Bayswater – Page 2 – thekua.com@rest

This Chinese restaurant is my favourite so far along Queensway. Though it’s small and hidden just behind the work that’s going on with the Queensway Tube station, its tiny front room hides the great food on offer for even better prices.

Ignore the strange two door entry that you almost need to fight your way through, and once you manage to adjust to the super attentive waiters and waitresses, you can sit back and enjoy the food that they serve. I’ve eaten here a few times and although I can’t say that it is a super busy as the Four Seasons, or Kam Tong, you see a higher proportion of Chinese people in this restaurant.

The Chilli Salt Tofu is superbly crisp and the duck and rice combinations they put out are better than the ones that they serve down the road and much better than what many offer in Chinatown. There is a set menu on offer, but if you find yourself reaching for it, you should really stop yourself because you miss out on many of different dishes that they offer, of which most of them will be good. New Fortune Cookie is also quite rare as it’s the first Chinese restaurant I’ve seen in London that has Deep Fried Ice Cream on the menu, though it’s not like any of the ones from back home (this one is wrapped has ice cream wrapped in rice paper and fried with a coconut mixture).

Service is super attentive and getting refills for tea is no problem. Food arrives very promptly and although you may feel like they are trying to rush you through your meal, it is just the sort of service that they give – very prompt and efficient. When the end of the meal comes, you enjoy not only a plate of orange slices, but you also get the hot napkin, and like the name, a fortune cookie to laugh over with your fellow diners. Do be wary about staff though asking if you would like to put additional tip if put things onto a card as it is included in the total of your bill.

Details: New Fortune Cookie
Found On: 1 Queensway, London, W2 4QJ
Contactable On: 020 7727 7260
Highlights: Efficient service, great food at decent prices, lots of trimmings including a fortune cookie
Room for improvement: Attendants could be a little less in your face but there is not much physical room
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

Bayswater is a plethora of restaurants because it gets a lot of tourists being right close to Notting Hill and it is also being quite central to the whole of London. I have eaten out at a number of my “locals” but I realised the other day that I hadn’t reviewed many of them. This entry is an attempt at fixing this.

I don’t actually understand why there are so many Asian restaurants along Queensway but there are. It’s not because there is a huge Asian population here, because at least I don’t think there is. Amongst the many Chinese restaurants that are just downstairs from me, Kam Tong is not exactly one of my favourite haunts, but it appears it is for many others. Perhaps its popularity stems because there always seems to be huge crowds there, sometimes even spilling onto the sidewalk, but there is also its fantastic location being almost adjacent to the Queensway tube exit.

The food is decently priced (a huge plate of Char Sui and Rice only £4) and its buzzing atmosphere (surprisingly an equal mix of Western and Asiant people), cloth tablecloths and napkins actually makes this feel like a quality restaurant. I found that there are little things that make this restaurant quite appealing, such as the dish that appears out of nowhere with your food containing three smaller dishes of chilli oil, sweet sour sauce and sliced chillis in vinegar. I have always been automatically given tea when I go there, and from what I remember on the bill, the tea is surprisingly free, unlike many of the others in Chinatown. I also like the fact that the staff automatically server orange segments at the end of the meal, a nice way of cleansing the palate.

Though most dishes are cheap, some of the more exotic ones, like the Hokkien Freid Rice, are a lot more expensive than what others offer in Chinatown, and I can’t say it’s the best food for the price in this area, but at least service is quite consistent and the atmosphere generally much better than most. If you do decide to make a visit to Kam Tong, do come prepared as they have a cash only policy.

Details: Kam Tong
Found on: 59-63 Queensway, London, W2 4QH
Contactable on: 020 7229 6065
Highlights: Fairly cheap Chinese food, lots of different trimmings and so close to the tube, you could crawl your way back.
Room for improvement: Should get a Credit Card machine
The Kua Rating: 6 out of 10