thekua.com@rest

Recently I went along to Alan Yau’s latest Japanese themed restaurant that also won Time Out’s Best Restaurant for Design. It looks impressive, yet I have to say the overall experience disappointed and I’d rather spend the money at more traditional places like Sushi Say.

The design…

Taking over what looks like the first two floors of an office lobby, you enter via automatic round doors guarded by a bouncer into a rather non descript lobby. We almost missed the place with tiny small lettering only visible when you’re standing almost right next to it. To your left as you enter, is a less formal sushi bar, with the dining room accessible by a set of two tiny escalators moving up and down. You check in at the tiny desk at the front before a an attendant seats you at the bar while you wait for your table. The tiny escalators, perhaps intentionally designed to induce a claustrophic sensation, take you to an even tinier coridor.

The dining room sits underneath an array of light wooden square frames creating sharp and contrasting options with soft yellow lights casting their glow in the circular dining room. Around the outside perimeter of the building, diners sit at more traditional tables where they need to remove their shoes before seating, with the inside used to host regular tables and chairs. Though impressive looking, I’m really not so sure why they got voted the best design as I’ve seen better at other places.

The service…

For a place that should have been astonishing with their service, I’m afraid these people are still practicing. I was already put off by being made to wait at the bar when the restaurant was clearly empty, and I’m sure our table clear. Instead we were made to wait at small tables near the bar, until we ordered.

We asked for tap water, that they ended up serving in a tiny 200mL glass. I wouldn’t have worried so much except that they didn’t give us a jug and the attendants only refilled them once throughout the night, despite the sodium rich food leaving you wanting more liquid. I’m sure that had we been paying their £3.75 per bottle of water, or more for wine, they would have been better.

When the food arrived, it somehow took two people to serve the samll plates of food each time – one to hold it, the other to put it and present it on the table. The final straw was when it took at least fifteen minutes for them to bring the bill after asking for it specifically and giving up trying to make eye contact with at least one attendant in another fifteen minutes.

The food…

Since they opened, it’s obvious that they have listened to the feedback offered by numerous reviewers. Unlike before, the menu is now roughly grouped into different areas like fried, grilled, stewed, appetisers, and the dishes significantly larger than the others marked as “for 2” or “for 3”. Their menu still lacks descriptions so be prepared to be very adventerous, read up before going, or already know a lot of Japanese dishes. Having eaten at many Japanese places, I didn’t really know what to expect from a number of them, although I could take some rough guesses.

We tried a few new dishes including the sesame aubergine, tempura figs with yuzu salt and the soft pork ribs. Out of them, I’d have to say the ribs were the best that, although not fall of the bone soft, were actually pretty easy to eat even with chopsticks. The meat was sweet with the vegetables served with it providing lots of flavour. The tempura figs provided a sharp contrast to the strongly flavoured citrus infused salt. I can’t say that the dishes, as good as they were are worth the money you pay for at this restaurant.

Conclusion…

I get the feeling most people dine here to see and be seen. As much as a unique Japanese experience Yau wanted to create, I’d rather go to a proper Japanese restaurant than return to a place that obviously still has teething problems.

Value for money: 4/10
Food: 7/10
Service: 4/10
Atmosphere: 6/10

Overall rating: 5/10

I caught up with a friend for lunch here last Sunday, with a combination of dim sum and their famed xiao long bao. For those unaccustomed to the latter dish, imagine a soft steamed dumpling pinched together barely enclosing a meat filling buoyed in a mouthful of soup. Eating it straight from the steaming basket invites a burning mouth if you’re not careful. The customary way of eating it, is to place a dumpling on the soup spoon, pinching a tiny hole in the dumpling before seasoning with either the dipping sauce they give you or some chilli. This is one of the rare places to serve these dumplings, as you can imagine the hard labour making them, so £5 for eight seemed reasonable enough. The pastry wasn’t as doughy as I had read other reviewers write about, though the soup inside was definitely just as tasty.

The rest of the dim sum dishes we had were fairly sub-standard, considering the other competition all around them in Chinatown. Although each dish is cheap, with most priced at £1.80 or £2.00, the quality really reflects the price. The cheung fun (rice noodle rolls) barely held any filling, and the char xiu bao (steam BBQ pork buns) disappointingly unbalanced with mostly bread, and a bland filling. Considering that this is a Taiwanese place, I would stick to some of the dishes they specialise in, and skip what dim sum dishes you may be tempted by.

I found the atmosphere intriguing as well, where diners sit at rectangular dark wooden slate tables unlike the round white table clothed ones you’d find in restaurants nearby. Almost kitschy decorations in the form of armaments stand next to the staircase, towering over all the diners though obviously not very real.

Considering that we only spent £20 between the two of us, and we walked out of here considerably satisfied, I would come back when you want something a little bit different from the typical offerings of Chinatown.

Thekua.com Rating: 7 out of 10

I remember first reading about this place as one that apparently the Prime Minister of Malaysia used to come and eat at when visiting town. It also happens to feature quite frequently in the listings in Time Out magazine.

It looks small on the outside, and you can tell they’ve put in as many as tables as they could without making it too uncomfortable. The top floor entrance seemed buzzing with people, and with our 8:30pm booking, we ended up downstairs where it was a little bit less frenzied and a bit more relaxed. Large teardrop lightings fill the olive green painted walls with warmth with the dark brown square tables providing a sharp contrast to the dining atmosphere. They even had a more intimate dining ‘alcove’ downstairs which we saw one party fill, complete with mini teardrop downlights and black pseudo-leather couches.

Compared to a lot of other places, I have to say that their menu all looked really tempting and it was pretty hard to stay focused without being distracted by all they had to offer. Their menu is organised around rice, noodle, sides, chicken, beef, fish, prawn, vegetable and for those who can’t make up their minds, a series of different set menus matching both appetite and budget (£15.50 – £26.50)

All of their dishes really impressed me and I thought worth the little bit more that they charge. The very simple Nasi Aayam (steamed chicken with rice served with soy and chilli sauce) remained thoroughly moist and flavourful, even without the dipping sauces. The satay sticks had their perfect amount of smokiness, and also remained moist with the only downside being the peanut sauce not being as spicy as I would have liked it (and understanding that it typically isn’t that spicy). I also liked the fact that their mee goreng (friend noodles) contained plenty of flavour and not just soy sauce as evident from the heat given off from whatever chilli paste they used throughout it.

The only fault I can really give this restaurant was the rather lack lustre service that was never in your face yet, nor was it particularly attentive when you did want something.

TheKua.com Rating: 7 out of 10