Chinese Restaurants

[Ladygooner]

Does anyone have any good recommendations for Chinese restaurants in East Dulwich. Whats Mr Liu's like or has anyone tried the Chinese that took over from Hanna's?

[nutty]

Mr Liu's does a good take out. More on Chinese deliveries in this thread.

Not sure if there has been a thread re: eating in at Chinese restaurants in ED?

[rob]

Mr Liu's is good, old-fashioned fun (ice old Tsing Tao helps). Chopsticks is a bit boring. EE House and Zin Oriental both do good takeaways...

[Jeremy]

I actually think that Cafe Noodle isn't bad for what you pay... I'm not sure if you'd call it a restuarant as such, but you can certainly eat in! Agree that Chopsticks isn't really that great, it's only redeeming feature is the garden, which is quite nice. Mr Liu's is certainly old school (it reminds me of the sort of Chinese restaurants my parents would take me to when I was young), but I don't really rate it personally.

[Fizzy]

Gold Lee is the chinese that is on the stretch of shops by Goose Green, previously Hannas.

I would highly recommend it, was only there this Sunday. They do a fantastic all you can eat memu for ?10 pp. Had to wait a bit for the food, but it was hot and tasted freshly cooked. Nice polite service too.

[Pierre]

I live near Gold Lee and we've eaten in a couple of times and had take-away from there more times than I can remember! It's very good food IMO, fairly "natural" (not highly flavoured, coloured or full of MSG) and their squid with salt and chilli is absolutely brilliant, melt-in-your-mouth stuff. Recommended. :)

: P

[peckham_perkster]

I know this one isn't local but it does do the most amazing food and is packed with Chinese people, always a sure sign of good Chinese cuisine. The Peninsular restaurant is by the eyesore called the 'Millenium Dome', it's part of the Holiday Inn Express hotel so parking is ample. We went there on Sunday and the food was to yummy, reasonably priced and the service was swift.

http://www.mychinesefood.co.uk/home/home1.htm

The only down side was having to sit next to my other half munching his way through chickens feet in black bean sauce (td)

[SimonM]

There used to be (may still be??) a Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of Peckham with its very own Elvis impersonator....

[nutty]

I believe that's the one on the Old Kent Road where the original Chinese Elvis came from. Since Orange adverts and west end fame I'm not sure he's doing his weekly spot any more though?

[Jimbo]

I had an awful takeaway from Hong Hong by the Vale pub. It was so bad that I threw it away and was tempted to go to Maxim Chicken place over the road.

[Incitatus]

Sad to say but Gracelands Palace on The Old Kent Road closed last year.

[Jeremy]

Yes, Gracelands Palace on Old Kent Rd, home of Paul "Elvis" Chan, has now been turned into a Nepalese place. There is still a branch of Gracelands Palace in Tunbridge Wells, when Mr Chan still sings regularly.

I can also vouch for The Peninsular, their dim sum is generally top notch. It reminds me a lot of some of the "neighbourhood" restaurants in Hong Kong.

[JoeChuff]

Shanghai Surprise, formerly Yee Wah, at the bottom of Barry Road has never let me down. (it's takeaway only tho)

[bawdy-nan]

Did you know that the Chinese Elvis currently starring in Martha Josie and the Chinese Elvis actually lives in East Dulwich. I read a profile on him in which he mentioned the sacred SE22.

His name is Paul Hyu and he used to stand in sometimes at Gracelands Palace. His website is pretty extraordinary.

[shambles]

I love Mr Lius (Liu's - Lius') ?

Great food. If you order the salt and chilli squid 'in-house' - it's the best. Gorgeous, mouth-melting experience! (obviously this effect would be annihilated in the tin-foil box of a takeaway).

[buggie]

Me and blokie got a takeaway from Gold Lee last night after being recommended in this thread. Glad to say it was fantastic, we even got drama thrown in as the guys had to deal with probably the ultimate difficult customer while we were there!! Made sure we'd got a menu so will be back.

[Muttley]

I've always liked the ambience of "Mr Liu corner" (Melbourne meets Lordship), with that horse chestnut opposite I reckon it's the best restaurant setting in East Dulwich. When they knock down the Police Station and put up something more tasteful there, it will be even better.

[Bony Fido]

bawdy-nan wrote :-

"Did you know that the Chinese Elvis currently starring in Martha Josie and the Chinese Elvis actually lives in East Dulwich. I read a profile on him in which he mentioned the sacred SE22.

His name is Paul Hyu and he used to stand in sometimes at Gracelands Palace. His website is pretty extraordinary."

