Mandarin Kitchen, 14-16 Queensway (Bayswater), W2 3RX, London

A friend mentioned about a month ago that London is famous for its lobster noodle (read this) and since then, I've been hearing a lot about this little crustacean. Friends have taken friends to try lobster noodles across London, so how could I miss out on this opportunity to have MORE lobster noodle?

As we'd already tried the one at Pearl Liang, I decided to take my parents to try out the one at Mandarin Kitchen (supposedly one of the 2 best ones in London, with the other one being Pearl Liang. Don't ask me who made this list up, I don't know.)



Despite having eaten at Bayswater numerous times, I always tend to avoid the restaurants which are right outside the station. It's one of those things, isn't it. When the restaurant is right where the tourists are, they usually aren't made of much.

Which is why I've not really had the urge to try Mandarin Kitchen out. Plus, the decor reminded me of a disco in the seventies (from what I can tell based on Google images, anyway).



With some hesitation, we went into the restaurant, to be pleasantly surprised by how much light there was in there. Looking in from the outside, I expected yellowing fluorescent lights and brown furniture, but was greeted instead with quite a lot of sunlight, and brown furniture. Perhaps without the element of sunlight, it would have been yellowing fluorescent lights? You tell me.



We were led to a nice, cosy table for 4 by the window, which was tinted with some weird pictures of sea life - not sure if that was meant to encourage you to eat them, or stay off them, but whatever the case, we were here for Lobster noodle goodness.

The waitress (who started off being Disapproving Head Teacher, only to end the meal being Most Friendly and Nice Waitress) took our order. Aside from the obvious fact that a whole meal consisting of JUST lobster noodles would have meant baked beans for the rest of the month, we also wanted to give the other dishes a go, just in case this was a gem of a find.

So, we decided to order a lobster noodle portion for 4, as a starter almost, which consists of 1 lobster, and 3 noodles (£30). The waitress tried to tell us that this wouldn't be enough, but after some convincing (on our part, to her) that we intended to order more dishes, yes, and that we weren't going to just have starter portions of lobster noodles, she relented and allowed us to continue ordering the other dishes.

(I don't have the menu with me, and can't fully remember what the dishes were called, so I won't list the prices down but try to describe them from taste.)

Chilli oil

Lobster noodle (as a starter for 4, £30)

So, I guess the main question here is 'How does this compare to the one at Pearl Liang, seeing as they're usually taking the top 2 spots in the Lobster Noodle League?'

Well, the lobster here is just as fresh as the one from Pearl Liang, and both had chunky, crunchy, juicy lobster meat. The main differentiating factor between the 2, and what ultimately makes me say that Pearl Liang's version is better, was the texture of the noodles.



The noodles at Pearl Liang were cooked to perfection, maintaining a pleasing al-dante texture which lasted throughout the meal. Crunchy yet soft, delightfully springy, they went very well with the lobster and the sauce. The noodles here, on the other hand, were slightly overcooked, and because of that, became soggy.



Rather than forming the perfect accompaniment to the fresh lobster, the noodles here kinda brought it down with its slight soggy texture. A pity, really, as I wanted to impress my folks with this dish. Maybe it's a one-off, as I'm sure they can do better with noodles, since they did so well with the lobster.



Yeung Chow Fried Rice

Again, while being an OK example of a fried rice dish, it wasn't the best I've had. While it wasn't greasy (plus point), and there were a few shrimps in the dish, it didn't have much 'wok hei' (translated to mean wok power, don't laugh) to make it an outstanding dish.

Kailan with oyster sauce

The kailan was fresh, and you can see how vibrantly green it was. The stalks were thick, yet tender and juicy, while the leaves crunched a crisp, satisfying crunch when chewed on. One of the better dishes in the meal.



Stuffed seafood tofu in claypot

While this was a pleasant enough dish of smooth tofu, mixed with some seafood giving it a slightly rougher texture and sweet taste, I wasn't completely impressed by it.

To me, the dish lacked any oopmh and while it was served in the claypot, it didn't have the claypot sizzle like what I'd expect from a dish that was actually cooked (at least for a while) in the pot itself. Maybe it was cooked in the pot, I don't know, but to me, it seemed like it was cooked elsewhere and then poured into the pot for presentational purposes. Because of that, it kinda felt a little like it was lacking something.




