Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 3 and Version 2 of East Meets West, CR0 4NZ

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category='Chinese Food,Restaurants,Step-Free Access,Vegetarian Friendly'
 category='Chinese Food,Restaurants,Step-Free Access'

Dongbei (North-East Chinese) restaurant in the Wing Yip complex in Croydon. It opened in late 2013.

Kake and three friends visited on a Saturday lunchtime in January 2014. When we arrived a little before 12:30pm, it was almost empty, but an hour later it had filled up, though there were still a few free seats. Music was playing, a little cheesy at times, but not too loud.

Sliced potato with sweet & chilli sauce (熗拌土豆絲; £5) photo was a generous portion, served cold and refreshing, with the potato retaining the crunchy texture characteristic of this dish. Another cold dish, preserved egg and tofu salad (農家皮蛋豆腐; £7.50) photo was also nicely done, using a relatively coarsely-textured tofu to ensure that the flavourful sauce penetrated well.

Moving on to hot dishes, stewed green pepper, potato, and aubergine (地三鮮; £7) photo had a richly savoury sauce, and lovely texture on the deep-fried potatoes, though the aubergines were perhaps verging on too soft. Fried pak choi with Chinese mushroom (香菇油菜; £7) photo was fine.

Our sole meat dish, Sichuan shredded pork with spicy garlic sauce (四川魚香肉絲; £7.50) photo, was sweeter and less spicy than it would have been at a restaurant specialising in Sichuan food, but nevertheless competently prepared.

The staff were happy to give advice on which dishes were suitable for the vegetarians in our party. They were also careful to check that the non-Chinese members of our party had eaten preserved egg before. Our final bill photo including auto-added 10% service charge came to £11.50/head, though we noticed later that they'd forgotten to charge us for two of our bowls of rice and one cup of tea, and hence undercharged us by a fiver.

Kake's verdict: I already have plans to come back and try the rest of the menu — though this is partly because it's the only place in Croydon doing this type of food, and I've been missing having it locally since I moved here.

Child-friendliness: They have at least one high chair (which was in use during our visit).

Accessibility: Step-free entrance to the Wing Yip building and the restaurant, and no steps inside the restaurant either. Can't remember if there was an accessible toilet, but it was certainly step-free to the regular ones.

See also:

Last visited by Kake et al., January 2014.

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