My wife and I with a couple of friends went to see this very enjoyable comedy in Woking about a month ago - it was very good indeed. I never thought much of Maureen Lipman before, but seeing her in this made me realise just what a great actress she is.

On the subject of Mr Liu's, when I first moved to SE22 in 1979 this was a quite pricy French style restaurant.I can't remember what it was called but it was run by a big bearded chap called Nico Ladenis who later became very famous in foodie circles (Chez Nico, Simply Nico etc.)

After he moved it was home to an excellent upmarket burger place called Big Apple - unfortunately it was probably too good for the SE22 of the early 80's - only lasted a couple of years, then came Mr Liu.

[dave & ailing]

Gold Lee is the only Chinese restaurant in ED where I would eat in - it's pretty good, and the service is v friendly. Chopsticks is terrible, gluey tasteless food. We often go for dim sum to Hong Kong City on New Cross Raod, or Peninsular in N Greenwich - sad to say, they're the closest really good chinese food

[Dodo1]

I don't know if anyone else has heard this but i have been told by some people who have lived here since the 70s that the site this is now Mr Liu's was once owned by Nico Landenis (I hope I've spelt this right?) of Chez Nico. Apparently even then he was someone to be feared!!

[nutty]

I went to Chopsticks at the weekend. We hadn't been for ages as we seem to remember not being that impressed when we went when it opened. I'm afraid (IMHO of course) that it hadn't got any better. The portions were enormous but we didn't get close to finishing anything as it just wasn't that good. I'll try and be more specific....

Starter - mixed hor d'oeuvre (spelling?) - ribs were dry and tasteless, seaweed wasn't very crispy and didn't have any of the sweet stuff that I normally like on it, spring rolls were mainly bean sprouts so a little boring (and far too big!). We also had a chicken satay which was okay.

Mains - Beef in black bean, Chicken Chow Mein with crispy noodles, pork and ginger I think and singapore noodles. The noodles were up to scratch but the rest was really tasteless (not bad tasting - just very uninspiring).

I think the restaurant has a lovely ambience, the garden looks amazing, and the staff are very friendly and helpful but the food just isn't good enough to make me bother going back - seems a real shame.

Has anyone been there that really likes it - wondering if it's just my taste in Chinese (although my wife agreed)?

[nuttynat19]

Coming from a chinese background I think I can tell a good chinese from bad. So here are my thoughts on Chopsticks.

We recently moved to ED and had seen Chopsticks from the bus window many times. A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I decided to enjoy one of our sunny evenings and headed into ED for a drink and bite to eat after work. We thought we'd try out Chopsticks because we've been meaning to go for some time.

Like every one else says the look of the place is great, the staff are friendly and the place is clean, although I found the seating quite uncomfortable, on to the food. Well, first word to leave my mouth was...dreadful. We left most of the food we ordered (which wasn't cheap either) but out of politeness we asked to take the food home not that we had any plans to eat it again. Unfortunately that night both myself and my boyfriend were up all night with extremely bad dehydration and felt awful the next day. :(

So no your taste in chinese is excellent, you were right to think the food wasn't great. And the only reason why the portions seem large is because its filled with chinese greens which bulk up the dish, I don't recall having much lamb or chicken on either of the dishes we ordered.

I have to say I still haven't found a decent chinese in the ED area, but after reading reviews I will try out Golden Lee (we got a leaflet thro the door the other day) and Mr Liu's. At the moment whenever we get a delivery take out we only ever order a curry. And I have to recommend Spice Republic, delicious!:))

[SeanMacGabhann]

I never understood why the place is called Chopsticks when they set out a knife and fork by default - that kind of tells you wether they are expecting people who know real chinese food or not

Been to Mr Liw twice and enjoyed both times but can't vouch for it being authentic or ESPECIALLy good

Has anyone tried Dragon Castle - the big new(ish place) next to Elephant? They have 2 menus - one "regular" and one "real"

[mockney piers]

Well i did try some exceedingly authentic chinese out in Macau and most of the dishes scared the willies out of me I'm desperately ashamed to say (I like to think I'm game for most things short of a witchetty grub) so I'll make do with our anglocised version.

Having said that I pretty much agree with Nuttynat's review. A pity as it *is* attractive and friendly and should really be a jewel in LL's crown. I reckon they need to pull their socks up a bit as I'm partial to a bit of chinese and would love a good purveyor of such in LL.

[Ladygooner]

I went to Dragon Castle when it first opened and was very impressed. Haven't been back since no-where to park round there but always lots of chinese people in there.