Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 12 and Version 11 of Pacific Plaza

Reasonably-sized East and South-East Asian shopping mall and food court in Wembley very near Wembley Stadium. It's very similar to (and is touted as the replacement for) the now-closed Oriental City, and the project is in fact the brainchild of a former Oriental City tenant.

The first tenants moved in just before the end of 2009, and the offical opening is slated for mid-February 2010. In addition to the businesses mentioned below, there are plans for a supermarket (fitted out and due to open early March 2010) photo), a herbal doctor, a bookshop, a clothes shop, and a martial arts hall offering classes and demonstrations.

As of mid-January 2010, there are three businesses trading on the ground floor:

• Doki photo — this is the Japanese crockery shop that used to trade as Utsuwa-No-Yakata in Oriental City. It's open 10am-6:30pm Mon-Sun.
• Tetote Factory photo — a Japanese bakery open 10am-7pm Mon and Wed-Sun. It also sells hot drinks, and although there's no seating in the shop, it's fine to take your purchases upstairs and eat them in the food court.
• A beauty salon.

As of mid-February eight of the thirteen units in the food court are open for business (all but one of the others are rented but not yet fitted out):

• Sawadee Thai — this will eventually have a Thai massage side, but only the food side is open as of yet.
• Spicy Thai — Thai food!
• NP Star Snack Bar photo — Japanese & Malaysian, specialising in crepes, fried things, takoyaki, and fruit skewers with chocolate dip.
• China House — Chinese/roast meat/dim sum/rice & noodles/Sichuan place dim sum menu photo, roasted meats menu photo.
• Hot Korean photo.
• Shan photo, website — Japanese, previously Zen at Oriental City menu photo 1, menu photo 2.
• Nambu photos — Japanese Donburi (rice) dishes
• Seleramu website, menu — Malaysian hawker food

Kake tried the dim sum at the Chinese food court stall in January 2010. King prawn cheung fun (£3.80) was OK, though the wrappers were a little thick and the prawns a decent size but unremarkable in quality (and perhaps very slightly overcooked) photo. Pan-fried turnip cake (£2.60) was good, with decent, not-dried-out chunks of roast meat, obvious shreds of turnip, and a decent amount of browning on the outside photo. Siu mai (£2.50) were pretty good too, with large chunks of prawn to complement the pork, and a well-judged fat-to-meat ratio photo. Jasmine tea (80p) came in a 300ml polystyrene cup with the teabag still in.

Accessibility: Step-free to get in. There's a large car park just outside. There are steps up to the food court on the first floor, but there seems to also be a lift (Kake saw a sign for "customer lift" in January 2010 but didn't investigate further).

See also:

• Official Pacific Plaza website
• Official Pacific Plaza Facebook page
• Pacific Plaza group on Flickr
• Kake's photoset on Flickr
• Meemalee's blog post
• Will Eat For Money blog post February 2010
• Will Eat For Money blog post December 2009
• Ferret Fabricates blog post

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