New Entry: Han Dynasty

I revisited Han Dynasty this month.

http://www.wonderbirmingham.co.uk/birmingham/handynasty3_en.html



Unfortunately, this visit wasn't as good as the previous ones for the reasons I explained in the review, but it was not as bad as to make me stop visiting.

New Entry: Shangri-La 香鍋里辣

Went back to Shangri-La, Szechuan restaurant in Station Street, behind New Street Station, after 8 months or so and wrote an update.

http://www.wonderbirmingham.co.uk/birmingham/shangrila1_en.html




Well, actually, there was nothing much to up-date; the food and service are still good and even the price remains the same! They seem to resist the temptation to sell Chinese Hot Pot, which I don't care very much. In food wise, I prefer some other places, but if I have to take people who are not particularly familiar with 'authentic' Chinese food, I might come here for good service and approachable food.

New Entry: Red N Hot (Third visit)

Yes, I went there again.

Why I had to return after only a short interval? It was to try out Chinese black pudding dish I spotted on the last visit.

Red N Hot
http://www.wonderbirmingham.co.uk/birmingham/rednhot_en.html




Please read the web page if you want to know how it tasted like.

So far as I know, Jacky's Kitchen serves Chinese black pudding, but not elsewhere in Birmingham. Correct me if I am wrong.

I must point out also that they have blinded the transparent glass wall and now the diners can enjoy their food without being watched by passers-by!

I have some other things I really want to try here, so I am coming back again soon.

New entry: Red 'N Hot

As I wrote in the last post, Red 'N Hot in Hurst Street has removed its signage. I went there to see what was going on. Didn't actually bother to ask, but it should be part of the refurbishment and rebranding project.

Read my review here: Red 'n Hot

Now the interior decor is much improved and the English translation of the menu has been totally rewritten. Positive move!

Wokmania Is Gone

I noticed today that Wokmania, all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet restaurant in Chinatown, is closed down.



And there is this piece of paper on the window.



It is under refurbishment, but it is for a new restaurant.

During a couple of months, Wokmania has been distributing leaflets for discount, but, evidently it did not work.

I am looking forward to see what is coming now.

Woktastic Open

The new noodle and sushi bar in Paradise Forum, Woktastic, is now open.



I don't know exactly when it opened, but in should be this or the week before.

In front of the restaurant is this sign advatising an opening promotion offer. It promises sushi from £1 and noodles from £5.75, and 15% off for students.



I am not sure if the food should be more expensive when the offer ends, or the "promotion" is only about 15% discount for students. I don't know about sushi, but noodles FROM £5.75 is about right and should not be more expensive. Even sushi, three pieces of cucumber roll can cost £1.

I looked inside through the glass wall. It was rather dark (or maybe because it was too bright outside) and I could not see well, but definitely recognised a belt-conveyor.

Birmingham is suffering from lack of decent sushi place, and I hope Woktastic can fill the gap.

ShanghaiYe Closed

As I have read and heard that ShanghaiYe Chinese restaurant in Holloway Head (near Chinese Pagoda) had been closed, I went to see what is happening.

When I went there around 4 in the afternoon, the shutter was down as I have never seen before.



There was no notice explaining why it is closed, but it looks evident to me now Pad Thai has been enlarged and taken over the premises occupied by ShanghaiYe. There still is ShanghaiYe's signage at the entrance, but Pad Thai's name is on the window which used to be ShanghaiYe's.



It is a shame, as ShanghaiYe was a pretty good restaurant.

I noticed also that Pad Thai has ceased to be a pure and simple Thai restaurant; it is now offering more Chinese dishes, especially Sichuan dishes. I do recognise also some dishes served at ShanghaiYe, like Emperor Rice and Classic Double Cooked Beef with lotus root.

The emphasis is, however, not on the food, but on its karaoke and disco facilities.

Although it saddens me, I understand fully why they did so. The location is too difficult for it to operate as a pure restaurant, and entertainment element is consonant with the clubs in the area.

Good luck for the new start.

New entries from the 23rd to 29th June 2008

I am a bit behind, but managed to upload a couple of entries this week.

Birmingham restaurant guide

Salama Somali Restaurant in Small Heath



This place is brilliant. Do go if you are an adventurous eater.

Shiraz Persian restaurant



Slightly disappointed comparing to the meal I had here a couple of years ago, but not bad.

Update to New Sum Ye restaurant and take-away



The price is slightly increased.


Have a nice week from tomorrow!

Chinese food and chips

Yesterday, D and I went to one of our favorite Chinese diners for dinner, because, according to D, yesterday was the Earth 60 Day (or something like that), and we had to turn off all the lights of the house for 1 hour from 8 to 9 o'clock. I have not heard anything about it from BBC news, but it seems that it was a big thing in Greece and in some other countries.

I really did not want to go out, as it was rainy but D insisted and I gave in. (sigh)

Anyway, the diner was busy, but not full (it is a very small place with less than 20 covers). Every time we come here, we feel as if we are in Hong Kong, and this place serves what I think as the authentic Hongkongese popular food.

While we were eating our lovely food with huge mounds of rice, an Asian young man, in early 20s, came in and tried to order take-away. He chose an egg fried rice, some main dishes that I missed, and lastly he said.

Asian guy: "And chips, please".

Chinese waiter: "Sorry, we don't do chips".

Asian guy: "All right, then".

And he walked out. (At this point, D and I started laughing).

The owner chef, who was not listening to the conversation, asked the waiter what happend. Having been explained what happened, he made face muttering "chips, chips" with thick Chinese accent. Then he walked out from the door.

