel I can judge it too harshly. Jack seemed to enjoy it.
The Main Courses
What I did have expectations for were the Lobster, Prawns and Lamb curry, which came in that order. The Lamb curry, being a very popular dish among westerners was very lack-lustre and definitely not the best I’ve had. It’s thick, glutinous sauce, wasn’t flavoursome or spicy as I expected.
In fact there was no spice, so in essence it was just a thick, bland sauce, and I felt the lamb was a strange meat to pair it with.
The Lobster on the other hand was a completely different story and my favourite part of the meal. It was superb. It came to the table deep fried and unrecognisable, but was an absolute delight to eat. The cracking of shell was at a minimum as its sweet and juicy flesh was easily forked out, rather than having to utilise one of the strange implements given to us.
When reaching my mouth, it provided a hit of heat, with the slight tingle of chilli salt mixed into the garlic crust.
To up the stakes you only had to add a few more dried chilies surrounding the lobster. This was all washed down with a lovely Austrian white wine, which complimented the seafood portion of the meal perfectly.
The Prawns arrived a little after, and each prawn seemed to taste different from the next, ranging either from quite sea salty to just ok. They were finished off in a slower fashion in comparison to the Lobster, which was fully devoured.
The Dessert
I felt to finish the meal off with a rather typical dessert of Banana Fritters and Syrup, which was how you would expect it to be – if familiar with such a dessert. So nothing really to report there. From having his fill of all my rejected items – my companion decided to skip on dessert.
Alcohol
What made the evening a lot more pleasurable was the attentiveness shown to us by, our unofficial yet official host, Kenny. He let us sample Mao Tai, an expensive, premium Chinese spirit that left me reeling after one shot. The Chinese must be made of much stronger stuff, as we were informed that this would typically be drunk throughout an evening or night in fact. [Ed: do you even lift]
…And on that note
Hopefully some of the Orient’s small oversights can be overlooked, as it still is fairly new. As a whole, the Orient didn’t perform too badly.
Also with the future prospect of its fine dining and karaoke rooms, this could all appeal to a new market on the Wardour strip. For those who’ve not been, this area is a flurry full of entertainment and food hungry tourists, and could provide the Orient with the blueprint it needs for future planned expansion into other major UK city centres.
However, I do feel that the Orient is biting off more than it can chew right now, and I just hope that, with all these plans in the pipeline, it doesn’t lose sight of the smaller details – which will provide staying power in the already crowded market place that is Chinatown.
Maybe the Orient can enjoy the same success as it’s predecessor. Heck, there could be an Orient coming to a city centre near you one day…
The Details
020 7989 8880
orientlondon.com
info@orientlondon.com
15 Wardour Street, London W1D 6PH