Mandarin Kitchen

Chinese seafood feast

Located in Queensway, the unofficial second China Town in London, Mandarin Kitchen is considered one of the best Chinese restaurants in London and it is famous for its Chinese style seafood. Chinese value seafood as a luxury and usually are the most expensive items on the menu in most Chinese restaurants, it has been a long time since I had a seafood feast in London so I was very excited when Mandarin Kitchen came into my knowledge as quality Chinese seafood is a rarity in London. 

Mandarin Kitchen

We kicked off the dinner with some giant steamed razor clams, the dressing of the soy sauces and the dash of chili went great with the smooth texture of the razor clam, the only problem was the clam still had some sand inside which meant it wasn't prepared properly. This was followed by a quality steamed crab, cooked in Chinese rice wine and glass noodles. It had a powerful richness and punch from the rice wine and it worked so well with the sweet and soft crab meat. 

razor clams

steamed crab cooked in rice wine

The house special lobster cooked with spring onion and ginger had a wonderful aroma, the spices level was just right and really enhanced the tender texture of the lobster meat with the noodle absorbing all the lovely flavours of the lobster. The baked prawn with rice in lotus leaf sealed all the lovely herbal and earthy taste flavours from the lotus leaf, the rice itself had a silky texture and it was another well made Chinese classic.

lobster with spring onion and ginger

mushrooms in garlic and ginger sauce

baked prawn rice in lotus

Overall it was an impressive dinner from Mandarin Kitchen, it managed to create some classic Chinese dishes in a solid manner as far as London standards goes. Service, as you would expect from most Chinese restaurants, was decent at best, while they do help carve the seafood and dishes up for each diner, they did so with no interest and character whatsoever, seeming like their minds were elsewhere. But that aside, Mandarin Kitchen does deliver quality Chinese seafood and few can match it.

Food 6
Service 4
Ambience 3
Value 7

£35 per head with tea

14 Queensway  Bayswater, UK W2 3RX