db Eats: Royal China

The Royal China chain has expanded rapidly across London in just a few short years and its owners are adamant that they are far from finished.

Working in conjunction with Anthony Byrne Fine Wines, the chain has introduced a new set menu with wines specifically chosen to complement each dish on the five-course menu.

“We wanted to give our customers an extra dimension to their meals,” explained Royal China general manager Kwong Man Lok when db visited the Baker Street branch to sample the new menu last week.

“As well as improving their dining experience, we also hope that people develop more of an understanding of how wines can enhance typical Chinese cuisine.”

At just £40 per person, including wine, the menu is certainly good value, but does it all add up to an experience that will keep punters coming back for more?

Often, the best bit of any Chinese meal is the Dim Sum. Sadly, this was probably the most disappointing aspect of the menu. db likes its Dim Sum to come in soft, floury parcels that dissolve on the tongue and let the flavour of the filling overpower the pastry.

Unfortunately, all the options in this selection were deep-and-crispy fried, with tough batter dominating the flavours of the seafood rill (diced prawn and scallop, pineapple, carrot and celery salad sauce), golden scallop, deep-fried crab claw and crispy prawn role. The dishes were also accompanied by a helping of crispy seaweed.

The starters were paired, however, with Darling Cellars Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc 2010 from South Africa, which thanks to its high acidity kept the palate relatively fresh as we moved on to more complex courses.

Next out of the kitchen was braised lobster with broth, accompanied by ginger and spring onion. Lobster forks were a must to ensure every last scrap of succulent meat was extracted from the platter of claws that were placed by the table, giving diners the opportunity to eat as little or as much as they like considering there are still another three hearty courses to follow.

The accompanying wine – Steeple Jack Chardonnay 2009 from Australia– carried heavy tropical notes on the nose and slipped down creamily with the lobster, its unoaked nature bringing the fruit to the fore and cooling the spicy broth ahead of the crisp, dry finish.

“Chardonnay has had a little bit of a tough time in recent years,” observed Gary McDonald from Anthony Byrne Fine Wines as we picked and supped our way through the dish.

“After the ‘Footballer’s Wives’ years, when it gained a reputation for its heavy, oaky style, a number of female drinkers decided they simply didn’t like how heavy it was and switched to other varietals.

“Wines such as this are unoaked and as such make for much lighter drinking and make it ideal for pairing with spicy food as it helps keep the palate cool and fresh.”

We swiftly moved on to the British Chinese restaurant staple of crispy aromatic duck with spring onion, cucumber, pancakes and plum sauce. Anyone who has ever been to a Chinese establishment in the past will know exactly what they are getting here, but I was impressed with the crispy skin, which was not at-all greasy, while the duck meat remained tender and full of flavour.

The course was accompanied by Apaltagua Gran Verano 2008. This Chilean Merlot carried a well-defined collection of plum, blackcurrant and ripe red fruit aromas, while the palate of rich plum, dense pepper and ripe tannins did indeed work well with the dominant flavour of the plum sauce.

Careful not to over-fill with two further courses on the way, db and its dining companions were slightly surprised by what came next. We were expecting the stir-fried dover sole with XO and Szechuan sauces, accompanied by La Fattoria Bianco Casetta NV; but we were not expecting the following course of pan fried lamb chop with Honest black bean sauce to be plonked onto the same plate, separated only by a rather flimsy barrier of mixed veg. Incidentally, the lamb chop was served with a glass of Mindiarte Rioja Alta Tinto 2009, which meant that as well as having two meals on one plate, we also had to slurp our way through two glasses of wine.

The pale straw yellow Bianco Casetta, with its fragrant bouquet of flowers and fruit, offset the spicy sauce of the Dover sole dish nicely, ending with lingering apple and apricot flavours, but its effects were rather dulled by the peppery Rioja. Tinto is not as heavily-influenced by oak as a typical Crianza, but balancing the two wines while picking our way through the heavily-contrasting dishes on the plate proved a touch over-complicated and did not allow either wine to really come into its own.

It was a slight shame that the restaurant had chosen to present the final courses in this manner, as until that point everything seemed perfectly suited. However, it is not beyond Royal China to fix this slight problem, or indeed for the diner to insist that the two dishes are served separately.

As I said earlier, a meal such as this in London, at just £40 per person with wine, has to be among the best-value five-course dinners available in the city. The wines do their job and it is refreshing to see a number of brands which consumers might not have heard of before taking pride of place on the menu.

With some slightly softer Dim Sum and a realisation that two dishes into one doesn’t really go, Royal China could be on to a real winner with its winter set menu.

Royal China branches can be found at the following London locations:

Baker Street
Canary Wharf
Bayswater
Harrow-on-the-Hill
Fulham

Alan Lodge, 05.10.2010