Keelung

The food at Keelung is excellent and makes a nice difference to the Cantonese food which makes up the bulk of what’s available in London’s China Town.
The reason for 4 rather than 5 stars is that it is a little more expensive than most of the restaurants in the area. The food is excellent though and, compared to the cost of eating in London in general, it is extremely inexpensive.

Keelung is one of the many Chinese restaurants lining Lisle street. I was roaming around there one lazy Sunday evening, and the only reason why it stood apart was that it was larger than the others and the decoration looked better from outside. So i went in.
Chicken sweet corn soup has been my staple starter in chinese restaurants since i was 6 … so this time too i made no exception. However unlike in India, where the soup comes with a variety of sauces to allow us to make it spicy, here i had to ask for chilly sauce. I got a small amount. I finished it in no time, and on asking again was served another equally small bowl.
The same happened with water. A very small glass … and on finishing it, another small one (note that the old bowl/​glass were not being cleared).
Now lets talk about the food.
The soup was good. So was the egg fried rice. I had asked the lady serving me to recommend a spicy dish. She must have misunderstood me for she recommended Chicken Kung-​Pao. It was filled with red chillis, but the gravy was mild, almost sweet … i guess the definition of spicy in Taiwanese cuisine differs from what i had in mind.
By the time my meal came to an end they were tired of my multiple requests and had given me a bigger bowl of chilli sauce and multiple glasses of water at the same time. Very perceptive of them :)
On the whole i thought that this place was very average, and reasonably cheap (mine came to £15 + service when eating alone). If i am in the mood for chinese and i am near leicester square, then maybe … else i won’t make an effort to go there.

I’m not that familiar with Taiwanese food so i didn’t have anything to base it off of. but when going down to chinatown it can be a little daunting to pick something «authentic» so i felt good in the fact that i had some Taiwanese people with me.
Overall the food was tasty. I even tried chicken feet! (Not my fav). Also, decently priced. I think in the end we all paid about 10. The service was speedy too.
But saying that, i wouldn’t say this was anything spectacular. You can trust that you aren’t getting crappy chinese food, but its a long way from the best I’ve ever had.

When you walk into a restaurant named after the famous street market, foodie paradise city in Taiwan, you don’t expect a pretentious wine rack the size of yo mama to greet you.
So that set the tone for this odd establishment. Whenever I see Asian restaurants trying to be fancy, my skepitcism and confusion rise to inhuman levels. What are you trying to prove here? Are the wine glasses on the table a means to distract the diner from the fact that your food sux0rs?
The answer is yes. The only thing legit here was a tiny bowl of pork noodles flavored with some dried onion. All other things I tried (3-​cup chicken, oyster omelette, sweet not spicy bowl, stinky tofu etc etc) failed to meet any standards set by the parental-​dubbed mediocre offerings of the bay area in California. Tears for G.

How to begin explaining the disappointment with this place… My aunt lives in Keelung and the city is famous for the Miaokou Night Market. So when I saw the restaurant’s menu boasting about the «street snacks», I knew I had to keep my expectations in check since it was located in London rather than Taiwan.
There were 3 of us in the party and we weren’t very hungry so I paid close attention to the fine print in the menu to see if there was a per person minimum. We were glad to see that there wasn’t and proceeded to order the tain-​bu-​la and an oyster pancake. The sauce with the tain-​bu-​la was very watered down so that you just got a hint of the authentic flavor. The oyster pancake was ok — there were oysters in it but again the sauce was not quite right.
When we requested the bill, we were told there was a £6 minimum per person! Why they didn’t a) put it on the menu or b) tell us when we were ordering. We got a bubble tea just to bring it up to snuff and then found out that the «optional» service charge wasn’t really optional.
Overall the service was poor (especially considering the design & atmosphere of the place) and the food was not authentic.

3.5 stars!
So I’m Taiwanese. born and raised (for 6 years and annual trips). I’m not the most Taiwanese person you’ll know (American-​washed enough), but I still know good Taiwanese food when I eat it.
This place is a «nicer» place. I was excited to see the ‘night market’ menu with all the stuff I grew up with. I ordered xiao long bao (juicy steamed dumpling/​buns things), sticky rice with mushrooms/​dried prawns, pepper cake (hu jiao bing), minced pork rice, garlic sauteed morning glory, tainan rice cake, and a lu wei platter (soy sauce marinated eggs, chicken feet, intestines, sea cucumber, etc)… this was for fellow asians teresa and yee gan, and our token white girl liz, so i’m not a fatass. while things were generally good, they didn’t hit the spot and make me feel like i was back in taiwan again. It was satisfactory, but I guess I was expecting a lot more. The only thing that I REALLY liked was probably the morning glory, which is hard to do wrong. But all that food only cost about 10.50 each for the four of us, and we were all f’ing stuffed.

What’s better than hitting a new Taiwanese restaurant? Hitting the restaurant with Taiwanese fellow Unilocalers Teresa L and Chieh T and Liz E too.
I’m not familiar with the intricacies of Taiwanese food and watched mesmerised as multiple dishes appeared on the table, courtesy of Chieh’s mandarin. I had eaten some dishes before but the hu jiao bing, minced pork rice and lu wei platter were new to me. It proved to be a good mix of food. The cold soya bean milk was lovely.
When I found out that I was the only one on the table to have eaten chicken feet, I had to make sure that my fellow Unilocalers also took the opportunity to try it. Besides Chieh wishing her chicken foot had a pedicure before she put it in her mouth, they all tried it willingly — Liz, that now makes you an honorary Asian!
Chieh also skilfully chose just enough food to leave space for dessert — we made a trip to Snog and Freggo! As a man, I don’t have a separate dessert compartment and have to plan accordingly! £10.50 a head and a most pleasant way to spend a Saturday lunchtime!