Randomness Guide to London Menu

Chinese restaurant in Wapping offering Peking and Cantonese cuisine. As the name suggests, the restaurant has a river view, being situated in a converted warehouse on the north bank of the Thames, in Wapping. It's quite big - seats 200 according to its website - and has a terrace overlooking the river. It's been there since 1990, according to Port Cities.

Kake and bob tried out the delivery option in July 2009. Steamed chicken dumplings (£4.60) turned out to be siu mai; they weren't bad, but a dipping sauce to go with them would have been nice (perhaps this was what the sachet of soy sauce was intended for). Eel satay (£8.80) was good; for an eel fan like Kake, tasty enough even to justify the price. Spicy pork Szechuan style (£6.70) had a fairly bland sauce with a very occasional bit of nicely-hot chilli. The meat was very tender; Kake would perhaps have preferred a bit more bite to it.

On previous orders in February 2008, Kake and bob tried:

• Dragon and phoenix rolls (£8), which turned out to be chicken and king prawns, sandwiched together, battered, and deep-fried. They weren't very flavourful and the texture wasn't really to Kake's taste (though it might be better if ordered in the restaurant and eaten immediately, rather than boxed up and delivered). They came with a tub of salad cream for dipping. Kake wouldn't order this again, at least not for delivery.
• Hot and sour soup, which had a decent amount of chilli heat, including fresh chillies.
• Crispy beef — rather tough and chewy (possibly a timing issue; other items in this order arrived stone cold, though this problem was rectified in our most recent order).
• Chicken and aubergine hotpot — only had about two pieces of aubergine in; lots of lemongrass though (the predominant flavour).
• Pei pa beancurd (£7) — mashed tofu croquettes braised in a mild sauce with carrots, Chinese cabbage, and Chinese mushrooms. Very mild flavour though.
• French beans (£4.50) — good and crisp but not very exciting; one portion would be enough for at least three people unless you really like beans.
• Steamed rice (£2.20) did the job but was nothing special.

Kake's verdict: It's quite expensive for takeaway, but the quality is relatively high in comparison with many takeaway-only places. I'd like to go and try eat-in some time. I'd certainly order takeaway from here again, but not if I was feeling poor.

See also:

• Londonist review
• Yelp comments