Restaurants

Gastronomic adventurers prick up your ears: ‘fragrant and spicy pig tail with shank’, ‘hot and numbing boiled fish’, ‘strange-flavour rabbit’. These are just three of many delights found at this yearling restaurant devoted to western Chinese cuisine. The premises, once the Victoria pub, are split into an attractive dining room at the front, bar to the side and a more functional eating area to the rear (with striking Cultural Revolution posters). The basement houses an art gallery. Staff are sweet, yet ill-versed in English. This, coupled with the esoteric menu, can lead to problems. Dishes tend to be oily and fiercely hot – and the menu’s chilli-rating system isn’t accurate. Boiled rice is an essential antidote, yet ours was overcooked and arrived late. Everything else was a treat: ‘fire-exploded kidney flowers’ (rubbery offal matched with resilient cloud-ear fungus); ‘drifting fragrant king prawns’ (dry-fried with copious peanuts, chillies and numbing Sichuan peppercorns); ‘white braised pork in hot and garlicky sauce’ (bacon-like strips in an intensely savoury sauce); and, above all, ‘fish-fragrant fried aubergine’ (the trademark Sichuan dish, perfectly prepared giving smoky, sweet and vinegary flavours and a luscious oily texture). We’ll be back.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009