Overall, I found the food here to be average, and unless I'm in the area, I'll probably stick with other tried and tested favourites for the tried and tested dishes.

Gold Mine (Bayswater), 102 Queensway London W2 3RR

Click here for the previous post on Gold Mine.

After what seemed like 3 weeks of not eating out, in fact, we had not eaten out for 3 weeks. It might have been the cold weather that made me go all hibernatey, or just the lack of motivation to search for new places to try. Whatever the case, we had a busy weekend last week.

Friday - met up with some friends and had dinner at Assa (blogged about here)
Saturday - had dinner at Gold Mine
Sunday - had lunch with some friends at Almeida in Islington (blogged about here)

Nothing like a bit of meal-listing to override the impression we have no social life.

Before I begin, there's always a bit of scene-setting to put things into context. I had a dodgy tummy that day, and despite only having a small bit of sushi for brunch and Ikea meatballs as a snack, I felt bloated the entire day and didn't feel like eating at all. Despite going to dinner quite late (by the time we sat down at the table, it was already about 8.30pm), I still felt full and so, the only thing I ate during the meal was the soup below.

Hot and sour soup (£3 from what I could make out on the bill)

It was one of the nicer hot and sour soups I've had, although the ones I usually have are from takeaways so not only are they bigger in portions, but possibly not as fresh as the ones from restaurants. Gold Mine's version of the soup was OK, nothing too impressive, though I reckon if I'd had it while it was still hot (ie when it was served to me instead of just letting it sit there) it might have been nicer.

Claypot Japanese tofu with minced pork in spicy sauce (about £8)

We'd had this dish before, but couldn't find it on the menu so we asked the waiter (who was really friendly) if he knew what it was. I described it as a Japanese tofu dish, and he immediately knew that I was referring to the one in the spicy sauce. Apparently this can be served either in a claypot or on a sizzling plate, and since we had our clothes to think about, we decided on claypot.

I have to give it to Gold Mine. They are nothing if not consistent. Everytime we've ordered this dish (or any of the other dishes we usually order) they've been almost exactly the same in terms of quality, taste and presentation. I don't know if they have only one chef doing the cooking, but if not, they've trained their chefs really well, and the dishes always, always manage to impress.

People tend to compare the roast duck from Gold Mine to the one from Four Seasons. The 2 restaurants are located a few shops from one another, and aside from the huge signboard showing the restaurant names, you could be forgiven for mistaking one for the other. They serve pretty much the same things (homecooked Cantonese style dishes), have queues going out the door most days, and are famous for their roast ducks.

We used to go to Four Seasons before being recommended to try out Gold Mine by our friends. Since then, we've been back to Four Seasons once, but in my opinion (which counts for nothing, by the way) I prefer the roast duck from Gold Mine to the one from Four Seasons. I also find the other dishes more suitable to my tastebuds here.

Golden sands prawn balls (about £12) Literal translations are so funny ...

If you wanna be all authentic and stuff, then ask the waiter for the 'Gum Sah Har Khau' and you SHOULD get this dish (unless you make a faux pax and say something else, which would be quite funny).

It's basically king prawns (juicy, crunchy and fresh) which have been shelled, and then deep-fried with some stuff which I've yet to find out what it is till today. Something like butter crumbs which look like strands of lovely tasting things. Yes, I do not know what it is, but if you like 'salt and pepper' anything, then you might like this.

Belacan kangkung (about £6) or morning glory stir-fried with prawn paste and chilli

Typically a dish found in Malaysian restaurants, the Chinese restaurants in London have begun serving this dish recently. Or recently to me anyway, because it never occurred to me before that I could even order it here. Because our friends and my fiance really like it, we've begun ordering this everytime we're at Gold Mine. My only complaint about this is that they serve up too many of the stalks and not the leafy bit of the vegetable. I don't reckon it's the restaurant doing this on purpose, because I've tried buying the vegetable from Chinese supermarkets and it's pretty much all stalks in the bag.

Despite that, they manage to keep the stalks tender and crunchy, maintaining the strong taste of the prawn paste while allowing the green flavour of the vegetable to come through.

