Opium Nottingham

Relax it's a Chinese restaurant.
And a rather a good one too. It used to be quite a high end place, then it vanished and now its been re-incarnated, but the downstairs has been turned into a bar.

We went with the set meal, which started out with a dim-sum sampler. Whilst all three offerings were steamed, they were very good. Since we'd come from a cocktail bar we went with tea, and unusually there are several choices, so I went with the "Superb Pur-eh". I like Pur-eh in general for its earthy taste, it seemed darker in colour than usual, and was perhaps brewed a little strong. When the dim-sum wreckage was cleared away, the waitress noticed the colour & said "Your tea is a little too strong, should I replace it ?" I said yes, and she did. The original was a little strong, but not enough for me to feel like complaining about, so good service there. Good service was the hall mark of our visit, and I'd recommend them on that alone.

The main courses were all generic/Cantonese (which is pretty much par for the course outside of London) but very well done, the lemon chicken well fried & without the cloying taste that comes from cheap sauces. The Prawns were cooked just right having a good bite to them. The fillet steak was lovely, however it is the source of my nitpick. I think a rib-eye or sirlion would have stood up better with the sauce and provided more of a background flavour. That said I can see why they use fillet, so a very minor niggle.

The Dessert menu had some nice options including my favourite Dan tat. Unfortunately I've been really spoilt by some cracking Dan tat in my time, and whilst this was good, it could have been better, still though I think that says more about me & my love of egg tart than the standard of the kitchen.

All in all about 20 pounds a head (you could easily spend more) including tea & dessert. Good service & a nice clean airy dinning room makes it a worthwhile place to visit, I might try & have the pre-theatre menu next time, which looks like it makes an early evening eat out to be well worth while, especially when only Chinese food will do.

Ho's bakery

I think I was about 15 the first time I went to Ho's. It hit that magic spot between exotic & familiar. The exotic was pretty much supplied by the Chinese arch that's such a feature of Manchester's china town, the familiar by it being a bakery. A bakery of the kind that has pretty much gone now, replaced by Greggs & the like. The food wasn't too threatening either, OK some of the dumplings looked pretty weird & I really wasn't sure about the amount of seasame seeds around. Then I saw a sight to gladen any heart "roast pork buns" a phrase that has no negatives at all. Next to them nestled egg tarts, they looked a lot like egg custards (sure there didn't appear to be any nutmeg and they were in puff pastry cases but hey).

So I dipped my toe into another world & ordered. The pork bun was a revelation. Firstly where was the pork ? Sealed inside the bun, of course it was red char-sui rather than slices of roast pork, and the bun was much sweeter than expected. It was worlds away from stuffing & apple sauce, yet it wasn't, it was a lovely roast pork bun. That dispatched it was time for the egg tart, the puff pastry  was well just not what I was used to, the custard though was rich,sweet, and warm. Lovely.


Ever since if I've had chance I've popped into Ho's and had a pork bun & egg tart. Guess what I had for lunch :-)



-- Posted from my iPhone