Last Monday night, I and another food blogger were given an
eleven dish feast to test at Royal China restaurant in Bandra. Tough life isn’t it?
Royal China is far from the average Chinese restaurant to be
found in Mumbai. Far, far from
average. For one, the food to be found
there is authentic Cantonese cuisine.
Not the usual mish-mash of ‘fusion’ oriental food that is popular in
this city. I really do not like a
restaurant that can’t make up its mind. And although there are some set menus
available at lunchtime (for 850 Rs + taxes), it’s a la carte all the way in the
evenings. There is always a member of staff on hand to guide you through the menu,
and you can even look up pictures of all the dishes on an Ipad - if you need
help visualizing some of the more unusual items on offer.
 |
| Prawn Dumplings |
We kicked off our meal with a selection of delectable dim sum, which are individual parcels of food traditionally served in steamer baskets or small plates. I’ve eaten a fair bit of dim sum in my life – including at our very own Chinatown back home in London. And I can tell you now – that the dim sum we sampled at Royal China is world class.
To begin with, four dim sum showcasing four different types
of cooking techniques were brought out to us: Steamed prawn dumplings (har gau), chicken & prawn sui mai, roast pork puffs and fried
prawn cheung fun. The dishes were presented
with a flourish and placed on the Lazy Susan in front of us (a revolving inner
table that allows each person to conveniently access the dishes).
 |
| Prawn & Pork Sui Mai |
When the lids were lifted off the bamboo dim sum baskets, a
waft of steam escaped carrying a fragrant hint of what was to come. As I tried to grapple with the sticky prawn
dumpling with my chopsticks, I found the casings to be nicely elastic and the
prawns wonderfully plump. The delicious quartet
of open-topped sui mai (a particular favourite of mine) were densely packed
with finely minced prawn and pork.
Admittedly, I had never had roast pork puffs until now – and
since sampling them here at Royal China, I am now a big fan; substantial triangles
of baked puff pastry encasing a moist char sui pork filling. These would make a great snack at any time of
the day.
 |
| Roast Pork Puffs |
The biggest surprise came in the form of the prawn cheung
fun. Cheung fun are usually long, cannelloni-like
filled rolls of steamed rice pasta that are divided into
bite size pieces. But these particular ones were unusual in that they had first
been deep fried in filo pastry and then rolled in a rice casing and then
steamed. So first you sink your teeth into a sticky outer followed by the
crispy inner. Novel! And I reckon this
cheung fun must be quite a culinary feat to prepare.
 |
| Cheung Fun |
Next on the menu were a couple of deep fried appetizers – Salt & Pepper Squid and Smoked Shredded Chicken, the latter
making a change from the ubiquitous shredded chilli beef and making good
‘picky’ food to chew over whilst mid-conversation. The squid proved a little too salty for us (although we still ate
every last scrap!), but it was just a good excuse to rehydrate with more white
wine. Speaking of which, you won’t find
Sula on the menu either – Royal China serves from a list of handpicked Indian
Fratelli and International wines. I had a light and crisp French Sauvignon
Blanc to accompany my meal.
 |
| Salt & Pepper Squid |
The piece de resistance for any Cantonese restaurant has to
be Crispy Aromatic Duck. Whenever Crispy Aromatic Duck is available, I
make a point of having it. But you don’t
often see it on Mumbai menus. So when
they presented it to us at Royal China, I was absolutely delighted. Again I wasn’t disappointed with the cooking. The duck was pink with sweet-scented, crispy skin
– just as it should be – and when rolled up into the steamed pancakes with the fresh
cucumber and spring onion and then topped with plum sauce, made me go into
dreamland! To be honest I could have
ended the meal right there and then on that high note.
 |
| Crispy Aromatic Duck |
But by this point, we were still on the wrong side of the middle
point of the meal. There are still six
main course dishes to sample as well as two desserts. Am I going to make it?
Thankfully there was a nice breather and conversation time
in between courses. There is one thing that I can’t stand is having your food
brought out quickly and being made to rush.
There’s none of that here – the smartly uniformed staff provide a
service that is attentive yet unobtrusive.
Again, the main courses (four dishes served with rice and
noodles) didn’t disappoint. But so much
food was brought out, that it covered the every spare inch of the Lazy Susan;
We were treated to many of Royal China’s signature dishes; Chicken in Black Bean Sauce; Prawns
in Chilli Oil; Lamb with Ginger and
Spring Onion; Royal China Exotic
Vegetables; Egg Fried Rice and Hong Kong Noodles accompaniments. The stand out dish for me was the Lamb – the
generously chopped ginger adding a zingy and uplifting element to the recipe. Plus the lamb was of the sheep variety – not
mutton.
 |
| Main Course |
The mixed vegetable dish was also very
interesting – it contained at least four types of mushrooms including exotic
shitake and wood ear – as well as lotus root, tender asparagus, carrots and
baby sweet corn. The prawns were large
and succulent – a main course in their own right and accompanied by the chef’s
own chilli oil (available to buy at the cash desk on your way out), and the
chicken in black bean sauce definitely stands out amongst its competitors. What I really appreciated about the cooking
her at Royal China, is that the sauces cling
to the ingredients – you won’t find anything drowning in bright red gloop
and the food is never over-gravied. The accompaniments were excellent – fluffy
and non-greasy egg fried rice and non-gloopy noodles. Just as I like them!
 |
| Lamb With Ginger & Spring Onion |
Incidentally, we are told that all the
Chefs are brought over from China to cook at this restaurant. It’s not the usual case of training up Indian
chefs and then departing for the homeland – leading to inauthenticity and the bad
cooking habits that I have commonly found in other foreign branded restaurants.
Obviously by this time, I am fit to
burst. But there are two more items to
sample for dessert. Toffee Bananas and
Chocolate Mud Cake, both served with vanilla ice cream. Now, banana fritters are something I consider
myself an expert on. But at the same time, I can take them or leave them. After all it’s just a banana deep fried in
batter and covered in cheap sugary syrup right?
WRONG! First of all I need a fork
to hold down this toffee banana version – and then a spoon to crack through the
stiff, toffee caramel. Inside, the banana
was soft and squidgy. The whole thing was simply divine! We were fighting over the last remaining
toffee banana and surprisingly it ended up being the highlight of my meal. And I don’t even have a particularly sweet
tooth. As for the chocolate mud cake? It
was nice but I preferred the toffee banana.
 |
| Toffee Banana |
Overall, I found the meal to be
outstandingly good. I have eaten at both
the much-hyped Hakkasan and Yauatcha but the cooking at Royal China more than
matches the standard of those two restaurants (personally, I find it better and
more straight-forward). What’s more, the
servings at Royal China are generous – the same certainly cannot be said for Yauatcha!
The restaurant was busy for a Monday
night – with a mixture of couples and families and the odd businessman. The service was excellent and the ambience
was cosy yet elegant. “I’ll be back!”
(PS: Please note that
although we did not pay for this meal, I expressed to the marketing manager
that I only bother to write a review if I like a restaurant…in the interests of
making good recommendations to the expat community).
- BombayJules
To read other posts by BombayJules click here
Royal China is located at Bandra and Fort, for addresses click here
No comments:
Post a Comment