4th August 2008
Gung Ho Chinese Restaurant
Elegant surroundings, warm welcome and sit where you like.
Front tables overlook the pavement and quiet road of West End Lane off the Finchley Road. We chose to sit further back, in the centre, me with my back to a corner created by a pillar and waist high barrier. We could have had even more privacy in nooks at the back with pretty decorations in spotlit niches. The round tables had individual chairs.
Fabric napkins were on the matching tablecloth. While we looked at the menu we shared a bowl of free sour cabbage which we dipped into with the chopsticks. I folded the tablecloth so as not to get my elbows in the mess I made. Later the waiter changed the cloth.
My friend said, 'I can never eat a Chinese meal without spilling food all over the table.'
The waiter smiled at us, 'Everybody does - we do, too!'
Drinks
We ordered sparkling water, tap water, jasmine tea, kir, and a quarter bottle of hot sake.
I forgot to ask them to save the top of the sake so I could take the remainder home. There was more than enough for two of us, two tiny glasses each - and I had also drunk a kir. The leftover thimbleful of sake would have made a pleasant nightcap to send me to sleep when I got home.
One of my companions pointed out that in her kitchen when she lifts a handle-less Chinese tea cup up to the light, what looks like a grain of white rice is translucent. We held up the restaurant cups and she was right. See my photo.
Starters
For starters we ordered spring rolls. One person was temporarily vegetarian because he kept kosher and was not eating meat outside his house.
My choices included chicken with walnuts (a change from cashew nuts). Beef with lemon grass was unusual. So was veal in lemon and and lime. Not often I see lemon grass in any kind of restaurant. Nor veal in a Chinese restaurant.
Main Courses
I asked for extra ginger, a request which the waiter said he'd convey to the chef. I can't say that I really noticed any ginger, nor lemon grass flavour. Though I had visible pieces of lemon grass that seemed a bit stewed.
However, the lemon and lime was really tangy. And the two fish dishes had tasty gravy.
We sat discussing how this Chinese restaurant compared with Kaifeng kosher Chinese, which my friends said was pricier. Of the two other kosher Chinese restaurants, the one which had the name starting with CH was also the CHeapest.
Desserts
For desserts we opted for the sesame seed toffee apples. Everybody liked those.
Alternatives were toffee bananas, pineapples or lychees.
I chose red bean curd paste pancakes. Okay, but the deep fried pancakes were all rather too oily for me as I am on a diet and not keen on fried food. The mango, which I noticed only after I'd ordered, might have been a better choice. Next time.
Coffee
I ordered a double espresso which came exactly as I wanted it, in a large cup, with milk. They asked hot or cold and I got hot milk as I requested. And brown sugar lumps as well as white sugar.
Temperature
My friends told me that the restaurant was air conditioned so we all wore socks or tights to be on the safe side. However, the restaurant temperature was neither stifling nor chilly, but just right.
Toilets
Down steep stairs. The waiter, seeing me approach, obligingly pushed open the door to the stairwell, and warned me, "Mine the steps.' (Sic. Not sick, sic, Latin for thus, meaning he said it exactly as I typed it, not a typing error.) I had a little chuckle from that and kept saying to myself, 'Mine the step - yes, I mined it.'
The toilets were okay, neither filthy nor pristinely clean, not quite the standard of upstairs. Could do with better lights, flowers, mirrors, more cleaning, something to turn this into a real five star plus experience.
Price
Our meal cost about £113 for four of us. That included a couple of alcoholic drinks, bottled water, starters, main courses and rice, desserts and coffees and service. Less than our previous meal at Sugar Snap in Hatch End.
Leaving
I found toothpicks on the bar and their address card which is black with a red and black yin yan symbol. The thick card is double width folded down the middle so it stands up like a book. the delivery service menu has a cartoon showing a Chinese man in a coolie hat carrying bamboo and holding out the food container.
Parking
On a Sunday night we were able to park around the corner in the Finchley Road.
Verdict
We were all very happy with the surroundings and the menu choice. Service was smiling and obliging. All in all, yes, memorable, a new menu, lovely atmosphere, a very pleasant evening.
The delivery number is 020 7794 5511. The restaurant booking number is 020 7794 1444.
I never did ask them about the name Gung Ho. Ho is a very common Chinese name in the Asian country I know best, Singapore.
Of course this food like most in the UK is cooked by people from Hong Kong who speak Cantonese. I've eaten Chinese food in the USA where I used to live (more spicy Sechuan food there), and in Singapore I've lived and one member of my family is a permanent resident, and in Beijing, and Shanghai.
London Chinese food is nothing like the food you get in China. But I'm totally prejudiced. I am used to Peking duck, chicken and cashew nuts, sweet and sour sauce, chicken in lemon, and spare ribs (which were in Chinese restaurants before the American restaurants and grills in London started serving them). I think the Chinese food in London's Chinese restaurants is the best!
Glossary - sake
Just in case anybody doesn't know, sake is rice wine. It is served hot and you only drink it from teeny cup without handles, like espresso coffee, it is strong so a little goes a long way, down to the stomach and up to the grin.
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