Monday, January 11, 2010

Plum Valley, Chinese Fine Dining?

Plum Valley, Chinatown

Many years ago, when I was a wee nipper studying for my degree, I chose to write my dissertation about how "Chinese" Chinatown really was. A controversial decision, but it was essentially a look at how the Chinese community had moved on from Chinatown and that Chinatown had now primarily become a commercial outlet as opposed to a hub for the Chinese community in London.

In between the long hours in the library and at my desk writing up my findings, I also had to put time in the field and found myself meandering around Chinatown, documenting the shops and restaurants. I spent hours peering at the hanging carcasses and during breaks, I would partake in a plate of roast meat and rice. Costing about £5, it was well within my student budget and scant reward for hours of legwork.

Plum Valley, Chinatown

Fast forward 10 years and I find myself standing outside Plum Valley, dark and sultry, proudly emblazoning "Chinese Fine Dining" wherever possible. My, how things have changed. Not only do I now have more than £5 to spend on dinner, but places like Plum Valley are becoming all too common on Gerrard street. Where once we would wander over to Loon Fung restaurant, now we have more choice for upper market dining such as Plum Valley and Haozhan down the road.

Plum Valley, Chinatown

So what exactly makes Plum Valley fine dining? Discussions prior to the meal suggested that it should primarily be based on the quality of the meal, the standard and consistency of the service, the ambiance and setting of the dining room and finally, the depth of the wine list. The food itself was actually far better than I expected. Starter of crispy duck salad was uninspiring but tasted as prescribed, with generous helpings of aromatic duck intermingled with salad leaves and hoisin.

Plum Valley, Chinatown
Plum Valley, Chinatown
Plum Valley, Chinatown
Plum Valley, Chinatown

Mains were much much better. The Mongolian Beef was probably the best dish. Sweet, sour and savoury, all my favourite S's together in synchronicity doused with a generous pinch of pepper. Lamb cutlets were cooked well and seafood hot pot was packed to the brim with the fruits of the sea. Tofu, firm and in a rich sauce, was generously accompanied by Chinese mushrooms and aubergine, a vegetarian dish good enough to appease a meat eater.

Plum Valley, Chinatown

Up to this point, the service was friendly and far superior to the usual abuse you get from some of the other restaurants in the neighbourhood. Then we ordered dessert. What was labelled as Willow Dew Cream was meant to be a sago based dessert (small balls of tapioca) flavoured with pomelo and mango, which I am assuming was the "modern" twist. What followed from this point onwards was slightly farcical although equally bewildering at the time.

A few mouthfuls into our sago based dessert, I realised that it was lacking a vital ingredient, sago (strange, I know). After alerting a waitress to this issue, she ran off smiling, never to be seen again. Was this some sort of joke? We alerted another waiter who this time ran off to check the menu. When he returned to confirm with us that our sago dessert did normally contain sago, he scuttled off to find out why, never to be seen again. If we kept going at this rate, the restaurant was going to run out of waiters. Finally, we signalled yet another waitress who informed us that there had been a miscommunication between kitchens (apparently they have more than one) , and that the fresh sago they normally make had gone "off". It had taken almost 30 minutes to establish that their sago dessert had no sago and the kitchen hadn't told them. She then became extremely defensive, took our desserts away and waltzed off.

As you can imagine, that little episode took a shine off what had been a fairly enjoyable experience up until then. What it did re-affirm is exactly what I thought all along, Chinese fine dining is a fraud. One little problem had led to a meltdown in the staff and even made one waitress revert to being plain rude. Peel away the fancy layers and focus on what really matters (the food, it is a restaurant after all) and what you find are dishes that you can find in most of the other restaurants dotted around Chinatown. I realise many will not agree, but I would be quite happy going back to my student days, and tucking into a plate of £5 roast meat and rice.

Plum Valley - 20 Gerrard Street, London W1D 6JQ

Plum Valley on Urbanspoon

12 comments:

Hollow Legs said...

Oh deary me. I'll stick to my trusty Hung's, in that case.

Hollow Legs said...

By the way - what were the prices like?

tehbus said...

@Lizzie - Thanks for reminding me. I got so carried away regaling my sago story, I forgot to mention that it does cost an arm and a leg. I think we paid about £30 each.

Kavey said...

Whilst presentation looks good, and you've confirmed that the food itself was good, I'm not getting that it was anything special and certainly not worth the prices.

And to me, one of the things that is important in "fine dining", though it's an expression I find odd, TBH, is good service. Looks like the service here was a paper-thin veneer!

Thanks for the review!

PS Love "Sweet, sour and savoury, all my favourite S's together in synchronicity"! :)

LexEat! said...

I went here about 18 months ago. It was nice, but I agree - for me, without the vinyl chairs, plastic table cloth and orders being barked in Chinese, it's just not Chinese for me!

Alicia Foodycat said...

You need to go to Melbourne and eat at the Flower Drum. Chinese fine dining done right! I admire that they normally would make the sago themselves though.

Su-Lin said...

Dunno - find it hard to picture Chinese fine dining and at those prices, I expect a lot more food! I had to laugh at your description of the service though! Ha! Even Pearl Liang, with its fine dining ambitions, serves cheaper food.

Helen said...

Blimey! It looks AWFUL. I found it hard to get past that salad. So they basically just got a bagged salad and mixed it with some crispy duck and hoisin? It made me laugh out loud.

tehbus said...

@Kavey - Thanks! Definitely not worth the money. Restaurants down the road are capable of replicating the same flavours without the pizazz for half the cost.

@Lex - Fake chinese. Until the rudeness at the end, I felt cheated.

@FoodyCat - I love Melbourne and am scheduled to revisit in the (relative) near future. Will look it up when I am there.

@Su-Lin - Pearl Liang is a much more rounded and enjoyable experience. I would go there over here any day of the week.

@Helen - Oh I wish I had included that in my write up. Bang on!

jiaseemee said...

hi! We just read your post after visiting the restaurant and totally agree with you! We had a soft shell crab starter, and the crumbs in it were burnt. To top it up, the service was cold and rude. I guess fine dining doesn't equate to putting nice flowers on any random plate of food. It was a really disappointing meal.

Raki said...

Have you tried the DIm Sum there? We always go for lunch when its a bit of a treat and I think its great!

philwbass said...

The dim sum is very good. Not too dear either although dearer than many. That's the only time I go.