Restaurants

Dim sum originates in Hong Kong

New wave of Chinese food in London
Time Out's Charmaine Mok charts the rise of cool looks and hot food in London’s Chinese restaurants

I grew up in Hong Kong feasting on Cantonese food. So when I first moved to the UK in 2004, I braced myself for mediocrity. One of my first memories of Chinese food in London was a budget restaurant in Chinatown. I ended up there because my mother – in a blur of tourist guidebooks and cameras – insisted we go to experience the notoriously bad service.

What had led us to eat at Wong Kei was a curious entry in her well-thumbed Cantonese guide to London. ‘They do great wonton mein,’ my mother quoted, ‘but it’s the authentically rude waiters that make the visit truly memorable!’
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Over the next three years, I found that bad restaurants in Chinatown seemed to outnumber good ones. My insatiable appetite quickly grew bored of their substandard offerings, where dumplings were as small as their prices were big. I no longer prowled Lisle, Gerrard or Wardour Street. I was disillusioned, and turned to Italian and Japanese food for solace.

Hakkasan was the first of the new-wave Chinese restaurants

Poor service and mediocre food weren’t the only problems I found. Claims of MSG-induced headaches, hidden tea charges and indecipherably scribbled (and sometimes inaccurate) bills were all disincentives to eating out in Chinatown. I felt ashamed whenever someone spat out that they ‘hated’ Chinese food. But who could blame them? All they’d ever known was fluorescent orange spare ribs and ‘special’ egg fried rice from what we Chinese call the ‘gweilo’ (white man) menu.

But the past few years have seen a distinct revival of Chinese gastronomy in London – new and exciting ventures, a rise in the standard of cooking, improved restaurant design, and better service. From top-quality food in sophisticated surroundings to attentive and friendly staff who know their sichuan peppercorns from their five-spice, London’s Chinese restaurants are moving away from the dreadful pre-1990s chop suey era.

It all started with restaurateur Alan Yau (creator of the first Wagamama), who set a new standard for ‘going out for a Chinese’. His launch of Hakkasan in 2001 (and then Yauatcha in 2004) was a radical departure from the eateries of Chinatown. ‘One of the biggest misconceptions about Chinese food has been that it should always be cheap, and never a part of the fine dining scene,’ says Yau. ‘No one really imagined that Chinese food could be sophisticated, not in the way that they view Japanese food and places like Nobu.’ With all the glamour and sophistication of a Wong Kar-Wai film, Hakkasan showed London that Chinese dining could be sexy and fashionable.

Good design is now as common as crispy duck

But Hakkasan is more than just show, there’s substance in the kitchen, too. Chef Tong Chee Hwee’s modern interpretations of traditional dim sum are legendary, but so too are his creations such as ‘monk jumps over the wall’ (a decadent double-boiled soup with abalone, superior shark’s fin, dried scallop, sea cucumber and shiitake). And why go for an ordinary pork shumai when you can sample Tong’s version, made with lychee?

To purists, sweet-and-sour pork made with pomegranate can seem appallingly pretentious, but for Yau, who works closely with his restaurants’ chefs on the menu, it’s a matter of elevating the dish to another level. ‘I’m not trying to bastardise Chinese food – I think what I do is neither traditional nor fusion, but progressive,’ he says. ‘Wanting to improve or refine a traditional dish is not necessarily about changing the taste of the product or the recipe itself,’ he asserts. ‘I’m talking about using better ingredients.’

Now Yau is set on reinventing the Hong Kong noodle shop, with a new venture named Cha Cha Moon due to open in April 2008. Again, the focus is on refinement. ‘What I’ve never been able to find in London is really delicious white soup stock,’ Yau laments. The amount of labour required to produce this superior consommé means that not many chefs include it on their menu.

Chillies are a signature spice of Sichuan food

At the same time, other restaurants such as Pearl Liang, Haozhan and Royal China are continuing to forge a more positive image of Chinese food. ‘The Royal China Group have really helped to raise the standard of Chinese cuisine in London,’ says Yau. ‘I’ve been to what are supposedly the best two Chinese restaurants in Toronto, and they cannot compare to Royal China. And New York, LA? Forget it.’ It seems ironic that many would have said the same thing about London restaurants ten years ago.

Now that it’s clear that the capital’s Chinese restaurants can do good food, good ambience and good service (oh, to have your dim sum and eat it, too), chefs are becoming more confident about introducing Londoners to China’s many famous regional cuisines. The current popularity of Sichuanese restaurants is a testament to the shift away from tried-and-tested Cantonese cooking.

Until recently, Sichuanese food has been limited to the pared down, not-too-hot-please varieties found in the few Chinese restaurants offering it. This changed with the arrival in Soho of Bar Shu, hailed as London’s first major venture in this hot-and-lip-numbingly-spicy cuisine. With a team of six top chefs and Sichuan food expert Fuchsia Dunlop as consultant, Bar Shu has revolutionised Chinese dining in London with its fiery flavours and authentic dishes. But are Londoners ready for the heat? ‘Heat and spice are not a problem for the British,’ says Dunlop. ‘The bigger hurdle is getting them to accept and enjoy new textures, like rubberiness.’

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