Merry Christmas babies!!
My very pregnant sister came to visit me for lunch yesterday, now this would not be my usual choice of food for a quick bite to eat but as she is quite immobile of late and does not get to come to town much, I thought it was only fair I took her and somewhere nice to eat and what better place in Knightsbridge than Chai Wu! Chai Wu is a pan-asian restaurant located on the 5th floor of my second home, Harrods. It is a bit of an unusual yet absolutely brilliant location – unusual because you will have to go through the men’s sport section on the 5th floor and will think you’ve come to the wrong place yet brilliant because what better to unwind and relax after your many purchases (as is usually the case with me in Harrods!)
As soon as you enter the restaurant you can see that wood has played a huge part in the interior which I love. Even though the restaurant itself is not huge, you can see the diversity of the interior – when you enter you see a magnificent bar in the centre of the restaurant where they prepare and serve lobsters, sushi and other cold meats.The rest of the restaurant has a very warm feel with, continuing on with the wood effect, along with brown sofas and chairs makes it feel very welcoming and cosy.
Now don’t be put off by the affluent person sitting on the table next to you talking about how her £3million house was getting small for her and her 3 dogs. Yes true story! Remember you are in Harrods!
As always, we started off with a few mocktails whilst we perused the menu from cover to cover.
Now, I can guarantee that Chai Wu is totally halal. I know this because not only did we ask the very friendly waitress what meats were halal, but as I wanted to know for sure before advertising it to you lovely people, I actually asked to see their Halal Certificates, which they were more than happy to do, albeit after a strange glance at me! Nothing I’m not used to when asking to see their halal certifications! The only thing on the menu that isnt halal is the Japanese Miyazaki Striploin of Beef which is part of their Charcoal Grill menu.
Making a big statement here, but if you were to have one dish and one dish alone from the whole menu at Chai Wu better make it the Coconut Prawns. From the photographs I had seen of this dish, I expected them to be prawns coated in crispy coconut, however the Coconut Prawns are much more than that, they are coated in a thick luscious gravy of grated coconut. Its not too liquidy but the coconut just melts in your mouth and if you, like me, love coconut this is the one you HAVE to try.
You can have it on its own but I ordered a side of Jasmine Rice to go with it which was great as well. The portions were just right to share between 2 people (possibly even 3)
The other dish which I loved were the Wagyu Puffs, which come in 3’s. These little parcels of amazingness were perfect, even though the portions were enough for 3 people, one of each of these beauties didn’t feel enough. The beef was so tender and not too chewy, the sauce on top of the puffs had a strong taste but bot too overpowering. Loved this so much had to get a few portions.
Next, we went for the Sweet and Sour Chicken Served in a Dragon Fruit. The presentation of this dish was more impressive than the dish itself.
The sweet and sour chicken was a bit too crispy for my liking, it was almost too tough to chew, which was a shame. The dragon fruit added to the taste and the combination was very interesting. However, despite this I felt the Chicken was overall pretty bland with not enough flavour to it. Full marks for presentation though!
No matter how stuffed we were after all this, we persevered to dessert. No meal is ever complete without dessert and thankfully My sister is eating for 2 so I had every excuse in the world if I needed it! The dessert menu is not too extensive but the lovely waitress was so excited about the Green Tea Fondant and kept saying how she can guarantee its amazing, so I went for it. But to her dismay, I didn’t really like it.. At all. The green tea was way too overpowering and the chocolate was very dry. It was accompanied with white chocolate ice cream, which just made a bad situation worse as I really don’t like white chocolate! But the waitress was so sweet, she noticed I barely touched my dessert so replaced it with something else and didn’t even charge me for it – RESULT!
Overall I would say the service was excellent, the vibe was great and the food was good but not amazing. I felt the food, for what it was worth could have been a little more. My sister was a little shocked at the price to say the least.
Some more photos ..
Food. 7 out of 10
Service 9 out of 10
Ambiance 8 out of 10
Uniqueness 6 out of 10
All in all, I would recommend trying Chai Wu out for the Coconut Prawns if anything. Totally obsessed with them, even though TLH is more of an eater than a cooker, I might have to make an exception and get a recipe to attempt these at home… But that’s a whole other blogpost!! Moreover, I love that this restaurant is inside Harrods which means you could shop to heart’s content then come and eat to your heart’s content – win win situ! Phew for Chai Wu!!
Watch this space for that!
Till then, let me know your thoughts about this restaurant and anything else food related.
Lots of love,
TLH