Valentines Day. A day of love, a love for not only your partner but for your family, for your friends, a day to celebrate life itself. And what better way to celebrate life than to go to a fancy shmancy restaurant with your girlfriends.
So, I got my girls together and off we went to Park Chinois. I pick my friends wisely (or they picked me wisely I should say) and we have eaten out a lot, but none of us had been to PC, so naturally we were quite excited. Especially given that there were quite a few halal dishes on the menu, which is always exciting.
The restaurant itself was dimly lit, very romantic and had some amazing live jazz music. The vibe at the restaurant was amazing.
And off we went on a frenzy of ordering every halal dish on the menu and more! For starters, we got Wasabi Prawns and Wagyu Beef Gyoza. The lighting was so bad and the conversation was so good that I didn’t take too many photos..
The Wasabi Prawns were really crispy, so much flavour but sooo much wasabi, it was overpowering and overwhelming – we almost had to wipe the wasabi off to make it edible. So basically we just had a few plain prawns for £19 but they were still good so it was fine.
Didn’t take a picture of it, but the Wagyu Beef Gyoza (£16) was amazing! The beef was beautifully cooked and spiced, but there was definitely an unknown taste that didn’t feel too Chinesey, but it was a good little starter regardless.
Mains and we ordered everything – Braised Chilean Wagyu Beef Short Ribs, Crispy Corn-Fed Chicken with Chilli Mango Sauce, Grilled Black Cod, Tofu with Australian Beef.
So real talk .. the Beef was OUT OF THIS WORLD! It literally dissolved in my mouth pretty much as soon as it hit my tongue and all the hundreds of taste buds in my mouth had a party like it was 1999!! Just amazing, I could have licked that plate clean!
The Mango Chicken was good, not amazing just good. The chicken itself was very dry and were it not for the sauce would have been a very average dish.
The tofu and beef tasted very odd – the sharp tastes of the Sichuan were misplaced somewhere in between the chillies. It really didn’t taste Chinese at all.. more like Malay.
Now, if you know me, you’ll know I love a black cod! I have it everywhere I go because it’s an easy win.. everyone does a decent black cod, right??? WRONG! I have to say the worst dish was the black cod – it was almost inedible. The consistency was harsh, it tasted of something very odd and left a very weird taste in my mouth almost as if it had gone off (but it hadn’t!)
You know something is wrong when the nicest part of a main meal are the noodles…
We were all left a bit dissatisfied with the meal altogether. The food was not your usual Chinese flavours – there were dishes of oddly fitted paneer on the menu which was very odd – honestly it was hard to work out what cuisine this restaurant was trying to be! We later found out that PC is owned by an Indian, but their chefs are Malaysian.. which isn’t the best if combinations when you’re pretending to be a Chinese restaurant! *facepalm* !!
We were so unsatisfied with the meal that we didn’t even order dessert! The bill was the most disappointing of them all though.. £500 for 4 people for a meal that was not even worth £200! When we expressed our dissatisfaction to the manager, he was rude, unhelpful and quite annoyed that we didn’t like the food. To add to our annoyance further, they offered to take off the service charge, which was a shame because our waiter was lovely. But we were definitely not going to pay £500 for a meal we all hated. Sigh. Although their toilets were TINY, they sure were pretty…
Food – 3 out of 10
Service – 5 out of 10
Atmosphere – 6out of 10
Experience – 2 out of 10
Overall, giving Park Chinois a total TLH score of 2 out of 10.
I mean.. at least we looked pretty 🙂
Address: 17 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London. W1J 8EA
Website: www.parkchinois.com
Halal Status: there are a number of halal dishes on the menu, duck needs to be pre ordered, alcohol is served.
Meh.. let me know if you guys had a better experience.
Till next time, love you all x