Jay S.
Yelp
More like a 4.5 but the dishes that my friend had recommended me were all hits and the dish I voluntarily ordered was not as good, so I want to make a fair judgment by saying that perhaps I just ordered the wrong dish! I also heard that the owner is from my hometown so that gives some nostalgic sentimental value to what I had for dinner today!
I ordered the handmade chives, eggs and prawn dumplings (韭菜鸡蛋虾饺), and those are the exact kind that I used to have at home (maybe sometimes without the prawns), so suffice it to say that I got a taste of home! The dumplings were very decent in size and one plate came with 10 dumplings, which was definitely not enough for me as a Manchurian, as opposed to people from southern China. Then I had the pork with fennel dumplings (猪肉茴香饺), which tasted like exactly how I envisioned them! The fennel flavor was very evident and complemented the pork dumplings very well. I would highly recommend both kinds!
Then my friend got what she usually got. The first dish was the potato salad (土豆丝), which is a really awkward translation because it's definitely not the southern American potato salad you would have in Mississippi. But then again, this store is in London, so... Anyway, it was delicious! I wished the portion was bigger because we would have a gigantic plate back home, but amazing regardless, with even added bell pepper slices that worked perfectly with the original dish! The second dish was the steamed cold noodles (凉皮), which might've been one of the best I have had anywhere, including in China. The spiciness and the sesame sauces were perfection, and added two layers of flavors to the dish that allowed me to discover how these two flavors coincided with each other and worked together simultaneously. Once again, I wished there were more noodles because at times I definitely felt like there was a lot of sauce and spiciness but not enough pieces of cold noodles to go with them. Regardless, simply outstanding!
The dish that I would not recommend was the chive pancakes (韭菜盒), which I grew up eating very frequently as well. For some reason the egg flavor was so evident and the chive flavor was completely missing, which was inconceivable because everyone knows how strong chives are in terms of smell and flavor. As a result, those "pancakes" became more like scrambled egg mixtures with fried flour outside them. Unfortunately they were bland as a result with not enough salt or chive flavor.
One major advantage is that I think they are very affordable. My dumplings were only £10.8 and £12.8, respectively, and I was definitely close to full after both plates. The cold appetizers were relatively smaller for their prices in comparison to the dumplings, but I think by themselves without comparison, the prices were more fair. Just the dumplings were super economical, that's for sure.
My friend would bring anyone from out of town to this place and if I lived in London I would probably do the same. Kudos to my friend for blessing me with hometown food!