With its “robust” Sichuanese cuisine, this “plush” spot offers “a spicy alternative to your standard Chinatown Cantonese”; this year, however, a minority of reporters encountered “below par” food.
Keep your own review of Empress of Sichuan using our diary service.
“Compared to the much improved modern London restaurant norm, most Chinatown restaurants are so unwelcoming”, says the critic “They don’t even look like restaurants do now. They are brightly lit, foggy, not hugely clean, have no interest in produce quality and are very aware of catering principally to tourists.” Ouch!
Fay Maschler (11th February 2010)
3/5 stars
“To get the best from the menu, go in a party of at least four and you can then also express some entitlement to one of the comfortable banquettes. Demure waitresses are in attendance and if either Naomi or Ruby or both are on duty, ask for them; their suggestions are worth following.” The doyenne of critics gives a rather prescriptive review of Chinatown’s former Keelung (same ownership). Follow her instructions, though, and you can have an interesting Sichuan meal here.
Guy Dimond (4th February 2010)
3/5 stars
“Sichuan is flavour of the moment in London”, says the critic, who visits “the former site of the short-lived Keelung in Chinatown. It has retained many of its features: “the photographs of the brat pack on the walls sends mixed messages. As does the menu, which is lengthy, often expensive, and intersperses Sichuan with other dishes, prefaced by a page stating the chef’s credentials”. The food is rather up-and-down.
Giles Coren (22nd February 2010)
Fay Maschler (11th February 2010)
Guy Dimond (4th February 2010)
Follow hardensbites
Become a Harden's fan
