It's all just one big restau-rant...

Sunday 2 December 2007

Red Chilli

Here's one that got away - and a very nice one at that. We're back in Chinatown on Portland Street. Reassuringly Red Chilli seems to use a one-stream approach to chinese quisine so no need (as Neil Sowerby sort of said) to go for off-menu macho jackass behaviour. And best of all it's not just boring old Cantonese. When I was in there it was heaving with happy diners, mostly oriental. A good sign. Sweet Mandarin by contrast was totally British though I suppose in a very different catchment area.

For starters I had "beijing dumplings" which I have fond memories of eating far too many of when my dad's friend Chen cooked for us back home in Lancaster when I was about 7. Never seen them at a restaurant before.

Then I think for the main I had some kind of bird-nest-fish-basket thing which was pretty spicy as I remember. It was fine but I was already creaking under the weight of all those dumplings. Perhaps I should have read the rest of Neil's review and had the Lamb dish. Well worth a visit and definitely to be returned to at some point.

The Orangery

The Orangery is a very pleasant wine bar in leafy Heaton Moor with a big stained-glass roof over the back-section of the restaurant and little terraces to front and rear for sunny days and smokers. The decor feels nice and light, the coffee and cakes are wonderful. And the food while often a little slow to come (it says so on the menu too) makes up for itself by being unfailingly very good.

I've been here loads either bringing friends and relations for a nice bite or in less happy moments used to use it as a bit of a bolt-hole, going in there for a coffee after seeing the doctor in Heaton Moor while waiting for the pharmacy to sort out my citalopram hydrobromide - that kind of thing. Glad I'm not on that stuff any more, it was giving me lock-jaw.

Today the menu seemed pretty different from how it had been back in the summer. I had the seafood pancakes which came served rather like canellonni - in a creamy bachemael and the thing was f**king gorgeous. Goopy, fishy, cheesy, yum. After a very unpleasant morning it was exactly what I needed and made me feel able to brave the rain and the train ride back to the flat.

The service was very pleasant and I felt like they were attending to me well considering it was reasonably busy. There was one time that the girl serving us didn't know what Prosecco was, but hey this is Stockport...

Sweet Mandarin



I went to a very glass-fronted place in the northern quarter (opposite the previously reviewed TNQ) called Sweet Mandarin. It looked nice enough - quite modern with nice wall-size photos of rice in fields and origami cranes instead of the washed-out paintings of pagodas and those funny gold cats with the waving arm.

The service was pretty slow. They were quite busy but not exactly heaving so not really an excuse. The food certainly passable. I started with a wanton soup which was fine - quite heavy on the sesame oil - but tasty and really not bad at all. The main course was sweet and sour king prawns. The menu enticed me with fancy names thinking that this might be a little different from your average S&SP but really it wasn't anything special. Ultimately I felt a little fobbed off by the flowery descriptions.

This didn't come cheap - but to add insult, at the end they managed to get my bill wrong to the tune of a tenner. I was not best pleased and in my ire refused to pay the service charge once they had worked it out properly.

Update: A return visit recently revealed little new of note. I went with a couple of friends and while the food was certainly passable it wasn't in the same league as the star attractions of Chinatown.