Baiwei

BarShu’s waiting team moved in, however the service was rough and even rude. I felt cultural difference when Malaysian waiting team try to emphasis on the ‘efficiency’ without considering the comfort of customers. It makes it another cheap ‘China town’ restaurant. I do want to mention about the food — fish pot and pancake. Well, see picture for yourself, pure dark sauce completely disgusting. Full stop.

The menu had creative offers, but we were disappointed by the quality, perhaps we could have made better choices.

Very authentic Sechuan kitchen. Loved it! Very spicey, if you plan to go out afterwards be advised you’ll smell like what you just had :) But hey that’s what authentic is all about. I can only recommend it

Aufgrund von den guten Unilocal-​Bewertungen haben wir das Baiwei gesucht und gleich neben der UBahn-​Station gefunden und die Schlange erblickt — ist ja nichts Aussergewöhnliches aber wenn man Hunger hat ;-)
Nach 30 Min. Wartezeit (und solange wir dort waren hat sich diese Wartezeit nicht verringert) konnten wir endlich auf einem der 3 Stöcke Platz nehmen. Wie an vielen Orten in London ist es eng. Dann kommt die Speisekarte und man findet nur ein Gericht, welches nicht als scharf gekennzeichnet ist. Da wir die einzigen Nicht-​Chinesen in diesem Restaurant waren, haben wir die Bewertung der Schärfe sehr ernst genommen und nur Menüs mit einer moderaten Schärfe ausgewählt.
Als dann die Speisen (leider nicht miteinander) kamen wurden unsere Erwartungen definitiv erfüllt — die Speisen waren alle wirklich sehr gut und haben perfekt geschmeckt (der Abzug ist wegen den Lokalitäten und nicht wegen dem Essen…).

Very authentic. I had the spicy eggplant. Remember to order rice as it doesn’t come automatically with the dishes.
Very clean but small.

Not the friendliest, but I did come in 20 minutes before closing. That said, ribs in cumin – Ahmazing

very limited room, I don’t even have place for my bag. Food tastes like nothing, even chillies are tasteless. I am a Chinese, I feel ashamed of this restaurant, degrading Chinese food

Among Top 10 London Chinese restaurants. Fiery and flavorful Schezuan cooking — unadulterated in any sense.
Get the lamb w chillies, rainbow salad, catfish stew with pepper, eggplant salad and prawns with egg white.
The rainbow salad is a spectacular umami bomb. Highly recommend.

This is probably the best London Sichuan restaurant I have dined in so far. The food is definitely more on the authentic side… but, its actually NOT SPICY ENOUGH. Sure, the dishes are full of chili oil, peppers, peppercorns, but I only took two gulps of water the entire meal. So, this is definitely catering to the British crowd (I must admit I was raised in Shanghai & Southern California and an absolute lover of spicy food). I also thought other flavors just werent strong enough. Overall, everything was ‘A-​OK’ — thus the 3-​star.
Me and my boyfriend were lucky enough to have the ground floor window seats, which is probably the best spot in the house. The table & benches are in the more traditional style where the table is much higher than the current norm.
The CPC propaganda theme is a lil silly and gimmicky. It was estimated that Sichuan province had the highest cases of death from starvation during Great Leap Forward’s famine… not sure how the posters are supposed to make me feel while eating all the food? Nevertheless, still better décor than the typical environment with woodwork, lanterns, awful paintings, and mirrors.

From the same chain as bar shu, another great sichuan restaurant. This one is cheaper and less formal than bar shu, and the service is warmer (that’s not difficult). The mapo tofu is very good.
The tables are very small and close together.

Suggested by a chinese friend of us (she calls this place «mom kitchen» as she is from Chengdu), we had to try this chinese restaurant, where we were sure to find authentic chinese cuisine.
And we wonderfully found it!
I never been to Sichuan, but I did live for more than one year in Shanghai, and I could get from the first impact this was some seriously honest chinese stuff: Small place, small tables with unmatched sizes table/​chairs, rude service and continuous repetition of the rules «cash only cash only cash only». Oooh, I do love you Baiwei!
Avoiding the hotpot for now (but I’ll get back for it, granted!), we took a wide selection of dish, 6 for 3 people. Be prepared, you won’t know most of the dishes, but just indulge on the pictures, then close the menu and open it n times, then point your finger to a dish and order it! You’ll surely get something delicious in front of you!
But beware, did I already say this is AUTHENTIC cuisine? That means you’ll get two things in your food: garlic and peppers. Your food will be damn covered by it, as it is in a usual restaurant in the Middle Earth (Zhongguo)! And another notice, in comparison with the dishes you usually get in the european-​washed chinese restaurant you are used to, dishes are much bigger, 2 per person may even be too much!
Aaah Baiwei, you brought me tons of memories to my eyes, and at the end I don’t know whether I was crying more from remembering the awesome time in China or the peppers!

