Ba Shan

Does not worth the price at all, I could probably cook better. I am from the Hunan area (the restaurant is a Hunan cuisine restaurant) and I would say their food is not authentic, service is poor as well.

This is perfect for a group of Chinese who is getting sick of Fish and chips and Italians, and miss Chinese food.

Mmm. Nothing mind blowing, but it’s a good Hunanese spot, with plenty of hearty dishes. Considering its position in the middle of Chinatown (just behind Leicester Square) it would probably deserve one more star, but my taste prevent me from doing it.
Beware, everything here is spicy. You are advised. I mean you are really advised, the first page of the menu says so!
The choice of dishes is vast (damn, there are probably 60 dishes on it!) and service comes in the classical chinese style, dishes flowing in no precise order and put in the middle of the table ready to be shared.
It must be said, they do really deliver what they say: we did not taste a single dish which wasn’t hot. Every single dish was covered with red chilli. And here comes the main issue. Nothing is extremely spicy, but the abuse of the very same kind of chilli in every single dish independently from the main protein makes everything tastes the same! maybe it was just our choices of dishes, but really every single dish had the same spices, and its powerful flavor covers almost everything else. Sincerely, I prefer sichuan cuisine, with its variety of spices and ingredients, rather than this monolithic-​single chilly hot taste.
It’s ok and worth a try, but do not expect to come back unless you really love it.

I like this place at least as much as Barshu across the road. Also it feels to me like they’re slightly less spicy which makes it easier for me to bring those less familiar with Szechuan cuisine with me. Which I have done more often than I can remember by now.
Mandatory orders are of course the string beans (same like at Barshu and any other good Szechuan place), or the dry-​wok twice-​cooked pork.
Service is average, but food does always appear very fast.

My second review of Chinese food this week comes from my first visit to BaShan. After reviewing BarShu, and having had the pleasure of chowing down at both places this week, I’d have to say I’m either more a fan of Szechuanese food over Hunan’ese food, or I’d agree with most here that BarShu is better than BaShan.
Anyway, my mistake for first presuming this was a Szechuanese place. It actually isn’t. Reading my friend’s (Ally W.) review, I have realized it’s actually Hunanese. As she says, both are adjacent so it’s sometimes actually mistaken for each other. However, to most Brits, Szechuanese food is more prevalent and hence the likelihood for Hunan to be mistaken for Szechuan. Anyway, that aside, I came here on a whim because friends and I were supposed to head to Hoppers, but couldn’t get a table, and hence had to find somewhere pronto.
Thankfully a table was to be had here at BaShan and when the time came, we were whisked swiftly into the corner table never to be seen by the passers by (something must have told them I’d make funny faces about their food).
Anyway, we order a number of items and were told (as we had a gluten intolerant member of our party) that nothing could be had that doesn’t have gluten … Hmm… Just when I had always thought I was safe from gluten being chinese… So bummer for her, she could only have steamed veg and fish. :/​Sad panda…
Now, the only thing I have to mention that drives me crazy sometimes about Hunanese or Szechuanese food is the number of dried chillis they tend to place on the food, and this place really took the cake (or chillis) seriously. Eevrything was covered in dried chilli, making it difficult to search for our bits of food. The bamboo and chicken was probably the most trying dish as it seemed to come with more dried chillis than chicken or bamboo.
Whilst everything here was extremely tasty, I’m mildly allergic to MSG. Not deathly so, but enough that if food has too much MSG, I start to feel bloated around the neck and cheek bones and feel breathless thereafter. Whoops. I was most definitely feeling it when we left… It’s not too much MSG, but there definitely is MSG in the food here. So buyer beware. All in all this was a good night out with mates, at a decently quality restaurant with authenticity, but all in when I compare my experience between BarShu and BaShan this week, definitely returning first to BaShan.

