Regional Chinese

Since I came back from China, there has been a proliferation of more regional Chinese restaurants popping up in London. It all started with the uber-trendy and pricey Bar Shu, specialising in Sichuan spiciness, but since then, lots of more affordable places have appeared around Chinatown and Soho. I'm assuming that the target market for these eateries is the growing non-Cantonese Chinese population, so I was hoping for some authentic experiences. In actual fact, Time Out etc. have all cottoned on to these places and have been raving about them.

Leong's Legend (梁山好漢) has a terrible English name, and is tucked away on Macclesfield Street opposite my favourite Chinese cake shop. The idea behind it is to recreate a Taiwanese teashop, and the last time I came 6 weeks ago for dinner, there was an enormous queue outside, with mainly Taiwanese sounding clientele. I've never made it to Taiwan, so can't really comment on the authenticity, but unlike most places in Chinatown, some thought has been put into the decor, which includes dark wooden tables and benches and plastic fighting swords along the stairs.

I need to come here a few more times to really test the menu, as it is pretty long with lots of dishes you don't normally find in London, including pig trotter noodles and bamboo rice. Dave and I came here specifically looking for congee with dough stick and xiaolongbao, and I think this may be one of the few places that serves them all!

The congee (lean pork with preserved egg) was fine, but they didn't bring the dough stick until it was getting quite cold!:

The xiaolongbao are what this place is famous for, and there are two versions, the standard (£5 for 8) or with crab (£6 for 8). They are very very juicy, but I do feel the skins were still a little on the thick side:

We also ordered some wontons in chilli oil (紅油抄手) - the wontons were definitely bought in I think, hard as rocks:

We also ordered some interesting sounding sea bass cheung fun, which was ultimately a mistake. Obviously a vehicle for them to use up off-cuts which were not very fresh:

Overall, the food is a bit hit and miss, but I think I need to come back for their more noodley dishes.

The other place that has been hyped to death recently is Baozi Inn (人民公社), right near where the pagoda used to be. The Chinese name literally translates as 'the people's commune', and it is hilariously decorated with Communist era newspapers and slogans everywhere, with plastic sweetcorn and chillis hanging. I'm not sure whether it is ironic or not.

The English name, on the other hand, suggests they specialise in the humble baizi bun, and they are very good value at £1.50 each with a variety of fillings. But I was more interested again in the noodley dishes. The menu reads like a combination of Beijing and Sichuan street food, and I was here especially to try my forever sought-after dan dan mein (擔擔麵). At £4.80 for a big bowl, it is much better value than Bar Shu:

However, I can't say the quality is all that. The noodles as you can almost see from the picture were really soft and overcooked, although the sauce was not bad, if not quite spicy enough.

I'd actually gone for the lunch set menu at £8.50, and I was more impressed with the sides that came with my noodles:

The cucumber salad was very nice - mixed with a good dose of chilli and Sichuan peppers, it had the ma-la that I was craving from the noodles. The soup was dragon's wontons, and probably the best thing about the place. They were very much like the ones I had in Dali, with little prawns floating in the soup, and the wonton tasted very homemade.

And both of these meals washed down with the prerequisite soy milk. Leong's Legend clearly wins on this one - thick, flavourful, in a big pint glass, versus the version at Baozi Inn which is served with ice and very watered down.

The last word on authenticity or not. I thought both of these places would be good for me to practice my Mandarin, but the staff at Baozi Inn all shout at each other in Canto. Hmmm.