I’ve been to Baiwei four times now, and each time has been better than the last. The first time we went, despite the place being nearly empty, we were offered a seat right by the toilets. Not nice. The waitress was quite rude when we asked for a different table, too.
But that seems to have been a one-​off, and I’m pleased to say that since then, we’ve had brusque but efficient service, great food, and normal seating.
Regarding seating, this place is crammed full. If your posterior is average or a little larger than average or you’re particularly tall, you may have a difficult time getting comfortable when it’s full – and it’s almost always full.
Cash only, as everyone has commented – and as the staff will remind you about three times. ;) But there’s a cash point right down the street.
The important part is, of course, food! This is really nice, really homey Sichuanese. It’s not prettied up, it’s not fussy, and it’s all been delicious. We’ve munched our way through about ¹⁄₃ of the menu so far. Our favourite dish by far – we get it every time – is the golden coin beef tripe. It’s a cold, spicy tripe dish and it’s absolutely perfect, with numbing peppers throughout. The spicy dishes tend to be along the dry wok-​fried end (and hot pots, we haven’t tried one yet) while the mild dishes are more the goopy-​sauce fare. We haven’t liked them as much, though if you’re scared of fire, the gong bao chicken is pretty tame and can be made without peppers. (But try them, they’re delicious.)
Mains are, I think, a little overpriced for the area and the décor (crammed in diner-​style, basement if you’re down there, knocking elbows and knees with neighbours). Appetisers are absolutely overpriced for tiny portions, so lean towards the mains.
They don’t take reservations and evenings get very full, but they do tend to have a brisk turnover. Aim for an early or late dinner and you should be ok.

Baiwei is one of those places where your eyes can be bigger than your stomach. It’s hard not to be though because everything looks so delicious.
But here’s the issue with what we ordered — I can’t remember any of it. We had some chicken and some trip and some noodles and some dumplings and some spicy beef in a bucket and some lamb that had a kick of chillies in it. Mmm.
And that’s the joy of Baiwei. It’s a spot you might walk by but don’t. And even when you’re in, you’re not quite sure what’s happening as you get lead up tiny stairs into a tiny room packed full of tables. And the menu comes down and it’s all dishes you haven’t heard of (yet), but there are pictures next to each one and dammit, they all look good.
And they all were good! The spicy ones were damn spicy and made me sweat (love when they say they’re spicy and mean it). The saucy ones were super saucy. The meat was tender and fresh. The portion sizes large, the prices reasonable and the food good. I didn’t love everything on the table (tripe, not for me), but what I did love, I loved.
Be warned, it is cash only. And they will make this apparent right up at the start and then again and again. Coming? Bring cash.
But do come, as the food and the flavours cannot be beat.

After a bit of a disaster and having to walk out of a restaurant we had reservations at earlier in the evening, we were hungry and needed something good. So Andrew M. suggested we go to Baiwei after hearing Yee Gan’s recommendation of the place. We all love Chinese (and I’m all about the spice), so it was a big hit for everyone.
So we arrive, and we are told several times «cash only». It’s a bit strange, although given how we like to use cards pretty much everywhere now, I suppose they need to make sure that people have the necessary cash to pay for the meal. We waited a bit to find out if they had a table for five, and they told us to go upstairs.
Luckily, they had a great table for us, next to the window, and also a table where someone didn’t have to sit in someone else’s lap. So that was a good start. The menu looked pretty extensive as well with lots of choices available. We opted for a couple of appetizers and quite a few mains (we may have over-​ordered), but the whole bill came to £29pp so it worked out well for us all.
To start we had some sort of chicken dish and a tripe dish. The chicken was good, but not amazing, and weirdly had a lot of cartilage left in the meat. The tripe was fantastic though. I couldn’t get enough. Not too chewy, lots of flavor and I was really impressed. For the mains, we ordered a selection, including a bucket of beef, and almost everything we had was delicious (and spicy). I was in heaven. The cumin lamb was probably my favorite with a nice cumin-​y crust on the lamb and some delicious green chiles served with it. We also got some beef shin, and it was nice, but a little bit fatty and gelatinous, and one piece I bit into was pretty much only cartilage.
But I’d come back. It was some of the tastiest Chinese food I’ve had in London, even if we didn’t go too crazy with the selection of offal available. But no complaints at all. Even with it being cash only. I’m kind of craving that lamb right now…

