The Polo, Tottenham Court Road, London

The Polo
56 St. Giles High Street
London WC2H 8LH
020 7379 3781

foodbymark said
First time Korean
I had never knowingly eaten Korean food before and the idea of eating here had been sprung upon me as a last minute Friday pre drinking idea by my assistant. They were not fussy but did prefer to go to The Polo and I had a read a great review of The Polo on the Londonelicious blog. Not having eaten Korean before appealed to me... it was going to be impossible to be objective about it!

There were six of us and the tiny restaurant with probably less space than for 40 covers manages to squeeze us around one of the few tables. My girlfriend and I had to sit at the end on stools. Very cosy in terms of space. In the middle of the table is a built in burner with some hidden buttons and knobs. Looking around at the other, Korean diners, it seems that they don't use and opt for the standard tabletop rectangular white burners. I saw that they used them for shared dishes and pots and perhaps in a similar way to South East Asian steamboat and communal/at the table cooking and eating.

All of us ordered various dishes based around in a searing hot stoneware bowl. I chose the seafood version and it arrived within 5 minutes with a small condiment bowl of red sauce - a sort of red soya bean and mild chilli blend. There was slices of squid, four prawns neatly arranged on top and probably some other fish/seafood but it was actually a bit too dark to see. Without any prior knowledge, and the bowl obviously superheating everything, we started to make our own fried rice at the table in our bowls. Only after eating the egg yolk in whole did I realise that perhaps I was supposed to break it like in fried rice... better luck next time hey?

The overall experience was fun and certainly a cheap eat. If you were to order this dish and a bottle of delicious plum wine, you would end up paying around £13... and for just the dish £6.50. Obviously popular with Korean couples waiting patiently in queue I am looking forward to going back some time. Fun and cheap!

EDIT: So after reading the Londonelicious comments I figure that what I had in fact ordered was the Seafood Bi Bim Bap. Yum. Loved it. And the burnt rice at the end was a treat.

Wong Kei, Chinatown, London

Wong Kei

41-43 Wardour Street
Leicester Square
London W1D 6PX
020 7437 8408

Rating: 1 star (out of 5)

foodbymark said
upstairs downstairs... AWFUL
The fact that there are some Chinese people eating here - well there's no accounting for bad taste in any culture or any part of town is there? From the start of my review I have nothing good to say about the food here. Prices are typical of most of the restaurants in the area. Cheap.

Wikipedia says Wong Kei is a famous restaurant in London's Chinatown. It is probably the most famous in fairness. I'm not a fussy eater, I will eat anything from chicken feet to foie gras and sweetbreads to dried locust and some things worse I dare not mention here, but what you are paying for is bland food thickened and beyond with corn flour and laden with your favourite flavour enhancer, Monosodium Glutamate. That's not to say that other restaurants do not do the same but there is a limit and take it past that. You will get very thirsty eating anything here. Virtually every dish has the same background taste is only made different by the sauce of choice (black bean, plain soya etc.) so essentially no better than the local chinese takeaway.

I don't mind sharing tables but then there is the little matter of the service. You get exactly what they have always prided themselves in, two options - rude or abrupt, or if you are lucky both at the same time. The experience is always subjective but in the same way that some people insist on adding sweetcorn to bolognese sauce, I am purist and do not enjoy this place. No sweetcorn in my bolognese please.

Been there, done that, and someone else bought the t-shirt. Don't go here.

Shanghai, Dalston

Shanghai

41 Kingsland High Street
London E8 2JS
020 7254 2878

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

foodbymark said
a hidden but cheap diamond in the east
I lived in Dalston for 8 months over three years ago and had walked briskly by this Chinese restaurant opposite McDonalds many times. I had perhaps passed it over as another chinese takeaway/local type place not giving it a second glance. I recently read about the restaurant in several guides to Dim Sum in London and was beyond shocked to see a restaurant in Dalston, of all places, cropping up on almost every list.

The restaurant's unassuming, but heavily stickered, shop frontage and entrance dining hall has kept it's history of previously being a traditional east end pie and eel shop that opened in Victorian times. It has kept it's original floor, oak booths, tiled walls and eel-motifed mirrors. However, the rear of the restaurant, where we were seated, is a newly-built modern dining room painted red symbolizing luck and happiness with dome skylights made from stained glass. The atmosphere is warm and comfortable as you are almost whisked away from Dalston.

Whilst Shanghai is a restaurant which claims to be modern Shanghaiese, it turns out that the cuisine is not strictly Shanghainese, as they serve some of the typical Cantonese and westernised dishes. We came for Dim Sum (also known as Yum Char) and ordered our standard dishes for comparison purposes which included bamboo steamers of Har Gau, Siu Mai, Har Cheung Fun, Lor Mei Gai, Char Sui Bao, Fung jau and fried dishes Gee Bau Har and Woo Gok. The success story of Yum Char was the enormous and tasty Siu Mai, small steamed dumplings with pork inside a Wonton pastry topped with a crab roe, so large they were bulging out of spoons and almost beyond a mouthful. Only the Woo Kok, mashed taro, stuffed with diced shiitake mushrooms, shrimp and pork, deep-fried in crispy batter, were slightly too salty for our tastes and the Fung Jau, chicken feet, deep fried, boiled, marinated in a black bean sauce and then steamed, were in a sauce a little too thick.

The result was a thoroughly enjoyable Yum Char to which I will give my strong recommendation. The bill was just under £24 for 8 dishes and chinese tea for two including tip. Bargain! The downside is that it is not easy to get to by unless you prepared to either drive or take buses/overland trains.

Viet Anh Cafe, Camden

Viet Anh Cafe
41, Parkway, Camden
London NW1 7PN
020 7284 4082
Rating: 3 Stars (out of 5)
Fast Vietnamese and oriental food!



The Viet Anh Cafe is only 200m from Camden Town tube station but located on parkway seemingly away from most of the bustle of the Camden Market crowd. Three of us dined here and we shared starters of Deep Fried Crispy Tofu and Prawn Toast, both £3.50 each. The main courses are "complete" dishes based on protein with rice or soft or crisp noodle accompaniment. I ordered the Beef Pho Soup and the dish arrived in less than 10 minutes. Perhaps 5 minutes. Some of the beef was almost rare, but not quite rare enough on the whole. Still, all main dishes ordered here were under £6 and three of us dined for under £26 with tea as our drink. It was packed, but we didn't feel pressured to leave quickly. For a cheap and cheerful meal in the bustle of Camden, you can't go wrong with the Viet Anh Cafe.