Golden Pagoda

I was definitely not looking forward to another Chinese restaurant in Chinatown after the disappointment of the New World Restaurant. However, I am happy to announce that, either my standards for Chinese has lowered dramatically or that Golden Pagoda actually delivers acceptable Chinese food in a city full of duds.

Food

It was an almost typical Chinese feast, albeit with some English touches (plastic flowers for decorations, prawn crackers…). We started off with some roast duck with pancake wraps. They don’t skin it in front of you, it’s nowhere as good as the Four Seasons and not even close to the one we had at Da Dong in Beijing. Still, the meat was moist enough, even though the skin was not that great, and you can make anything taste good with hoi sin sauce.

After the initial thrill of that course, all the dishes arrived quickly

• stir-fried Chinese greens - so simple and so nice, but surprisingly easy to eat wrong.
• crispy-skin chicken - skin is better than the duck’s, otherwise, dull.
• pork knuckle - too fatty for my taste, and the sauce a bit too salty
• mushroom and fat beef hot pot - I love enoki!! The beef made the soup quite tasty.
• salt and pepper spare ribs - I love this one, the ribs meaty and the coating superb.
• beef in bean sauce - classic stir-fry. Honey tasting sauce.
• tofu balls with vegetables - the tofu balls are a bit too doughy and not tofu-tasting enough, the vegetables also a bit limp and tasteless.

No freebie desserts for us, maybe they don’t do it in London. I thought since there were so many of us, at least they would give us something, but no, only a plate of oranges to share.

Rating - 5.5

Atmosphere

Another worn out restaurant, it’s beginning to look like all Chinatown restaurant look great on the outside, but is dirty and dingy and old on the inside. This one is in a narrow space, but extends up 3 levels. We were sitting at the top, so had to hike up there. The room was so narrow it was very hard to fit any big tables in, and there’s not much space between the tables and the noise can get quite loud as a consequence.

Rating - 1

Service

Well, we made a booking, but they didn’t actually have space to fit us in at the time we specified, so we were left in a holding areas, with some people having to stand, while we waited for a group of people to leave. We managed to get our table ½ hour after our original booking. AND they actually hadn’t set the table yet, so they did it while we were already seated. In terms of service, they served us with the bordering on rudeness and indifference of most of London’s restaurants. Because we didn’t get to sit until after 8:30, everyone else had left the restaurant, so we actually had a dedicated waiter. Our table was filled up most of the time though.

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

£17 p.p, including wine and paying for the b’day boy, so I would say it’s pretty good value, considering we were pretty full by the end of it.

Rating - 1

Brownie Points - 10

Info

15a Gerrard St
London
W1D 6JD
Phone+44 (0) 20 7434 2888