Golden Pagoda, Chinatown, London

Golden Pagoda, Chinatown, London

Chinatown draws tourists visiting London with its colour and the offer of a taste of the Orient. It ought to be a showcase for the best that oriental cuisine has to offer. It is very unfortunate therefore that we are yet to find a stand-out restaurant there. In fact, the Golden Pagoda is the worst restaurant we have had the misfortune to have been to.

The only redeeming feature is the not offensive decor, the rest that it has to offer is bordering on offensive. The decor is standard fare in Chinese restaurants so nothing to shout about but it does not hurt the senses.

The food, service and menu though definitely hurts the senses. From the ‘in your face’ and inattentive, rude, patronising waiter who we had the misfortune to serve us and who we tried to go to great lengths to catch the eye of someone else to serve us to the food that tasted worse than a supermarket ready meal. We were actually wishing that we had bought a ready meal. Something we never usually buy!

We started off with vegetarian spring rolls as a starter. They were oily and over cooked. The dipping sauce was insipid and far from fresh.

I really enjoy sweet and sour prawn balls. This dish put me off it. The batter was oily and the sauce was tasteless.

Mrs NMFS liked the sound of the fried stuffed aubergine green pepper and bean curd with prawn paste. It sounds nice but when served up tasted very bad. The ingredients did not taste fresh and the sauce tasted unhealthy.

I did not want to give prices for these dishes as I in no way want to advertise this place. It is overpriced though. We paid relatively alot for food that was very poor. Somehow a service charge is mandatory which is probably the only way anyone would want to pay it. I did question it but was directed to the front of the menu which states as much.

A place to avoid even though for some reason it seemed to be busy. Our search for a good restaurant in China Town continues…