Gold Mine, London

Gold Mine
102 Queensway
Bayswater
London W2 3RR
020 7792 8331

So many people had told me about the Roast Duck at Gold Mine. I have lunch in this area every 7-10 days and end up at my default picks for Thai or Spanish food most of the time, so this time I set out determined to eat the roast duck at Gold Mine and check what the fuss was all about.

Oh my! That duck was gorgeous! The fat melting in the mouth was like a beautiful piece of pork fat - I've never tasted duck fat like that & at the same time the skin was crispy too and the meat ever so tender.It comes deboned and the sauce here is more savoury than sweet which is why I think I like it so much. No cloying sweetness, no greasy after-feel.

My favourite meat is pork, but the barbecued pork (also good) did not hold a candle to this roast duck!

I chose the Singapore vermicelli noodles to go with my meal. They were just what I wanted - really thin fine noodles, fried up street food style and just perfect with the fat of that perfect duck. All 3 dishes for 22£.

I've got to take the family here to try this duck. I was lucky to not have to brave a queue at 2:30pm, but the restaurant was quite full. However, I must say that standing in line would be worth it for this roast duck. Just the duck & a side of noodles or rice would be perfect.

On a subsequent visit, I went with the husband. He ordered a hot & sour chicken soup. I had mentioned that I have a prawn & shrimp allergy & they told me that some prawn may be used in the stock in the soup, but if I wanted, they could use a vegetarian stock to make the chicken soup. I think that shows brilliant customer service.

Prawn crackers aren't complimentary, they have to be ordered off the menu. The smoked & fried chicken that I had the first time, was very moreish and we just couldn't stop ourselves from eating more. The second time I ordered it, there was a sweetness added to it, which brought down its appeal considerably for me.

The Malaysian noodles were good, but personally I prefer their Singaporean version. The egg fried rice is perfect to go with a bit of the sauce from the roast duck.

The spring rolls were nice, but not something I would repeat on another visit as there is so much more on the menu that I want to try out.

The restaurant has a well functioning air conditioning unit, so its perfect for lunch on a sweltering summer day.

My struggle with Gold mine is trying something new off the menu when my heart & stomach are screaming for the smoked chicken, the roast duck & the Singaporean Noodles.

Rating : 4.5 / 5

China Palace, London

China Palace
433 Harrow Road
London W10 4RE
020 8964 1669

With someone down with the flu and me in no mood to pander to different tastes and requests for soups and curries, the easiest thing to do was place an order for a home delivery.

I'd recently received a menu from China Palace and thought I'd try them out. I did over order, so I could stock the fridge and Mr Flu, could take out bowls of whatever he wanted and warm them up at his convenience.

Price wise, there's a 20% discount on home delivery, so its really value for money. Nothing was overly greasy, so this wasn't like cheap Chinese takeout.

We tried the schezwan hot & sour soup (3.15), which he found spicy enough to clear his head. I needed to add a bit more lemon and chilli in my yumgai chicken soup (3.50), which was a bit sweet from the addition of pineapple. I'm not a fan of fruit in my savoury dishes and I'm just about getting used to bits of pineapple in sweet & sour pork, but I couldn't handle it in my soup. It didn't spoil the flavour, but the taste of this soup was more sweet & sour rather than hot &sour which I had expected.

The egg fried rice (3.20) was simple and delicious in its simplicity. White rice, salted and fried with bits of scrambled egg. I could eat just that for a whole meal with just some spicy sambol or mushroom chilli paste on the side.

The thai green curry (7.20) was lovely. If I remember right the menu had given it a 2 chilli spice rating, but that was misleading. Maybe I should have told them to make our food genuinely spicy. However, the flavours themselves were lovely.

I also tried the crispy fried noodles with mixed meat (6.50). Generously topped with beef, chicken, roast pork and vegetables, this is a lovely dish. But I must remember not to order fried noodles in home delivery orders as they tend to get soggy by the time they arrive and we have eaten our soup and starters.

The peking pork dumplings (6.25) were lovely. The pork steamed buns (char siu bao/ baozi - 5.75 for 4) had good texture and taste, but I would have preferred more stuffing than just a tablespoon of meat in such a large bun.

Portions are standard size, but prices are value for money. I've ordered enough food for at least 6 meals and the bill was under 50 pounds. They threw in some prawn wafers and a couple of fortune cookies too.

They don't use plastic baggies for packing. The only plastic is the boxes and the cutlery (recyclable). The delivery guy gave me his hot bag and requested me to empty it myself in the kitchen while he waited outside.

I would order again, but I would request them to make our food extra spicy, since their level of spicy barely tingled our taste buds. Our definition of 1 chilli is tongue tingling. 2 chillis is when you reach for something to cool your mouth down and 3 chillis should induce smoke out of the ears and perspiration.

Rating : 3 / 5

May's Chinese Cuisine, London

May's Chinese Cuisine
39 Willesden Lane
Kilburn
London NW6 7RF

020 7625 3388

Ordered home delivery from here today (2Pounds charge) and husband says this is the best Chinese he has had in London. I guess this is because its the closest to the Indian-Chinese food that he grew up with.

I ordered via Hungry House which had an offer of free prawn crackers for bills above 15, but if you call them directly, they offer free dishes on each bill threshold.

The food arrived quite quickly and was piping hot. The crackers were packed separately, so they hadn't crumbled. Quantities are large & prices are low, yet it is high on taste and quality. A perfect combination for takeaways & home delivery.

May's offers a range of Chinese, Malaysian & Thai Food. They are really excellent about catering to allergies. With my shrimp/prawn allergy, I'm quite hesitant to order any seafood in a Chinese restaurant, because I never know if shrimp or shrimp heads have been added to the stock or to thicken a sauce. But these guys can tell you immediately about every ingredient in the dishes on their menu.

