Last night, Robert and I had dinner at Plum Valley on Gerrard Street in Chinatown as we were looking for a cheap eat near to Leicester Square. I booked through toptable as they were offering 50 per cent off food except for set menus which seemed like a good deal.
The restaurant dubs itself as "Chinese fine dining". The dark restaurant facade certainly lends itself to this and the decor was sleek - (apparently not dissimilar to Hakkasan, Robert said, though i haven't had the luck of being taken there with work yet) but the Lazy Susan didn't exude fine dining even if the prices did.
The restaurant staff were a little odd, though attentive and Robert thought the Oriental mix playing in the background was a rehash of an old AC/DC song. But that aside, it had a nice atmosphere and we scored a cosy little corner seat for plenty of people watching.
To start, we shared the dim sum platter which had six generously sized dumplings filled with prawn and scallops and salt and chilli squid which was delicious.
For main I had a nest of crispy shredded beef with mango which was nice enough but was more foil tin than fine dining and Robert had slow braised pork belly which was much better. We had some special fried rice alongside, washed down with two glasses of pinot noir at £4.50 a glass.
I really enjoyed the meal up until about two thirds of the way through when I bit into something that didn't taste quite right. Feta-like in a sort of gone off way. Yuck. I'm pretty sure there wasn't suppose to be cheese in any of the dishes we ordered.
Robert unfortunately didn't get a share of this and thought I was going mad. He blamed it on the "Wotsit" shaped beef twiglets but I'm certain it was something in the rice and anyway the aftertaste was there to stay and soured my memory of all the other positives.
I would go back, despite the cheesy rice though probably only if there was an offer on as I can't see how they justify the prices with the likes of Ping-pong and Yauatcha which dominate nearby. The waitress initially tried to charge us full whack and the bill came to around £60 which I wouldn't have been happy paying. I've heard the lunchtime dim-sum menu is good with an innovative take on old classics so I'd probably be inclined to try it in the daytime and stick to Imperial China for dinner which is a few shop-fronts along offering consistent food, clichéd interiors and a cheaper eat.
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