Get your dose of spicy hot Sichuan food here! It’s more down market than Barshu but the food is just as good.
The highlight of our meal was the mao cei hotpot. Initially, I thought it was going to be a steamboat type of hotpot but I was wrong. Every table around us had massive bowls of what looked like Chinese soup but in actuality, it was mao cei hotpot! We couldn’t go without what was obviously a restaurant speciality. You can choose 3 meat and 3 veg to go in the spicy broth (which comes with Sichuan peppercorns and dried red chiles for two types of heat — yum!!). We decided to go with:
Cloud ear fungus (huge pieces!)
Chinese cabbage
Sweet potato noodles
Fish (really nice fillets of white fish which contrasted nicely with the spicy broth)
Lamb
Beef
I can’t tell you how yummy this was. If you like heat and spicy food, this is the dish for you! The Sichuan peppercorns left a nice slow burn on your tongue; the red chiles left the more familiar heat most of us are probably used to.
We also had the frozen tofu with pickled mustard green. I liked the texture of the tofu (can’t wait to try this at home!) but it was a weird pairing with the hotpot.
We were greedy and started with a chicken salad with green beans. This was the first dish that came out which I initially liked but once everything else came out, it fell slightly out of favour (unfortunately!). It was still tasty though.
I definitely want to come back for hotpot. Yum yum yum.
Oh yeah, and service was actually pretty good for a Chinese restaurant! Loved the badly painted Maoist propaganda on the walls too.

Ni hao! Once again I love getting introduced to new amazing restaurants through Unilocal after seeing so many rave reviews. I was finally able to take a nice long lunch on a Friday and definitely lived up to all the hype.
Amongst 3 girls, 3 dishes was way too much food but glad we did. We shared the
— Dry wok double fried pork — It was spicy, the kind that makes you sniffle and sweat
— Mustard sea bass — We tried to balance out the spice with this dish but it had a slight kick. Regardless another really good choice
— Aubergine with mince pork — This was a veggie side but I could’ve had the whole thing as a main with a bowl of rice. A lovely hot and sour kick kick to it.
I’ve been so good about not over eating and of course overstuffed myself… and still had left overs! Go with a big group and order slightly less than 1 dish per person. Definitely will be back to try some of the other dishes.

The place is tiny and the tables not much bigger, meaning that space is quite cramped both in your personal area and on the table. Considering the size of some of the sharing dishes particularly the soups. The flavours were great in some dishes, but the peppercorns that were in literally everything had a numbing effect on the tongue that almost felt like it was compensating for the heat of the meal. Thus the food didn’t appear to taste that hot personally to me. My favourites were the braised pork belly. So tender. Followed by the Pork hotpot with onions, peppers and LOTS of peppercorn.
Whilst the food was hot, everything was packed with flavour. The heat didn’t overpower the flavours of the dishes which is a real positive. We all know that feeling where food is so hot nothing can satiate the fire. Not milk, or running your tongue under a cold tap. With the side affect being you can’t taste the flavours of any food afterward. Food never reaches that point and as a result you can enjoy spicy dish after spicy dish with no issues.
Service was nice and friendly. The only downside being the place doesn’t take bookings and is cash only. But given the generous portions and free internal wamth during the winter months, who can really complain. It’s difficult to squeeze groups into the small location too, so keep parties below 6 and preferable 2 – 4 and you’ll be fine.

