Walking past the phone kiosk between Bexters News and Sun On one comes to the entrance of 229 High Street. This business, opposite BHS variously describes itself as a Noodle Bar, a Buffet, a Restaurant and a Cafe. Its a bit of each.
Opening at midday, they offer a counter of ready cooked items which customers can choose from. The heaped plates cost from £2.70 to eat in or the food can be taken away in a box from £2.20. This is good value by anyone's standard. The shop closes at 11.00pm. Every day is a business day.
There is a quite extensive take-away menu for people who want to order particular dishes, which has not been revised, I notice, since 2004. The food is described as Peking and Cantonese cuisine. There are some points that can be made about this: Thai Curry (Chicken £2.90, Beef £3.20, Prawn £3.60) and Szechuan dishes (Chicken £2.90, Beef £3.20, King Prawn £3.60, Mixed vegetables with bean curd £2.90) come from neither region. Other of these dishes would not be recognised in most of China, particularly the Lemon Chicken (£3.20, £3.30 served with boiled rice, £3.60 with fried rice or chow mein.) But these obvious points are beside the point. This is cheap food, served in good portions to a willing public, even if it is are not always very authentic. The vegetarian options are genuinely vegetarian, which is often not the case in Chinese restaurants in China. The restaurant was clean when I looked in, and the food for the buffet was being freshly cooked, by a lively staff who appeared to me to be enthusiastic about their work.
Tel: 0208 223 0345 or 0208 521 3822. Free deliveries on orders over £10 after 6.00pm. Next door to the right is Awesome Games.
2008-03-19 @ 02:05