Randomness Guide to London Menu

Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, specialising in Dongbei (northeast Chinese) food.

This is yet another opening from the Restaurant Privilege group, who also own Leong's Legend just opposite, as well as many other East Asian restaurants around London. After the previous occupant, Cẩm Phát, vacated the site, there were signs that a Hong Kong style place called Cafe de Chine would be opening up, but by July 2011 Manchurian Legends was firmly in place (although a month later, "Cafe de Chine" still appeared on their debit card slips).

The building is tall and narrow, with seating on three floors. When Kake and Sarah visited on a Tuesday evening in August 2011, the ground floor was full (this doesn't take much; it really is small) and we were led to the top floor, where we were entertained during our meal by the sounds of karaoke leaking out from the KTV rooms they have up there.

Everything we tried was good. A cold dish of shredded kelp (涼拌海帶絲; £4.50) photo was a very generous portion, and nicely seasoned. Cucumber with mandarin pork (肘花拍黃瓜; £4.50) photo, another cold dish, had great flavour, and although the texture of the meat was as interesting as pork knuckle usually is, we actually ran out of the cucumber part before the pork part.

Pork and pickled vegetable dumplings (豬肉酸菜水餃; £5 for eight) photo were just as they should be, and plain rice (£2/person) was fine. The highlight of the meal, though, was the braised pork with glass noodles (紅燒肉粉條; £8.50); cubes of red-cooked pork belly, braised long enough that the skin was almost as soft as the fat, mixed with a tangle of thin, slippery, chewy potato starch noodles.

Kake's verdict: I really quite liked the food here, though judging by other reviews (linked below) it sounds like there is some inconsistency in the kitchen and we may have been lucky in our ordering.

Accessibility: A couple of steps to get in, and much of the seating is up additional flights of stairs. The karaoke rooms are on the top floor.

See also:

• Photos of the menu as of August 2011: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• Evening Standard review (by Fay Maschler)
• Observer review (by Jay Rayner)
• Time Out review (by Guy Dimond)
• Chowhound thread
• Come Con Ella review
• Natasha Hughes' review
• Skinny Bib review
• Susan Eats London review
• The Lemurs Are Hungry review