30 Westferry Circus
E14 8RR
Tel: 020 7719 0888
Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, March 28th
The Victims: Niculie, Emiko, Kunal, Danny
The Damage: £30 per person or thereabouts? But we got our money’s worth. We ate A LOT. A LOT, a lot. (Which, by the way, is two words. This is a pet peeve of mine. I get upset about it…A LOT.)
The Background: We headed over to Canary Wharf to have dinner with Kunal, who was in town from Chicago for a month and had been eating at Royal China practically every night. OK, maybe not every night, but often enough. Often enough that he didn’t need the menu to know what to order.
As someone who tries not to eat in the same places on multiple occasions, I (initially) thought this was a little weird. Wouldn’t you get bored of eating at the same place ALL THE TIME? Imagine…the same restaurant, the same waitstaff, THE SAME MENU.
But then I remembered that I do seem to have an unhealthy fascination with the Thai Green Curry frozen dinner from Sommerfields. I could eat that every night.
So Sommerfields and Royal China had me thinking…maybe there’s something to be said for revisiting a dependable classic again and again. Because the food we enjoyed at Royal China was some of the best I’ve ever had. Ever.
The Food: Well, firstly, they bring you salty peanuts and cucumber while you’re waiting. This is a nice touch. Given Kunal’s familiarity with the menu, we let him order for us. And order he did! The waitress even told him to stop ordering at one point.
When the parade of food began, it became obvious why she had advised halting the ordering procedure. There was no room left on the table! Because we had…
Broccoli type #1
Broccoli type #2 (We couldn’t tell the difference, except by color. One was darker than the other.)
Sizzling beef!
Chicken hot pot (my favo(u)rite)
Steamed fish (sole, I believe)
Another type of fish that escapes me, but it was almost like eating lightly fried calamari. (My second favorite dish of the evening.)
And of course, a big bowl of white rice. Well, actually, it ended up being two big bowls of white rice. I can still hear Kunal saying distantly, through a green Chinese broccoli haze, "Does anyone want more rice?"
I wish I had brought my camera to show you how beautiful the 2nd fish was…it was almost like a Thanksgiving cornucopia. It was served in the skeleton of a fish, which had been deep fried. My guess is that we could have eaten the bones…I did try some and they were very crispy. Not bad for fish bones.
And the chicken hot pot (which Kunal explained was the "special" chicken hot pot, not the regular one) was that perfect amount of hotness and so much more. Just enough to raise your temperature a bit! And super super delicious.
The Service: Brisk and efficient and always on the lookout.
The Verdict: I’ll be back to Royal China soon as humanly possible.
