China Garden

You know it’s good. Why? Because the chefs are Chinese, the staff are Chinese and the people that eat there are mostly Chinese
Especially good for dim sum, try loads of different dishes at a reasonable price. Evening dinners are more expensive but Till great.
Recommend the mix meat crispy noodles!

China Garden, the upmarket alternative to China China, sits on the corner of Preston Street flanked by a couple of angry looking stone lions. Inside it’s all swish porclelain, live pianist and swanky linen, a touch on the 70s side perhaps — in fact you could imagine it being in an episode of The Saint — presuming Simon Templar went in for aromatic crispy fried duck. I’ve been here a handful of times: on my thirtieth birthday, on my girflriend’s thirtieth birthday, and another time on my credit card. It’s always lovely, the food a cut above the rest of the Chinese in the city, and the service is immaculate.

It was New Years Eve and we were out looking for somewhere cheap and quick to eat. After heading to our favorite local take away, Bangkok Express, and seeing it close before our very eyes, we walked, disillusioned, up Preston Road and a shining orange light caught our eyes, as did some pretty low prices. After a parade of merriment and theatrical dancing passed us by, we entered.
We opened the door to an empty room, except for an exceptionally friendly smile peeking over a counter of grand proportions on the other side of the room. As we moved closer we found that the smile was just on a very short woman and the counter was only slightly taller than usual. A menu was enthusiastically thrust into each of our hands and after much deliberation and some amusing banter with the smiley lady about our friend’s vegetarianism we decided on some Singapore Fried Rice, Chicken Chow Mein and Vegetable Chow Mein, which all came to £10.70 with a bag of Prawn Crackers thrown in. We didn’t have to wait for long, but the time flew by with our new friend behind the counter entertaining us and we left with a smile on our faces and some very average food in our hands.