Royal China

I know I had seemed to be rejoicing at the end of my run of back luck in restaurants but it seemed I was a bit premature.

In any case, the meal started off well.  We didn’t have to queue for once as it is usually extremely busy and can lead to extensive waiting times.  This should have been my first warning.  I have been a loyal customer to this restaurant for years now and have been here maybe 30+ times?  It always seemed busy and full of life although I heartily enjoyed the more relaxing atmosphere.

We ordered all the usuals for dim sum.

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Yummy egg tarts.  A bit cold but still with a crispy shell and soft centre.

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Minced pork and shrimp dumpling (Shaomai).  Not bad although slightly more gristly than usual (maybe it was a more stringy pig in the grinder that day).

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Roast pork buns (Charsiusou).  My favourite dim sum dish.  Good although a bit oily.  Maybe they were too busy and left things to cool in the kitchen.  More on this later.

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Prawn dumplings (Hargow).  Not bad with the minced prawns contained in delicate pastry fillings – these little dumplings were a joy to eat.

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Little treasure buns (Xiaolongbao).  These are little dumplings which contained delicious soup and pork fillings.  Care needs to be used when picking these up though lest you pierce the skin and all the lovely juice runs out.

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In hind sight I should have enjoyed my soup dumplings a little more.  I should have known that lunch was going too well and that something bad would be coming.  For the next dish, which was crab dumplings, I dished it out onto my plate and then my fellow diner noticed a little extra protein in the bowl.  Maybe it decided to visit when the food was left to cool a bit.

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Someone doing the backstroke in the soup.

Hmmm…

When I questioned the waiter about this unasked for addition, I was told “it’s summer, sometimes these things happen.”  So… I guess this means that standards drop when the sun shines as the staff can’t wait to get out?  No apology then… The waiter did not even offer to bring another dish or take it off the bill.  Not that I would have had the soup at this point.  Strangely I just wasn’t hungry anymore.  When I tried to bring this nutritional extra to the attention of more senior staff, I was accused of putting it in myself.  Although I did find the food a bit bland, I think that action would be beyond me.  Disastrous food only compounded by horrible service.  We cancelled the rest of the meal due to this surprise.  The first time I have done so in London.  At least in the other restaurants where I have had issue, there was some attempt to address my issue.  Not so here.  I guess I would only rank them lower if I found a little family of insects in my food.  I have to leave the 1/10 score untouched for the moment to leave me some room to maneuver.  After all, got to leave something for the meal that kills me.

 

A quiet eating 2/10.

Lunch (all of the above) was GBP10 without service and drinks.  It was so cheap as we stopped eating half way.

 

Royal China

30 Westferry Circus
London
E14 8RR

 

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