It has taken us quite some time to test out Haozhan in Chinatown. Haozhan, which apparently translates to “A great place to eat” was added to the mix in about June 2007 – tough it has felt less like less time than that. One of the main reasons I’ve never visited was that Haozhan is not what I would typically expect of a Chinese restaurant with its bright green and black colourings and modern look – I’d never even really looked at the menu! However, my taste London card currently offers me 2-for-1 on meals so why waste an opportunity like that.

The menu is quite different to anything I’ve seen at any other modern Chinese restaurant and that includes places such as Hakkasan and Plum Valley. Offerings include Scallop Kataifi, Prawn Baguette, Coffee Ribs, Marmite Prawns and Haozhan Cream of Pumpkin for dessert. Those who with less adventurous palettes also have more traditional favourites such as Crispy Duck, Lemon Chicken, and Sweet and Sour Chicken.

Patrick and I got the menu and were like wah! We want to try everything! However we settled for the following dishes:

Jasmine Ribs. Patrick loved this dish. Perfectly soft and the right level of sauciness without having that stewed consistency. This would probably be ordered again (although I would try the coffee ribs next time first just to try it out – we were tempted to get both but that would have just been greedy!)

Chilli Quail. I don’t think I’ve tasted quail which has been cooked quite as perfectly as this dish. The quail itself was moist and tender and the garnishing of spring onion, salt and chilli was simply divine. Don’t be misled by the fact it looks a right mess in the picture.

Assam Prawns. I must admit if I hadn’t seen the picture of this one on the menu it wouldn’t have occurred to me to order this. The most gigantic prawns I’ve ever seen in a special Malaysian curry sauce (supposedly made with a blend of thirty ingredients!) served in a big bread bowl. So filling!

Golden Honey Cod was up next for us. This was a baked black cod with sweet honey glaze sauce served on a bed of asparagus. Okay so it wasn’t so much a bed of asparagus as a couple of sticks but we could forgive it because the cod was so good. Pretty decent portion, so meaty and so very tasty.

Seafood Fried Rice which we were hoping was the saucy kind but it wasn’t 🙁 Still tasty though.

And finally, the dish I’d been waiting for – the Deep Fried Ice Cream. I was eating this however full I had. Both Pat and I ordered it and the waitress was like – would you like to order different desserts so you can taste different ones? Both Pat and I immediately said no. heh heh. We wanted one each! It was nearly exactly what I was hoping for though the tomato sauce on it was a bit strange – must remember to ask for topping and no tomato sauce next time! It was supposed to be a strawberry sauce!

Price-wise you could definitely accumulate a giant bill at Haozhan but also I think it was fairly reasonably priced for the portion sizes and quality of the food you get. If you go for all the expensive dishes like seafood and wagyu beef then you shouldn’t be surprised at the massive bill. Prices for appetisers averaged around £6-£10 and main meals £10-£15 rising to £15-30 for seafood. Interestingly service was applied to our bill after the discount so our total bill was even cheaper

I was really impressed with Haozhan. The service was excellent and very friendly. A sign of a really good restaurant is that when they cleaned the table they didn’t just sweep the food to the floor but swept it to on to a plate. Additionally, food wasn’t rushed out and they didn’t try to put too much on the table at once. They even tried to help us out on menu choices which was nice. We felt we could actually take our time eating which is pleasant especially when you order as much food as we did. Water came out quickly and was topped up regularly without us having to ask.

I like!