Eating Out
Royal Palace - Chingford
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| Royal Palace |
MAYBE it's my guilty conscience, but I've always preferred the cuisines of countries which have suffered brutal repression at the hand of the British Empire.
However, as the cold winter moves towards a wet spring, I feel the urge to embrace the spirit of Chinese New Year and gorge myself on all manner of Asian goodies until the top button of my trousers pings off into the mandatory ornamental fish tank.
It was with a sense of occasion then that I approached the Royal Palace in Chingford. The restaurant had been well recommended to me and I'm glad to say did not disappoint.
My dining companion and I chose the moderately priced deluxe menu at £18.50 a head, which promised a heavy diet of courses that I was unsure that - even in my ravenous state - I could do justice.
Appetisers were a mixed plate of succulent chicken satay, delicately cooked to retain all their moist flavour, and mini pork ribs which were sweet and sticky with the meat falling off the bone given the merest encouragement.
Next came two baskets of steaming dim sum, seasoned dumpings filled with prawns which were so tempting that burning one's tongue almost seems preferable to delaying another moment.
A delectable bowl of hot and sour soup followed which was packed with red roast pork and vegetables.
It was well seasoned and devoid of the tell-tell gloopiness that betrays a nefarious invasion of monosodium glutamate.
Unfortunately one of my favourite Chinese specialties, Aromatic crispy duck, was the low point of the menu.
Although certainly crispy and plentiful the meat was tired and dry and the pancakes glassy and old.
In fact the only thing less appetising than the duck was the awful cacophony of glockenspiel music that accompanied the meal. It seemed to wander from a kind of chinese marching band to the theme from Z Cars.
Thankfully the main courses restored my faith. There was tender steak with crisp peppers in blackbean sauce, chicken with cashew nuts with oriental mushrooms and a sizzling plate of pork with fragrant spring onions.
It was all accompanied by a massive serving of special fried rice and it was not long before both my friend and I had to admit defeat.
The contemporary decor was clean and pleasant without being terribly elegant, and overall the Royal Palace is a dining experience I would be happy to repeat well before next spring comes again. I just need to recover my trouser button first.
Royal Palace,
140 Station Road,
E4 6AN
TEL: 8524 7788
3:04pm Wednesday 13th February 2008
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