The only 2 dishes that fell in the middling range were the pork dumplings (5.40) because their wrapping was on the thicker side and the Thai red curry (5.60), that was more of a side dish than a curry. They tasted good, but did not meet my expectations, especially compared to the rest of the food.

The roast pork fried rice (5.20) and the chicken chowmein (5.40) were very good, with lots of flavour and tender meat. Not too oily (the bane of many takeaway chowmeins) The sweet & sour chicken Hong Kong style (5.60) was yummy and the first time that I was able to eat pineapple added in sweet and sour dishes because it wasn't too sweet or sour or squishy. The kung po pork with chilli (5.90) was the standout dish of the day. Just the right amount of chilli without going over the top.

They have some special set meals like :
Sweet & Sour Chicken + Spring Rolls + Egg Fried Rice for 1 person for 9.90.
A Meal for 2 with a quarter crispy Aromatic Duck + 6 pancakes + 2 Spring Rolls + Chicken in Black Bean Sauce + Sweet & Sour Pork + Egg Fried Rice + Prawn Crackers for 23.90
A Meal for 3 with quarter crispy Aromatic Duck + 6 pancakes + 3 Chicken & Mushroom Soup + Sweet & Sour Chicken + Beef with Green Pepper in Black Bean Sauce + King Prawns with Mixed Vegetables + Egg Fried Rice + Prawn Crackers for 36.90

Really loved the food from May's & I'm guessing that we will be ordering in from here whenever someone is in the mood for Chinese :)

Take a Look at their Menu

Rating : 4/5

Le Chowk, Ahmedabad

Does Le Chowk serve multiple cuisines ? Yes!
Are they authentic? - Mostly, no!
Are they tasty? Its not bad, but its not outstanding either.

There's such a variety of food on offer that it can completely overwhelm you. We were 3 of us and did not even look at the Italian - pizza/pasta / garlic bread section, because just tasting everything else, quite filled us up.

 

Their ad's outside are quite eye-catching.

Designed pretty much like the other restaurants from this chain - Rudey's, Forest Cafe etc, the decor is quite overwhelming, but that is just to prepare you for the onslaught of food that follows.

The seating is a hodge-podge of various styles and colours.

There is a separate display station for every kind of food that they serve, so there is a mocktail counter, a desserts counter, Mexican counter, Hot Dog stand, Lebanese Counter, Chinese Cart, Italian section with ovens for pizzas and a pasta counter, a large circular Mongolian grill and this is on one half of the restaurant. The other side has the chaat section, a tawa fry and tandoori section, Biryanis followed by Indian / Peshawari main courses.

Some of the food like the shawarma and dips (hummus, babaghannoush & labneh) and the khao suey were quite close to the original and tasty. The poutine was nowhere close to the original, neither was the Mongolian grill.

The Mongolian Grill was more like the roadside Chinese thelawala / laariwaala with an assortment of sabjis (chicken sausage and fish balls for non-veg) that was tossed together on the Grill with some generic sauce and either rice or flat noodles. The rice was better than the noodles. Avoid the fish, it tastes great on its own, but doesn't go as well with the noodles / rice.

The mocktails were mostly a range of syrups that was mixed with soda and served. The keri and the mango were good.

 

The quesadillas were quite good, but what they served as enchiladas was again a quesadilla. The nachos weren't properly fried, so they were slightly raw and not too good, but the salsa and cheese dip were quite good.

The hot dog was a simple bun with sausage, tomato sauce and mustard, nothing fancy, but their chicken sausage is really good and this shone in whichever dishes that they used them in.

There were supposed to be a variety of salads on offer, but there was no one at this counter and once we tried everything that was available, we had no place for salads. They did have a vegetarian sushi though that wasn't bad.

There was a mobile fondue table (like the channajorwala) with brocolli, baby corn, bread, mushrooms and other veggies to be dipped into cheese. The cheese was just amul cheese, but it wasn't bad. The veggies I mentioned, were the best of the lot.

The poutine was a couple of French fries with barbecue sauce, cheese sauce and green peas. Tasty but not authentic.

From the Chinese counter, mum loved the Manchow soup. Husband loved the veg momos and I loved the khowsuey. They serve soup on the table, but I would recommend that you go upto the counter and choose your own toppings, because they have the whole array.

Kebabs are made fresh for each round, the chicken and fish kebabs were good, but the sheekh were on the drier and harder side. Loved the liver tawa fry, but the kheema tawa fry was average. The veg tawa fry options were really good, especially the bhindi and the whole baby baingans and definitely take the curry that comes on the side of the tawa fry

The chicken biryani was really good, but we were too full to eat anything more than a taste. The curries were average. They also prepare fresh rotis to order.

Loved the idea of the baby kulhad brownies, they have a cold stone concept for ice cream, but since the mixers were tutti frutti, peanuts and chocolate chip, I wasn't very excited to try it out. There's a chocolate fountain too that kids will love.

There was a guy walking around with a tray making fresh "Thai Paan" - betel leaves stuffed with savoury stuff - chillies, garlic, onions, peanuts etc - Its quite interesting and worth a try.

The food is all freshly prepared and except for the sheekh kebabs and the chaat which were below average, there was nothing that tasted bad. Given that there were over 40 items on the menu, that is saying a lot.

 

Its great fun to go as a group, then you can taste more stuff. This place is a great hit with local who love the variety, the song and dance (yes, the wait staff, danced to a "Brazilian" number too) and the price. 550/- per person.

The range is huge, but with our current focus on portion control and only overeating calories that are truly worth it, it will be some time before we return here.

The staff is really sweet and helpful and keep clearing the table and bringing whatever you request. Its a great family outing.

Rating : 3 / 5