Baiwei means «a hundred flavours» in Chinese. It indeed offers many delicious flavours, but one is particularly dominating: spicy!
A very promising new kid in the hood, Baiwei specializes in Sichuan cuisine. Through a seemingly narrow entrance, it actually occupies 3 floors (ground, upper level and basement). Quite a lot of seatings available. Not a huge fan of the propaganda theme, but the space is pretty clean and neat in general so I’m not complaining.
On to the food.
— Chengdu Mao Cai (成都冒菜): It’s very similar to a hotpot, the main difference is that it comes already cooked in a big clay pot. You can choose 3 types of meat/​seafood and 3 vegetables from many. It came quickly with a side of sesame dipping sauce to balance off the heat. And man it was SO GOOD that towards the end of the meal some of us were still searching for the bits and pieces of anything remained in the pot.
— Fatty beef in sour soup (酸汤肥牛): One of my favorite. The beef is thinly sliced and tender, the soup base is spicy with chili pepper and peppercorn, sour from rice vinegar. The flavour dances on my tongue and it’s the best with some rice on the side.
— Spicy dry pot with twice cooked pork (麻辣香锅回锅肉): Another pot of mixed meat and veggies, but it comes stir fried instead of stewed. The flavour is good, however it had too many peppercorns mixed among the food. It’s unfortunate because it numbs your tongue so quickly and you have to pick it out. One suggestion would be heat the oil with peppercorns first and get rid of them before putting the rest of the ingredients. Or choose the peppercorn strings on vine so it’s easier to pick them out.
— Fish in spicy oil (水煮鱼): Unlike its peers it wasn’t presented with a million chili peppers on top. It was good but not outstanding. However, it’s offered at a special price of 6 pounds! Dare I say it’s about the cheapest, biggest dish you can get in London.
— Braised pork belly (红烧肉): Surprisingly delicious! Sweet, tender, a bit fatty, just the way I like it. Great contrast with all the spicy dishes we had.
Veggies were pretty good and reasonably priced too.
The service was very friendly and accommodating. I wasn’t sure about the size of our party in the beginning but they managed to seat all of us with last minute changes. The menus were extensive and well presented, and I saw them cleaning each menu after being used.
I’ll definitely go back!

A huge vote of thanks to Rachel Z for organising a meal at this little gem of restaurant. Easy to miss on the edge of Chinatown, they have made the best of the small floor acreage spread over several floors. They were very helpful in re-​arranging tables for our group of 6
I must also give praise to the staff for their friendliness and helpfulness in helping guests unfamiliar with Sichuan food. They do speak good English to help navigate the menu. Their menus also deserve praise — large, well bound red tomes (in keeping with the décor but more about this in a moment) containing lovely pictures and descriptions of all their dishes. I love the quirky sense of humour in the restaurant with communist party propaganda posters adorning the walls taking me back to my trip to Shanghai
Fortunately, we had a bona-​fide connoisseur in Rachel Z and we just sat back and let her order. And she ordered up a veritable feast, which came to a very reasonable £20 a head — note that it’s a cash only establishment
The star of the show was the mao cei hotpot, one of their signature dishes. You select different ingredients to go into a fiery stew, which arrives dramatically in a huge claypot. Being Sichuan food, it’s fiery hot from the many chillis that you can see but it’s also the little peppercorns, which burst in your mouth and numb your tongue. I do however want to emphasise that the food is also packed with flavour as well as heat. This was our favourite dish of the evening
This was a truly exhilarating meal. I had the funniest feeling when my mouth was fine eating the fiery food — I think the peppercorns had numbed my tongue enough that I could do so but obviously, my body was feeling the heat even if my mouth couldn’t because sweat was pouring off my forehead, prompting Krista A to offer me a tissue! There was a whole wave of exhilaration among the group and later, we decided it could have been an endorphin rush in response to the heat! Not only did our stomachs feel sated but our pores also felt cleansed!
Other dishes included catfish in hot chilli oil (soft and moorish), slow cooked pork belly (mmmm), green beans, fried greens in garlic and a mixed meat dish
This is what Chinese food in London in 2013 is all about. After decades of Cantonese classics, we’re now in the brave new world of Sichuan, Hunan, Taiwan and Dongbei food. If they serve food as good as Baiwei, long may the revolution continue!

Authentic and amazing Chinese. Forget your usual British-​friendly Chinese dishes. This is hard-​core Chinese eating. It is very bright and you sit on small tables with stools but you come here for one reason – to eat great dishes. We had a duck dish (duck on the bone) with vermicelli that was awesome. I liked the aubergine dish as well. Not a massive selection and not dishes I recognize but it was all about the spice and flavor. They serve beer – that’s it for alcohol and they don’t take cards.
Best place to eat on a cold day – the spices will warm you up.

That Baiwei has kept fake-​me-​out Chinese food off its menu makes it my new favorite weekend joint Chinatown. Sweet and sour what? Not here.
Solid start with chili oil pork ears, which erred on the side of pickle sweet of northern tradition; black pepper beef tripe was served cold and tender, pairing up real nice with their impossibly fluffy white rice.
Szechuan beef brisket and bamboo stew arrived in a quaint little wooden bucket. Super flavorful, a sure favorite for those looking for a heavy flavor profile. Lunch wrapped up with the fried spicy pork knuckles: crispy skin and soft insides, all good things.
Your order will arrive quickly, in my case all four in 5 minutes. That at least one waiter is dedicated to each dining floor makes calling one so much easier — a rarity in this part of town.
Fair warning — only cash is accepted.