I don't know what he did outside, but probably he felt disgusted and wanted fresh air. (I don't think he tried to stop the guy, as I have never heard him speaking in English; he would rather have the waiter go, if he wanted so).

This reminds me of my Korean hair-dresser's observation that the British people like Chinese buffet restaurants, because there they can eat Chinese foods with chips.

I don't mind the people eat the food in the way they want, but I also understand the chefs who want the people to eat their food in a certain way. (Reversing the case, I guess no one will be amazed if a French chef feels annoyed, if a Japanese or Chinese customer insists on pouring soy sauce on the food).

Anyway, what happened made me like more this chef.

New Chinese Restaurant "Han Dynasty"

This Saturday I went to one of the new Chinese restaurants in Station Road, Han Dynasty 漢朝.



I have already posted a review, so you can find the details here.

Again, it is a Sichuan and North-Eastern Chinese restaurant. It might not be obvious to non-Chinese readers, but all the new Chinese places in this area - Jacky's Kitchen, BBQ Village, Han Dynasty, Shangri-La, Red N Hot (these two last are Sichuan only) - are of the same category.

The combination of Sichuan and North East seems a bit odd to me, as they are very distant regions in China.

Anyway, I have now visited all but one (BBQ Village is the only one left), and I can say that most of them are of high standard. I was rather disappointed by Jacky's and I still don't understand why Mr. Paul Fulford (Birmingham Mail) was so impressed. Probably I need to pay it a second visit to evaluate the place better, but, in difference to the real restaurant critics, I have to foot my bill by myself, so I would rather return to the places where I had good meal. So the secret of Jacky's will remain mystery to me.

If you are interested, read my photo-reviews on Shangri-La, Jacky's Kitchen and Red'n Hot.

Dim Sum @ China Court

On 6 June 2007 (Sat.) we went to the China Court restaurant in China town of Birmingham for Dim sum.


This place is the best reputed among my Japanese friends, so I had high expectations. When we visited, the most of the patrons were Chinese or Chinese looking people. The family sat next to us was paying even with foreign banknotes (I don't know if they were Chinese or Taiwanese, but definitely its like). In Birmingham, I have never seen so many Chinese people in a place at the same time.

The menu was as long as the other places' Dim Sum menues. There is a printed sheet to fill in on each tables, and you just have to tick the ones you want. The sheet printed only in Chinese, but the items are numbered exactly as in English menu. So no worries.

The interior is spacious and much brighter than Chung Ying Garden. As I was depressed by the dimmness of the CYG, I much appreciated the sunlight of China Court.

As we did at Chung Ying Garden, we chose 5 dishes: these are the photo of what we ate.

Usual Cheung Fun with King Prawns.



As you might be able to tell from the image, this Cheung Fun is not as soft and delicated as it should be. Even prawns were a bit stinky. This is inferior to the same thing in Chung Ying Garden. As Cheung Fun is my favourite, I was quite disappointed.

Rice pot with Chicken and Chinese Mushrooms.



Rice is nice, but again, difficult to eat because of small bones in the chicken. I will not order rice pots any more (but don't take me wrong: there was nothing wrong with China Court's rice pot, just personal preference). £4 is over-priced for this small pot of rice.


Vietnamese Spring Rolls.



This is deep-fried dish for Dim. Came with sweet chili sauce. I don't remember what there were inside, but the skin was too hard and bit too oily for me. Even Dim did not like them so much.


King prawn and scallop dumplings.



King prawn and scallop bits wrapped in transparent skin. This is potentially good dish, but, again, the prawns were stinky. On the other hand, scallop was sweet and tasty.

Stuffed bean curd rolls.



There were 3 pieces of them, but I ate one before taking this photo. This is interesting one. Various stuffings rolled in bean curd skin, and stewed in soy sauce. They might have been fried once before being stewed.

Summing up, it was not bad, but not too good neither. Probably I need to choose dishes to order more carefully.

Dim Sum @ Chung Ying Garden

As far as I know there are four Chinese restaurants that offer dim sum lunch in Chinatown. 1) Chung Ying（中英）, 2) Chung Ying Garden （中英花園飯店）, 3) China Court, and 4) Golden Pond. Each of them has its followers and when I asked around my friends and acquintances, I could not get the consensus. So I decided to try out all of them. This is the first one.

2/6/07 (Sat.) Dim and I went to a Chinese restaurant called Chung Ying Garden in Birmincham city centre.



This is the eating area inside. It was dim, although it was lunch time.



We had 5 dishes, no. 9, 19, 42, 70 and 99 from the Chinese menu. Obviously I don't remember exactly what we ate...

This is king prawn cheung fun (£3.00). Cheung fun is my favourite dim sum and I try it whenever I find it, so I have eaten in many places in several countries. These contained big chunks of king prawn (satisfying quality) , and cheung fun itself is soft and delicate. Very good.



This is mixed meat and glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves. Lotus leaves have particular perfume and it gets infused into the rice when they are steamed together. Very good, again.



This is how it looks like when opened.



Spring rolls. I ordered these for Dim who is more conservative in food than me. Indifferent to me.


Steamed pork dumpling "Shao Ron Pao". Nice but not perfect. The juice was not separted from the meat filling. I would liked some vinegar to go with. Dim did not like it as it was quite gingerly (he hates ginger).




This is rice with chicken and broccoli. Nice, but chicken had small bones and difficult to eat.




Total bill was about 18 pounds. A pot of tea is provided for free.

Next in the list is China Court Restaurant.