China Delight
2 Minster Court
EC3R 7FL

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, January 22nd, 2008

The Victims: Echo and 23 others

The Damage: £20-ish each

The Background: In celebration of the impending Chinese New Year, Echo organizes dinner for 24 at China Delight in the City. We're all looking forward to it because it's the first time many of us will meet Echo's 1-year old daughter, Tong-Tong.

The Entrance: China Delight is empty at 7 p.m. on a Thursday night, and it makes me a little worried. However, I am grateful that we're offered the "Special Chinese Menu." You know the menu…the one that's all in Chinese. (One of my best memories ever is visiting my friend Jon in Toronto over Thanksgiving in college and going to the all-night Chinese diner where the entire menu was in Chinese up on the wall. We all picked a number and let ourselves be surprised.)

The Food: I try to put Echo in charge of ordering, but someone decides that we should each order our own dish. I don't know about you, but 24 dishes for 24 people is A LOT of food. We still managed to put a good dent in everything, but I honestly think we could have and should have ordered differently. If you can imagine, 23 people ordered MAINS. I wisely ordered two side dishes instead. (One ma po tofu, one green beans. Both enjoyed by all. But particularly by me, who thought the green beans were about the best thing she's eaten lately.)

I really wish I had taken more photos. These two don't do justice to the feast we had. And really, the green beans were great. Best of all was the whole sea bass, served at the very end of our meal. Stuffed with ginger. Also fantastic was some sort of spicy seafood stew…with a nice big fish head in it. (We gave it to Echo, who loves fish heads, apparently.)

The Service: A bit surly and impatient. Kinda just added to the charm.

The Loos: Really, someone needs to start a power-washing business.

The Verdict: I was glad I visited China Delight with a lot of people from China. Otherwise, I think we would have ended up with a lot of Kung Pao chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork. I would go back here for an honest meal at a decent price, but only with a Chinese-English dictionary.

The post China Delight first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Date of Last Visit: Thursday, June 30th, 2005

The Victims: Lee, Phoebe, David

The Damage: 12.50 GBP a head?

So I’m sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when over walks David from our US office. And I say, "David, what are you doing here?"

David is researching 16th century pub theatres. Yes, he has a very specific hobby. I used to like genealogy. Now I like white wine. And The Apprentice.

So Alan, the Sales Guy, had told us how much he liked the Leadenhall Wine & Tapas bar, so off we went. I give the LW&TB snaps for atmosphere. It was VERY cute and we had the corner table by the open window, which was very very pretty. Plus, it was a Thursday, so there were vendors selling little cakes and chocolates, which was nice to look at.

Food-wise, I don’t know if I’d ever go back to the LW&TB. We ordered 8 tapas. It’s hard to screw up calamari, and they totally overcooked it. The best part was the chorizo–really yummy. The vegetables were soggy and felt like they’d been reheated. The prawns were average, and the patatas felt overcooked/reheated as well. It was an odd experience. Really, the atmosphere is super cute. But the food! Yikes.

But while I was sitting there, I saw that the pub across the way had a carvery upstairs and that looked really fun. I wouldn’t have noticed that if I had just been walking around. So next time I go to Leadenhall, I’ll go there.

The Verdict: Uggh. I did not enjoy the food. But they do get snaps for atmosphere. So maybe I’ll try it again and hope they have a different chef or something.

The post Tappity Tapas: Leadenhall Wine & Tapas Bar first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Date of Last Visit: May 11, 2004

The Victim: Dad!

So I love Chinese food. I could eat Chinese food every day for the rest of my life. It’s just so delicious and fresh and yummy and everything. People at work told me I should go to Imperial City and have the Crispy Duck. So I said, "Well let’s all go," so all the ladies went one day and we had the crispy duck and some white wine and had an absolutely fabulously delicious duck pancake experience.

When my dad came into town, I went back to Imperial City. Same experience. Yummy yummy crispy duck pancakes. We had some red wine, and then we switched to Tsing Tao. I love Tsing Tao.

I will fault the service somewhat because there are just SO many of them and you never quite know who your main waitperson is. Ah yes, and the decor is a bit too fancy for me. And well, it’s PRICEY. But those duck pancakes are just PERFECT.

Overall Verdict: If you’ve got the cash, go. The crispy duck is FANTASTIC.

The post Fancy Chinese: Imperial City first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.