Siew yuk (about £10) or Chinese roast pork

Because we usually order duck when we're here, we decided to throw caution to the wind (it was an adventurous day) and order the roast pork instead. It could also have been due to the fact that while waiting for the table (a good 20 minutes we waited), we saw many plates of roast pork go by and just couldn't resist.

I didn't try this dish because I just didn't feel like eating, but the fiance said it was crispy enough for his liking. Combined with the other dishes, however, the whole meal was quite salty, but then again, we didn't eat much rice, and Cantonese dishes are meant to be eaten with rice which is why they're stronger tasting and sometimes more salty than other type of Chinese cuisine.

Another consistently good meal at Gold Mine; reasonable prices, friendly waiting staff, and tried-and-tested dishes all make for an enjoyable dinner experience.

Bonda Cafe, 190 Sussex Gardens, Paddington, London, W2 1PU

Wasn’t feeling too well over the weekend, so when a friend suggested we go to Bonda’s Cafe, we said uh huh. Comfort food, from the lower ground floor of a Malaysian cafe. What more could you ask for?

Location-wise, pretty good. Just off Bayswater, and very easy to get to, although this restaurant is probably not as easy to spot as one might have liked. It’s underground, with a little sign outside it. Kinda like, if you’re not looking for it, you probably won’t find it.

The interior of the restaurant, though it looks nicer in reality. The bit which looked quite good had alot of people sitting there so I didn’t snap a picture of it. Mostly minimal-style tables and chairs, with a little container holding some utensils, and a hot counter where some dishes for the ‘mixed rice’ are kept.

Container with utensils.

The menu, which is short and sweet, and has nice pictures. Now, I must make special mention of the fact that the food served here actually looks like the pictures on the wall! Not many places do (one golden arch type place springs to the front).

Dessert menu typically the type you’d find in a Malaysian restaurant, where it’s put on the table, and printed on both sides. The selection is lovely though, lots of nice things to choose from, though we were too full with main courses to even consider ordering dessert.

Actually, that’s not true. I did consider ordering the glutinous rice thingee, but didn’t. Ordered more roti bakar instead (toast).

Roti bakar £2.50 (toasted bread – not just ANY bread – but really soft, fluffy, airy, lovely, bread with kaya, which is a coconuty jam, sounds awful but it’s not)

This was really soft, fluffy, airy, lovely, bread with kaya. Loved it. So much so that we ordered this the moment we sat down, while waiting for our friends to arrive, and then again at the end of the meal. When you really like something that much, there is nothing to say you can’t have it once before the meal, and once after. In fact, have it as the meal if you like.

Nasi campur dish … vague but I dunno what this is

At Bonda Cafe, you get a ‘nasi campur’ dish, which translates to ‘mixed dish rice’. Basically, you go to the hot dish counter and the guy there takes out a plate, and asks if you want rice. You then pick a number of dishes, and depending on how many meat and vegetable dishes you select, the price ranges from something like £3.50 to £4.50 (ie. either 2 meat + 1 vegetable, or 3 meat + 1 vegetable).

This looks like some sort of a dried fried fish thing, don’t you agree?

Won’t explain the same thing again, but here’s another dish. Looks like fish again. Sweet and sour maybe, your guess is as good as mine. Didn’t try this, so don’t know.

More fish? Chicken?

Potatoes of some sort. Oh, actually, this looks like tempeh, which is a fermented bean-based dish, which doesn’t taste of much so it’s usually eaten with something else.

The piece of fried chicken then ended up on my plate. I know, it looks really hard, tough and dry, but it was actually very moist. Didn’t want this piece, but the guy put it on my plate so I didn’t want to ask him to change it.

Some squid in curry sauce on the right, and that chicken on the left. Presentation could have been improved, but it tasted nice, which is all that matters when it comes to food really. The vegetables kinda were put on the plate without me having to ask for it, so that was probably one of those ‘default’ vegetables you get with mixed rice of this sort.

Some other unknown meat, tasted nice. This post is going well, isn’t it.

Oh finally, something I know. This is a piece of chicken, with some cabbage on the right of it. The chicken is cooked in curry, thus it is curry chicken. We asked for the curry gravy to be poured on top of the rice, and you can do that even without getting the chicken (so it’s free), but we got the chicken also.