By far the best Chinese restaurant in China town. It’s always crowded and I have never been disappointed with the food.
Service is nothing to write home about — but the food more than makes up for it.
The décor isn’t too bad either. Ambiance is a bit sterile and it can get a little cosy — but for the price one is paying, it is to be expected. All in all, a must go for anyone who likes a bit of spice :)

Ba shan is another fine kitchen from the bar shu mini-​chain. This one has more dishes from Hunan, but still with a lot of overlap with menu items from the Sichuan siblings. And like bar shu opposite, the great cooking and great décor is slightly undermined by unfriendly service. We got a table with almost zero wait on Friday night which was great, tho the layout is awkward, they’d squeezed one table too many into the room and waiters had to breathe in to get between the tables. The starter of thousand year old eggs was disappointing, they’d toned it down, the eggs were too hard and under flavored compared to the pungent ones I’ve had elsewhere. Other food was good, especially the fantastic green beans with minced pork.

We came with a group of 9, and had a fantastic time. The quality and variety of food is impressive. Highly recommend steamed fish, aubergine dishes and clam soup.

Awesome every single time! We make a point to stop by everytime we are in London.
The food is amazingly spicy but the restaurant is tight. I took off a star because I wish the restaurant was more kid friendly.

«If you don’t eat chillis, you are not ready for a revolution…»

We were looking for a Vietnamese place to have dinner but came across Sichuan restaurant Ba Shan, which seemed to have a nice atmosphere inside and felt like it was known by locals as a good place to eat.
Once seated, we were given a thick red fake leather menu book, which was quite outstanding and designed in a revolutionary manner, containing communistic images and qoutations by Mao Zedong. The recipes are claimed to be based on revolutionary cookbook with most of the dishes being spicy and containing pickled vegetables. The fact that there are a lot of options on the menu makes it harder to choose.
I decided to risk it and try a dish formed of steamed prawns with thin noodles on top covered with chopped pickles. The dish was served with a knife and a spoon. Using these tools provided, it was still a hassle to eat this dish. The spicy and sour taste of the food was quite unusual, but I would not describe it as particularly delicious.
My friends decided to be on the safe side and went for more traditional dishes such as chilli chicken and thin noodles with vegetables and steamed rice as a side. After tasting these, I would say it is more reasonable to go for a safer option at Ba Shan ;)
The atmosphere is the restaurant is nice and chilled, with Chinese traditional decorations and paintings as well as relaxing Chinese blues played as background music.

This is a very good Szechuan restaurant. I’ve eaten here many times and every dish is fantastic. You must try bean curd — so yummy and spicy!
The waiters are not very friendly though. Skip the small talk — they don’t care…

It is kitty corner to my favorite Sichuan restaurants, Bar Shu, and people get them confused all the time. Having similar names and both feature spicy food. However, they represent different cuisine in China. Bar Shu is Sichuan, which is known for numbing spiciness; where as Ba Shan is Hunan, which is known for sour spiciness. Well, as Sichuan and Hunan are right next to each other, so there are a lot of similarities as well. It can get quite busy here, so make booking if you can.
Since Ba Shan is a Hunan restaurant and if you want to try a typical Hunan dish, go for the steamed Seabass with salted chili. The slightly pickled chili brings out the tender freshness of the fish. Hunan is also Chairman Mao’s home town and the restaurant features Mao’s braised pork belly, which was supposedly Mao’s favorite dish. You have to try it if you are not afraid of a little fat on the meat, well, quite a bit of fat actually and skin. The fat should melt in your mouth; the lean meat and skin, due to long time braising, soaks in all the flavor and is extremely tasty. Goes perfectly with rice. I personally also like lotus root in chili pot.

毛主席要是知道湘菜被做成这样会被气活过来吧？don’t go! There is a strange smell in pork! Not fresh meat! Vegetable is OK.

I am a mapo tofu fanatic, and basically hunt for the best mapo tofu dishes around the world. This is my third dish during my trip to London.
Although the portraits of Mao Zedong mighr take you by surprise, the atmosphere is quite nice overall. I came in a bit early when they were full, and was put up in the corner of the party room on the third floor. Pretty awkward since they probably expected privacy, and expected to be seated in a bigger hall…
Anyway, waiters are quick and attentive, and basically catered to in a well mannered way. Felt good, besides being in the party room with strangers.
The mapo tofu was authentic and pretty good, but it could have been more spicier. They used the fresh coarse tofu which was good. Baiwei, which has better ratings for mapo tofu, usds the lightly roasted tofu, which adds some bitterness and is apparent on the palette. This was way better.
For some reason they are a quid cheaper at 8.90 than their parent, BarShu which is across the road, but without a doubt still worth the visit if you love mapo tofu.

