Feast from the East
Chinese New Year on 5 February is an auspicious date to launch a new Chinese business, and this year - the Year of the Dragon - the 160-seat Orient restaurant will be celebrating by flinging open its doors for business in London's Piccadilly.
Part of the recently opened China House restaurant complex, the Orient joins its more casual sister restaurant - the 200-seat China House, launched last December - to serve Chinese food with a dash of Western panache to the capital's diners.
Thus, there are no set menus or numbered dishes here. Instead, there's an 88-choice à la carte, offering dishes divided into 14 sub-sections according to produce or course: dim sum, cold and hot appetisers, soups, mid-course dishes, tiger prawns, fish, chicken, beef, lamb, pork, duck, vegetables, rice and noodles, and desserts.
"The base of the menu is traditional Chinese, but Chris Kwan, head chef, has used some Pacific Rim ingredients to give the food a modern twist," explains Alan Poon, the complex's deputy general manager and head of the Orient's 20-strong front of house brigade.
Many dishes have a discernible Cantonese influence, such as crisp garlic wafer chicken (£11.25) and traditional shelled lobster on a crispy noodle base, served with ginger and spring onion or black bean sauce (£29.50).
Others, such as the monkfish braised in a curry-spiced coconut cream (£20) or curry-spice lamb with peppers and onions (£14), have Malaysian or Thai overtones. The former, for example, is sautéd with garlic, tossed in yellow and green peppers, and seasoned with red curry bean paste before coconut cream and a dash of cream are added to smooth out the texture. The dish is served with crisped aubergine and courgette.
Among the 15 dim sum, favourites such as har gua (steamed prawn dumpling) and tai chee siu mai (steamed scallop and pork dumpling), both £4.30, sit alongside so choi pau (£3.80) - a steamed vegetarian bun which includes Chinese mushrooms, bamboo shoots, coriander and spring onions - adapted by Kwan to appeal to the Western palate.
Desserts are not a forte in Chinese cuisine, so the choice is limited to six to eight dishes, favouring sorbets and ice-creams changing on a seasonal and daily basis (all £5.50), or European-style dishes made with Chinese produce such as tinjuin pears. An exotic fruit platter (£7), including lychees, rambutan, mango, star fruit, apple bananas and passion fruit, is a palate-cleansing alternative.
Food is cooked by Kwan's kitchen brigade of 25, which also serves the China House restaurant, two bars and two private dining rooms.
The establishment, which has a separate street-level entrance, is aiming to pull in an eclectic clientele of businessmen, media professionals, tourists and residents, and Poon anticipates an average spend per head of £45 including wine, turning around 80-90 for lunch and 120 evening covers. n
Orient Restaurant, China House, 160 Piccadilly, London W1. Tel: 020 7499 6888 Web site: www.chinahouse.co.uk
