The colourful New Year celebrations in the many Chinatowns around the world are an invaluable source of business to Chinese restaurateurs. And it is hugely encouraging to report that the quality and variety of the food and service in many Chinese restaurants around the UK are now better than ever before.
In London a great deal of this improvement has interestingly taken place outside the narrow confines of Chinatown, which branches out from Gerrard Street between Leicester Square and Shaftesbury Avenue. When Alan Yau chose to combine modern design with modern Chinese cooking first at Hakkasan and then Yauatcha, it was in new buildings. And when Shao Wei opened Bar Shu, which specialises in what can be fiery Sichuan food, it was on a corner site in Frith Street, formerly L’Epicure, one of London’s first French restaurants.
History is partly responsible for this development. When British Chinatowns first began to emerge, they were in areas where the Chinese took over property being vacated by longer established immigrants. Manchester’s thriving Chinatown is based around George Street in a series of buildings that were once textile warehouses run predominantly by Jews.
But if the physical layout of London’s Chinatown — a series of tall buildings housing small dining rooms linked by corridors and steep stairs with the kitchens in the basement — cannot be changed then a new wave of Chinese restaurateurs is bringing long overdue improvements to their interiors, their menus and, most excitingly, their ability to reflect the regionality of Chinese cooking.
The Baozi Inn occupies a small site surrounded by Chinese supermarkets and takes its name from the stuffed bun that is the ubiquitous snack of northern China. The black, lacquer interior, with old newspapers featuring Chairman Mao on the walls, is definitely atmospheric even if the tables and stools are utilitarian rather than comfortable. But the food is good. We began with the signature buns, filled with pork, eggs and radish, then moved on to some Chengdu crescent dumplings in a savoury broth, wontons in a chilli oil sauce and an excellent dish of sour and hot flower beancurd with brown rice vinegar, soy and peanuts.
Leong’s Legends occupies a site that for years served vast portions of roast duck and roast pork in a couple of rooms that were, to be blunt, less than salubrious. Now it has been transformed into a much classier joint where the waitresses wear Chinese tops and the subtle lighting creates a more sophisticated atmosphere.
The menu is heavily inspired by the cooking of Taiwan and includes stir-fried chicken with rice wine and an oyster omelette, but there are also excellent versions of stir-fried squid, spicy aubergine and garlic chive dumplings.
Finally, to Plum Valley on Gerrard Street, undoubtedly the plushest of the three restaurants (all of which cost upwards of a tenner for lunch), with deep banquette seating and clever lighting. The extensive menu offers excellent dim sum at lunchtime, including beef tripe with ginger for the adventurous, and a range of rice dishes cooked in a clay pot for two as an evening meal to be shared.
Food aside, Chinatown’s other great appeal is that it is very near London’s theatreland and the service is invariably swift.
Baozi Inn, 25 Newport Court, WC2, 020 287 6877
Leong’s Legends, 4 Macclesfield Street, W1, 020 7287 0288
Plum Valley, 20 Gerrard Street, W1, 020 7494 4366
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