[Review] China Garden

My experience at China Garden two years ago was not good but the experience this time was good.
As this restaurant has been serving food for the past 30 years, it is possible I may have been as a kid.
Anyway, the reason I didn't like it two years ago was that the dimsum was so oily and the quality was like the bad stuff in Hong Kong.

So on this visit, I didn't have any expectations but in general, the Chinese food in UK is much better than Hong Kong.

Moving on to the dimsum, the taro puffs, rice rolls, Singapore rice noodles and egg tarts were impressive.

To begin, the taro puffs were fried to perfection and gave a clean bite.

It was made nicely with distinct taro coating with juicy mince meat in gravy inside the taro puff.

The cup cake wrapper holding the taro puff did not have a drop of oil hence which was a good sign.

Next were the rice rolls, again perfect uniformly opaque sheets with prawn underneath drenched in delicious sweet soy sauce.

The Singapore rice noodles were delicious even though it was lacking colour and it was not too spicy crammed with fresh ingredients like pieces of charsiu etc

Finished with the Eggtarts which had a uniform pastry that was firm yet flakey.
The filling in the middle was delicious.

The only complaint was one of the waitresses that made me feel like Hong Kong, every time she collected the plates she would push me and the person sitting next to me aside.

Anyway, I will probably be back if the gang are back.

China Garden
88-91 Preston St, Brighton

[Review] Croydon Miso Noodle Bar

There are four branches of Miso Noodle Bar in UK..
As I was in Croydon, I decided to try Miso Noodle Bar which serves noodles in various styles
The menu had a lot of variety so it was really hard to choose.
Both the Wok Fried Noodles and Sauce based noodles were captivating.

In the end got the number 41. [CHICKEN IN CHILLI AND ORIENTAL BLACK BEAN SAUCE
- Soba noodles, stir fried chicken breast, red and green peppers, garlic and fresh chilli]

When it came, I was surprised how big the portion was.

The noodles had a lovely aromatic black bean smell so it was appetizing.

As expected, the noodles were tossed in lots of sauce topped with generous pieces of tender chicken breast meat.

However, the soba noodles looked a little different to the usual Japanese soba but it was all good.

Will be back to try the other noodles.

Croydon Miso Noodle Bar:

Suffolk House, Unit 11-12, George St, Croydon CR0 1PE

[Review] Berto Pasta

Went here with a friend who wanted to try Berto Pasta which is a new restaurant that opened in the third quarter of 2019.
It was a nice restaurant with an open kitchen, table seating and bar seats around the kitchen so you can watch the chefs cook.

We got a nice table on the side as we got there pretty early before it got busy.

Interestingly, as a fairly new restaurant, the cup was cracked.

As for the glass, there was a small piece of dried red pepper or chili stuck to it.

Looking at the menu, it was impressive as there was a good range, everything was very different so there was a good variety yet difficult to choose in a good way.

On the corner of the menu, I liked the way they illustrated the different types of pastas.

Although the dishes were different, I thought that dishes had to be chosen with thought as some of the ingredients were repeated in the appetizer and mains like the sardines and buffalo ricotta so if you had ordered the appetizer then you might not want to order the mains that contain that.

The sequence of the pasta dishes were important if you are sharing.
It was good that we had the stronger tasting pasta dish last as it really stole the show.

For appetizers, we ordered Fritti Sardines, Buffalo Ricotta with chestnut honey and mint and for the mains it was the Tagliatelle with rabbit white ragu, capers & black paesane olives.
Now this is where the appetizers affected the choice of our other mains, having ordered the sardines meant that if I ordered the strozzapreti as a main then the sardines would be repeated.
My friend really wanted the ravioli but it had buffalo ricotta which we ordered for appetizers.
In the end we settled for the gnocchi which worked out well for both of us as we love gnocchi.

Starters were fab, the sardines were fried to perfection with a light coating and the ricotta was creamy and velvety.

Next was the rabbit ragu tagliatelle which was delicious because each strand was al-dente and you can taste that it is freshly made pasta as they claim.

Finished with the gnocchi with nduja and melted stracciatella.
This totally stole the show and it was fortunate that we ordered this last as it had the strongest flavour in the sense that it was spicy with a salty kick from my favourite Italian nduja salami.
The creamy stracciatella helped to mellow the saltiness and spiciness of the nduja.
As well as the flavour, the texture of the gnocchi was so damn good, it was soft and pillowly with a slight starchiness from the potatoes.

Overall, we had a great dinner and if I am in the area again, I would probably try the Strozzapreti or Ravioli as they are freshly made!
On another topic, if you are in Hong Kong I would recommend PICI which is also freshly made pasta.

Berto Pasta:
155 Holloway Rd, London N7 8LX

[Review] Yummy Noodle Bar

Born and bred in Eastbourne, this was my regular noodle joint for Pad Thai when I was a kid.
Being away from town, I have been itching to go back.

Since my last visit, it is no longer a small noodle bar but a big noodle restaurant with another branch somewhere in town.

Without further ado, the pad thai is a must and I also ordered the Mixed Vegetable chow mein as I have never tried their chow mein.

For the pad thai, there are two versions, a vegetarian one and a non veg one which contains fish sauce.
The vegetable pad thai tasted just as good as before but slightly different to the prawn pad thai as it was my first time having the vegetarian one.

As for the mixed vegetable chow mein, the taste was fantastic.
Each strand was uniformly flavoured and covered in sauce complimented by the crunchy vegetables.

Will definitely be back for other noodles and the price tag is definitely affordable.
Tap water is available and self service.

The Menu:

Yummy Noodle Bar:
Enterprise Shopping Centre
Eastbourne BN21 1BD

https://www.thingstodopost.org/most-popular-asian-food-in-pevensey-united-kingdom-407336

[Review] London Chinatown's talk of town Wong Kei

Wong Kei is a famous restaurant in Chinatown for its rude service.
It is that famous you can google it on Wikipedia.

All that changed after 2001 when the restaurant got refurbished and friendlier waiters were hired but still there are some cocky ones.

To be honest, I am not a fan of Hong Kong style Chinese food but went because I was curious of how the restaurant was after renovation.

Not my cup of tea but it is the usual stuff you get from Hong Kong so if you miss food there, I would highly recommend it.
Saying that, I didn't order the roast duck but saw someone eating it and it looked good so I might try it next time as the famous duck nearby was disappointing.

Here were the dishes my friends had. Basically the Hong Kong fare.
Tried the flat rice noodles and tofu and it is the same but probably cleaner and fresh than the crap in Hong Kong.

Also had the beef brisket noodles which I would say taste better than Hong Kong because the beef is edible and tasty.

The broth is also rich with a hint of caraway seeds unlike the anaemic pale tasteless beef brisket soups in Hong Kong.

I would say the broth here is tasty like the one you get at Wing Kei noodles in Causeway bay while the noodles don't have that annoying lye flavour to it and the texture is much softer.

It is also recommended to ask for the chilli oil which spices things up even though it is tasty without whereas in Hong Kong chilli oil is definitely needed because the noodles and broth are seriously tasteless except for that nasty lye taste.

The only place for good beef brisket noodles in Hong Kong is Kau Kee where they also put caraway in the beef stock but their broth is weak.

I was a bit disappointed with the stir fried beef flat noodles because the strands were all broken which made it hard to pick up with chopsticks let alone a fork.

I found it bland overall.

The tea you get is also good and you can see why it is so aromatic because you get whole tea leaves.

Not top quality but better than average.

WONG KEI:
41-43 Wardour St, London W1D 6PY