28 Frith St
W1D 5LF
Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, July 18, 2007
The Victims: Well, let’s see…Icy, Lizzie, Wei, Penny, Emma, Gavin, Paul, Gabby, Ying, Natasa
The Damage: £24 each
The Background: "Team China" is heading back to Shenzhen while I’m off to Mexico. (More to come on MY trip later!) I really am sad to see them go, and I’m sad I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked. (But I’m hopeful that they will invite me to Shenzhen at some point!) We wanted to have a farewell dinner. A spicy dinner. And the gang had been to Bar Shu before and very much approved, which is always a good sign.
The Food: We put Wei (who, just to clarify, is not really a member of Team China) in charge and we get all sorts of good things. And they are all coated in chilies. I am afraid, but I know that I am in good hands. There’s a sliced chicken dish that’s quite nice. And a really great plate of spicy tofu. And some little rib tips.
And then along come the mains, and they are very plentiful. The standout has to be the boiled sea bass in chili soup. This big porcelein bowl comes to the table, and you can somewhat see that there is fish in there. But it’s COVERED in two types of szechuan peppers. (That’s it in the picture.) The familiar red ones, and little green ones. (The green ones, the team explains, are like a "cool hot." And now I understand why.)
Our server dishes most of the chilies out of the bowl. But leaves just enough to keep me sweating through the meal. HOT. But I just can’t stop.
There’s a great chicken dish, which the team explains is chicken served in a clay pot. And the garlic green beans are amazing–very crisp and crunchy and salty and garlicky. All the right things. Ah, and I also liked the prawns, which are slightly sweet, although they’re still spicy. And yes, I eat a pig’s foot. And I like it.
The Service: Pretty decent. But I think it helped that we had some native speakers. Although it did take ages to get the bill.