Lamb curry, which tasted alot nicer than it looks. The pieces were tender, and quite lamby, with a more coconuty version of the curry than the one in which the chicken was cooked.

Kuih £0.60 each

Kuih means cakes, or something along those lines. Pieces of sweet, cake-like things made from rice flour (usually anyway), flavoured with pandan leaves and then either steamed or baked. The consistency of these kuih are slightly chewy, but also quite dense to the bite, so it’s one of those things where you either like it or not.

The tapioca version of the kuih.

The one with the green and white bits is known as the ‘seri muka’, and the bottom layer is made with glutinous rice, while the top layer is made with some rice flour mixture and flavoured with pandan leaves. Nice, chewy and soft, one of the nicer kuihs.

So, overall, we had a really enjoyable meal at Bonda Cafe. It was leisurely, the waiting staff didn’t hurry us through our meal unlike alot of other restaurants, and even though we spent quite a while waiting for our friends, they were very nice to us, and attentive in terms of service. The food was good, the waiting staff friendly, and overall the atmosphere in there made us feel comfortable enough to sit in there for hours without feeling like we HAD to order lots of food (though we did, but that was mainly out of hunger).

Would I recommend this place? Indeed!

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Gold Mine, 102 Queensway, London, W2 3RR, Bayswater

We used to love the roast duck from Four Seasons, at Bayswater. Recently though, the roast duck hasn’t been that great, with soft chewy skin instead of a crispy, sweet skin with a slightly BBQ-ed taste. The quality of the meat also doesn’t seem as good as it previously was.

Then, a few of our friends told us to try out Gold Mine which is a few doors down from Four Seasons. Having peered in a few times, not seeing too many customers, we were slightly hesitant to try it out, but when more and more friends began to say that they were gonna have a go, we said why not.

On first impressions, the interior of Gold Mine is almost similar to that of Four Seasons, in that it’s not quite an upmarket Chinese restaurant, but not quite a cafe-style one either. It’s kinda in between, though the waiting staff at Gold Mine are almost on-another-scale-level friendlier than the ones at Four Seasons.

Space-wise, if you found Four Seasons a tad tight, you won’t find much more space in here either.

The menu is similar, which doesn’t say much as most of the menus from the restaurants down this stretch of street are almost exactly the same. We ordered the usual stuff that we usually order at most Chinese restaurants, first of all to ensure that we’re comparing like for like, but mostly because we know what we like and we just couldn’t be bothered to try out anything new.

So, the reason for coming here.

Roast duck, £19 for a whole duck

‘Want it de-boned?’ asks the waitress.

‘No, thanks’ we reply, almost incredulous that someone could actually contemplate deboning a roast duck. I mean, isn’t that the best bit, where you get to nibble at the bits of sweet meat by the bones?

So, how was this compared to the one at Four Seasons? Well, if I was comparing it to the Four Seasons from before (perhaps more than 12 months ago), it was similar, both were just as nice. If I were to compare it to the Four Seasons that we’ve had recently, I’d say Gold Mine wins, without a duck, I mean, doubt.

The skin here is crispy, it’s sweet with the marinade and the sauce, and the sauce is amazingly tasty. Our duck was meaty, so much so that the five of us couldn’t finish one duck (leftovers, come on over).

Braised aubergine with minced pork in hotpot £8.50

This is another dish that we order when we’re at Chinese restaurants. The one here was average, not better but also not worse than others we’ve tried. Aubergine was braised really well, resulting in soft, gooey pieces of aubergine with a comforting, meaty sauce.

Deep fried chilli and salt squid £8.50

Being a connoisseur in deep fried squid, I know a good squid when I see one. I love squid in all forms, mainly in the sushi form, but when pushed, I don’t mind it deep fried, baked, friend, sautéed, stir-fried, boiled, steamed, stewed, raw, whatever.

The batter here was slightly thicker than usual, resulting in a powdery texture to the squid. Squid was cut perfectly to size, just thick enough not to be chewy, but thick enough to be just chewy, if you get what I mean. Probably not, but hey.

Stir-fried kangkung in belacan £8

Known as morning glory, this is a leafy vegetable with a tubular hollow stalk. I used to be under the impression that this was typically a Malaysian dish, but recently, I’ve been seeing this featured more and more on the menus in London restaurants, so either it has increased in popularity here, or it’s always been available but I’ve only just begun to take notice of it here.