I visited Ba Shan for meeting Japanese friends and we had 6 kinds of dishes. They serve big dishes so it might be valuable if you go with several friends and share dishes. So you can taste different kinds. What I wanted to tell you is, the restaurant was pretty good. They serve a particular area of Chinese food. It is pretty hot, strongly spicy. Sometime you can not even taste spicy because it makes you numbing!!!

One might be shocked upon entry to this restaurant – visitors are greeted by portraits of Chairman Mao Zedong on all the walls – a veritable tribute to the founder of the modern People’s Republic of China – but not so savory for those who view the smiling Chairmain of the pictures as murderer and cause of genocide death.
On the far side of the narrow entrance is a tribute both in Chinese and English to the spiciness of Hunan food.
After being led downstairs quickly as a part of six (despite it being Chinese new year), we sat at a slightly cramped wooden table in a slightly dimly lit room. We were only provided with three menus, and upon asking for tap water for the table, we were told that «There is no tap water.»
What? No tap water? After inquiring further, we were told that there «weren’t enough cups in the restaurant to go around.» Isn’t it a bit odd that for a restaurant known for serving spicy food, there is no water? I mean, I enjoy my food VERY spicy, so I wasn’t worried for myself, but seriously???
The dishes ordered were: dong bo rou (braised pork belly), green beans stir-​fried in garlic, kung pao chicken, duck tongues, ma po tofu. General Tso’s chicken and sweet and sour tofu were also ordered at the table.
The duck tongue dish (stir-​fried with chilis, onion, bell peppers) and the mapo tofu were filled to the brim with hot chilis and Sichuan peppercorns – extraordinarily appropriate and infused with lots of spice and flavour. Both were absolutely delicious.
The kung pao chicken was done on the sweet side – no less delicious, but surprisingly. It was cooked with some chilis, peanuts, some vegetables.
The beans with not too oily and had a sprinkling of garlic on the top – but the star of the meal had to have been the Dong Bo Rou – which came in a glorious deep red color, and upon biting, positively melted in the mouth. The lean half of the meat was tender, and the fat perfectly rendered. It was absolutely exquisite.
However, the sweet and sour tofu had a strange gummy coating on it – I know that Chinese cooking tends to use corn starch to thicken its sauces, but in this case, the starch had formed an unsavory outside which made the dish almost inedible to me. The General Tso’s chicken was standard and nondescript.
The excellence of the other dishes makes me want to return, because they were done authentically and deliciously, however, the lack of water and the disappointment of a couple of dishes leaves me to leave this review with a 3 star rating instead of a 4.
3.5 stars.

It is kind of funny to see how people rate this restaurant as a Szechuan style restaurant.
First of all, Ba Shan is not Szechuan at all but Hunan aka ‘Xiang’ restaurant. Hunan is another place in China where it’s food are served also in spicy chillies but totally different from Szechuan. It is where Chairman Mao was originated that’s why one of the famous dish in Hunan is Stewed Pork Belly in Mao’s Style.
This place is always crowded so if you want to show up without waiting then you better reserve a table. The up side of this is the food here is really nice. However the down side is that you get an approximately 2 hour dining time only so if you want to have a long chat over the dinner table with your mates, this is not the place I would recommend.
The steamed Seabass in green or red chillies is a must-​have. You can also get noodles to marinate in the fish chilli sauce which taste great! And if you are a fan of pork belly, then the Mao’s Stewed Pork Belly is perfect to have with rice. It’s saucy and a hint of spiciness comes afterwards.

