Mainland China. 2.75/5.00

As MLA leaves for London on Sunday, we decided to grab dinner and catch up with news (gossip really.) He has this inexplicable love for Mainland China and no amount of cajoling (and offering to buy him dinner at Sichuan Court!) could change his mind. I’m no fan of Mainland China, from the uppity hostesses (do you have a reservation sir? No? Please wait till hell freezes over sir!) to the maitre d’ who believes you to be the prodigal-son-returned, I could go on...


Nonetheless, we sat and we ordered. I had a chicken and coriander thick soup that was tolerably edible, a Mongolian skewered lamb and Singapore chilli shrimps. The latter two were, in retrospect, the highlights of the meal. The lamb in particular was very good. Tender, not over cooked and the spicing was wonderful, primarily cracked black pepper. The shrimps weren’t too bad either, just a little lacking in imagination, with a little sesame oil and some peri peri they could have been memorable. As for the kimchi and the other nonsense on the table, they’re better off not serving it. The kimchi was horrid, it had been put to pickle a whole 30 minutes prior to their arrival on the table.

Our main course was a vegetable burnt garlic fried rice (horrid. The moment you say vegetarian it’s license for them to throw every known vegetable in. Corn? WTF? And where was the burnt garlic?), fish in Chinese parsley (damn. It tasted like methi fish, a naan would have accompanied it better than the rice.) and a tsing hoi chicken (once again, some dal makhani and a roomali roti would have been welcome.) I get Indian Chinese, I even like it but this Bhatinda Chinese is beyond me.

For dessert I was looking forward to the toffee walnuts with ice-cream but it wasn’t available (should have guessed by then!) last night and hence, we settled for date pancakes with ice-cream. They should have called it bastard-paper-dosa with anonymous-sickly-sweet-filling.

And then this insanity, a fsking sparkler. Happy Bur-Day to you too, can I get my sense of smell back now please? And my scarred retina?

The only reason I give it a 2.75 and not lower is because of the starters, which redeemed the meal. What is up with this place and why do people love it so? Try Silver Wok or Sichuan Court which are much better bets.