The version here was perhaps one of the nicest I’ve had in London. Just salty enough, with a delicate fishy taste from the fermented prawn paste, and with just enough sweetness to balance out the vegetable, which doesn’t taste of anything on its own.

Would I recommend this restaurant? I would, and we’ll be going here now instead of the previous favourite a few doors down, just because the food is as good, if not better, the waiting staff are friendlier, and you don’t have to wait half an hour or more for a table.

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Eating in (not something I’d cooked earlier) – April 09

Having stood outside the ship windows of Cinnabon many times, sometimes with the bf, sometimes without, but each time with hungry looks, the bf decided to just buy me a bun and stop the silliness once and for all.

As he’s said many times before that he didn’t like cinnamon, I gleefully thought to myself that this bun would be ALL MINE. Thing is, the food is always nicer on the other side, so he can’t help but takes bites of my food, which is when he discovered that he actually does like cinnamon now.

Half the bun for me.

To redeem himself after eating half of the cinnabun meant for me, he also bought half a roast duck from the bril Four Seasons in Bayswater. Once when we were queueing up, waiting for a table (no wait, no table) we heard the waitress-boss say to someone that if he wanted to have more duck gravy in his takeaway, that he should bring along a bottle or container as the restaurant could only give the gravy in small little polystyrene cups.

All along, we had been under the impression that the restaurant was so miserly in their gravy portions because it was a precious commodity (quite like Jimmy Shoes choos, only, free). (Haha)

This time, the bf was well ahead of the game, and brought along his empty M&S water bottle to the restaurant. We had enough gravy for the duck, the dinner the next day, and a stir fry.

Sometimes, when you buy a takeaway, the quality of the food decreases compared to when you’re having it at a restaurant. Some might even say that there is a correlation to this decrease, ie the longer the time between the purchase and the eating, the lower the quality.

This is not the case with the roast duck from Four Seasons. Warmed up in the microwave before eating, this was just as nice as the real thing in the restaurant. With some gravy on hot rice, this made a fantastically enjoyable, delicious dinner.

Nando’s chicken (one) for £10.50 – consumed almost entirely by the bf. Despite what you might think, it doesn’t take that much time, or effort, to consume one chicken by yourself. All it takes is a little bit of perseverance, a large plate and lots of peri-peri sauce.

Me: ‘Is there a limit to the amount of sauce we can have for the takeaway chicken?’
Lady at counter: ‘No.’

10 minutes later, we’re three tubs full. The more the perri-er.

Pickled Chinese vegetable and French bean omelette. One of my favourite dishes, easy to cook and so nice to have. Usually I don’t have the picked vegetable in it, but since I had some to hand, I chucked it in. If you’re looking at this in disgust, don’t. Try it once and you’ll scoff no more. Something about French beans being stir-fried slightly, and cooked with egg that makes it really tasty.

This is what we call ‘oven food’. This is a piece of chicken with some sort of tomato flavoured paste on top of it, purchased from Sainsbury’s as part of a ‘2 can dine for £5’ promotion. The mash potato that came with it was really creamy and smooth, perhaps too creamy to be nutritional. For £2.50 a person, the chicken was actually quite good, and is something I’d consider having again when I don’t to cook.

Last Friday, when we felt like having nibbles for dinner, we went to Marks and Spencer and bought some of their 3-for-2 nibbles. Sausage rolls, meatballs and mini snack eggs (sausage meat with egg filling) came in one pack, the mini Melton Mowbray pork pies came in another.

This is what a mini Melton Mowbray pork pie looks like. See that bit of jelly that holds the meat and pastry together? That is why you DON’T heat up the pies, as I did. When I lifted the pie and had a bite, the jelly came sloshing out of the pie.

We also bought 2 portions of deep fried salt and pepper squid from Tai Won Mein (a noodle house selling very cheap food), some ready-cooked prawns from Marks and Spencer, and hummous to be eaten with … prawn crackers. Fusion food.

Having read this, you might conclude that I don’t cook much, if at all. That’s not entirely true, as when I cook, it’s usually something really easy to make, and doesn’t look that great (or edible). I do cook though, I just don’t blog about it much.