four big hungry men, never shy of spice or over-​ordering, or washing down too much spicy food with beer. Purely medicinal of course. What would we make of Ba Shan then, a restaurant which appears somewhere on the Scolville scale itself by all accounts.
It’s not in Chinatown which makes me immediately suspicious. Romilly St is the wrong side of the tracks if you’re looking for a Cantonese or Sichuan ir Hunan hit. But the reviews are interesting and, exciting as Chinatown is, a little exploring is a good thing. The restaurant is the slightly cheaper, slightly smaller sister of the place directly across the road called Ba Shu. This apparently causes much confusion, and so it was with this group, three quarters of them going to said sister restaurant leaving me on my tod wondering what I had done. Confusion finally worked out we met and were seated in a back room as there were no tables left looking out onto Romilly St. Wood panelled walls, smart angular furniture. All looked good.
We piled through a massive menu, every dish with accompanying picture which always gives me the heebie jeebies, but something told us this place would be different. The dishes sounded pretty exotic, some even pretty challenging.
We left Pete to order. We always do. He always over-​orders and we never mind so why should we change that arrangement?
Service could be mistaken for being rude but I gather this is just a cultural anomaly and the more we got the proprietor talking, the more knowledge he was keen to impart.
I’m not sure exactly what the dishes were called. But what came back were large plates of stir fried madness. A beef and chilli dish that made the eye water as soon as it hit the table. The brilliantly named Smacked cucumber was fresh and alive with zingy flavour and cleared the palate nicely. The most memorable dish was a squid stir fry that had a spice on it which grabbed the sides of each of our tongues and ripped the first two layers of taste buds clean off before gently working on the exposed muscle underneath. This I have to report was strangely pleasant. Whatever it was had a flowery taste a bit like sichuan pepper but the heat of a furnace. It hurt to eat it but it hurt so good. Sweet and sour pork was actually a little disappointing, with a stodgy crust. Serves our right for ordering really.
More dishes came out, many with umpteen whole dried chillies incorporated. We all sweated, drank more beer and dived back in. It was becoming a vicious cycle. A desperate spiral like a drug addict goes through. It had to stop. We asked for the dishes to be taken away, only to be reminded that we had ordered the dry wok twice cooked pork and it was just coming. The table looked defeated but Pete and I managed to try it and declare it’s utter deliciousness before asking for it to be taken away again. They would happily have bagged it for us but I think the assault that was happening in each of our mouths at the time rendered us incapable of forming decipherable words asking to that effect.
The food here is an experience that’s for sure. You won’t eat many similar dishes elsewhere, and many of them are totally challenging. But we left in a sweaty daze of happiness, the four of us. And a star each is a fair representation of Ba Shan’s cooking style. It’s a culture shock alright, but that’s what London offers. Great food from people who have settled here from across the globe and want to share a real taste of home. The taste of Hunan is vicious and vibrant and makes you feel alive.
We spent £40 each and with all the beer that we drank to quell the fire of some fantastic food, we felt that was a nice deal. You can eat cheaper in Chinatown but the mouth wont remember it as well!

Authentic Szechuan food in London!
My Chinese friend introduced me to this place so I decided to give it a try. It is absolutely delicious! I’ve been back several times and the food has been consistently good! Their best dish has got to be their seabass dish cooked with chilli oil– costs only 10 pounds which is really well priced!
The massive negative about this restaurant though is that you only get an hour and a half before they kick you out.

The intrepid Saturday Dining Gang (Teresa L, Matt J, Vicky L, Chieh T & Chieh’s friend Sirena and I) met in Chinatown for a spontaneous meal today. After having tried Taiwanese Keelung last Saturday, we decided to try Sichuanese food today.
Ba Shan comes from the same stable as Baozi Inn and Bar Shu. In fact, it’s right across the street from Bar Shu, which is currently being rebuilt after a recent fire. The menu looked interesting in the window and we headed in. The décor reminded me of Baozi Inn and Leong’s Legends — dark wood and oriental decorations.
Fortunately, Chieh and Sirena seemed familiar with Sichuanese food and we left the ordering to them. Before long, the bowls of food started arriving with accompanying great aromas. The only hiccup with service was that one dish was very late and we actually cancelled that one at the end as it still hadn’t arrived after we had finished eating.
We enjoyed some lovely steamed dumplings, 3 different types of noodles, twice cooked pork, ma po tofu and morning glory. Bar Shu had a fearsome reputation for extreme heat in its cooking but I’m glad to report that the heat has been toned down in Ba Shan while retaining the spicy kick. There wasn’t the need to fear the raw chillies we could see in most of the dishes.
A nice side effect of spice was to help with Vicky’s ‘non swine flu viral illness’ and with Chieh’s hangover!
Great to sample another facet of Chinese cooking in the company of some resident experts and fun friends.
I shall be back to sample some more dishes, including the intriguing but slightly funny ‘strange flavour peanuts’!!