Jia - London SW7
Restaurants come and restaurants go and sometimes Chinese restaurants seem to come
and go faster than others. So it was with some relief that we discovered a new Chinese
restaurant near to South Kensington station – a facility that had been notably lacking
in the past.
It looked pretty neat from the outside – clean and modern with black wooden tables
and white napkins reasonably spaced from each other. The restaurant is quite small
but there is an upstairs eating area which makes a change from having the overflow
in the basement.
There are two separate and distinct menus – one for lunch time and one for the evening.
The lunch time menu is heavily weighted with dim sum plates but there are also a
limited number of enhanced vegetable, rice and noodle dishes with either meat or
fish.
Dim Sum dishes are divided between steamed, fried and Cheung Fun. Steamed and fried
dim sums are mostly priced under £3 and the Cheung Fun dishes between £3 and £4.
Vegetarian dishes are clearly marked.
We sampled a number of dim sum dishes – for the most part they were beautifully cooked
and tasty. Two things that the restaurant is keen to point out is no MSG and no preservatives
in the food. It certainly tasted that way. The variety of dishes is pretty interesting,
too. There is no pretence about being any sort of regional cuisine – inspiration
is drawn from a wider Asian net with some dishes originating from Japan and Malaysia
as well as regional and offshore China.
With some Jasmine Lotus tea spectacularly served in a huge wine glass and a couple
of Tsing Tao beers, we set about the dim sums with gusto. We tucked in to Wasabi
Prawn Dumplings (spicy), Scallop Dumplings (scallop and prawn in a spinach pastry),
Coriander Crab Crystal Dumplings (crabmeat, king prawn and coriander in a translucent
jelly), King Prawn Cheung Fun (wrapped in a smooth rice noodle pasta), Pan Fried
Lamb Dumplings (minced lamb, water chestnuts, spring onions, ginger and black pepper),
Chicken Gyoza (Japanese style minced chicken and sweetcorn dumplings), Honey Roast
Pork Cheung Fun (wrapped in a smooth noodle pasta) and Pork and Shrimp Shu Mai (seasoned
ground pork, chopped shrimp and shitake mushroom dumpling). All deliciously cooked.
The only disappointment was the Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce which was rather insipid
although it was supposed to have some chilli in the sauce.
The price for all this came to £36.10 for two plus a 10% “Optional” service charge
which brought it up to £39.70.
At dinner prices range from £4.50 to £9.50 for appetizers and from £9.80 to £38.00
for mains. A second meal here consisted of a Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab Salad
with Chilli Mayonnaise and served in a light cream sauce (£9.50) and a Mango Seafood
Spring Roll filled with prawns and sweetcorn and served with a mango sauce and crispy
seaweed (£6.50), both deliciously cooked. We followed this with Malaysian Style Lamb
Curry (£9.80) – minced lamb with a mild curry and Stir Fried Scallops, King Prawns
with Lily Bulbs and Asparagus (£12.50) – a beautiful combination cooked à point.
As an accompaniment we went slightly exotic by choosing the Typhoon Shelter Bay Chilli
and Garlic Prawn Vermicelli (£8.80) but we could have had Jasmine Steamed Rice for
£2.80.
With three beers between us the total including service came to £63.70 – a pretty
good price for a more than satisfactory Chinese meal. There is a wine list provided
by Hallgarten’s and there are a number of suitable wines on it to accompany Chinese
food, but it has always been our long established practice to stick to beer or tea
unless you go to a really specialist wine-oriented restaurant such as Hakkasan.
In conclusion, there is no doubt that Jia is a serious restaurant with a specialist
dim sum chef and a specialist wok chef. The food is tasty and succulent, even if
not every dish succeeds it provides worthwhile value for money which is something
which is getting more and more difficult to find – especially in London.
Jia – 1, Harrington Road, London SW7 3ES
Tel: 020 7584 7188
Open: All week 12 noon – 11 p.m. Dim Sum served 12 noon – 5 p.m.
Credit Cards: All Major
Ratings:
Food 41
Wine 5
Service 10
Ambience 6
Value for Money 14
Total 76
