Little Penang in Chinatown, London

 

Little Penang, (now
known as Little Hong Kong) was our restaurant of choice for filling up with
Chinese food during a trip to see all of the London Christmas lights…

I’ve never been to Chinatown
before, but I was excited to explore it. There are dozens and dozens of
restaurants on Chinatown, so competition must be fierce – (not surprisingly).
Considering we were smack bang in the middle of London too, the prices weren’t too steep.

So myself and James went for Little
Hong Kong, previously known as Little Penang; a Malaysian inspired restaurant
with an extensive menu of take-away and eat in food, set meals and deals.

It’s quite small and quaint, and
spread over 3 floors. We got there around 5ish, so peak time, and it was busy
but not overwhelming – which is good for me, I can’t enjoy my food in small,
bustling places!

The décor is minimal but still
clean and smart, and there were lovely little Christmas decorations up in the
restaurant.

We sat down in our own booth and
had a look through the menu. We settled on a set menu as they tend to be good
for money. We chose the Little Hong Kong set
menu for £16.50 each.

This set menu for 2 includes mixed
Hors d’Oeuvres, duck and pancakes, egg fried rice, crispy chilli beef, chicken
in black bean, steamed garlic vegetables and of course, the obligatory bowl of
prawn crackers.

 

Mixed h’ordeuvres

A plate of spring rolls, prawn
toast, chicken satay sticks, ribs and crispy sweet seaweed was
placed in front of us and it did actually smell amazing. The prawn toast was
slightly greasy, but it all tasted delicious nonetheless. I skipped past the
chicken wings and let James have mine, it had some kind of sauce on which I
wasn’t 100% sure what it actually was but, he enjoyed it!

 

Duck pancakes

Fresh crispy hot duck and warm
pancakes were next, with a plate of fresh cucumber, spring onions and plum
sauce. I haven’t had duck in years, I felt a little guilty after eating it but,
it tasted absolutely amazing. The meat was tender and soft, and the skin super
crispy and crunchy. The plum sauce was so flavoursome too, I’d say this was
probably my favourite part of the meal!

Comfortably full, we munched on a
few prawn crackers until our mains arrived.

Main course

Crispy chilli beef, chicken in
black bean, garlic vegetables and egg fried arrived and once again, smelt so
delicious. I loved the crispy chilli beef but James wasn’t a fan – it’s quite
vinegary, which I don’t mind as I quite like dishes like that! The chicken in
black bean sauce was really flavoursome, and the chicken was really tender. I
wasn’t overwhelmed with the garlic vegetables, so I fished around and picked
out the best bits, like the baby sweetcorn and water chestnuts. The egg fried
rice was delicious too, it wasn’t too stodgy and didn’t taste greasy at all. I
could have probably eaten a whole bowl to myself but I was super stuffed after
all of the previous courses!

We didn’t get dessert. I never do
at Chinese restaurants as they never look that nice, it’s usually some kind of
sorbet or ice-cream, so we got the bill instead.

For the set meal, 2 glasses of
lemonade and 2 Tiger beers, it came to just under £40 for the both of us. I think
that is pretty damn cheap considering the location and competition in
Chinatown!

Would I go there again? Definitely!

I did a little research before
writing this and I’ve seen a few negative reviews but they seem to be comparing
them to higher end restaurants, so it’s inevitable that they wouldn’t be as good.

But for the price, the quality of
the food and the location, I would definitely visit again!

Have you been to Chinatown
before? What restaurants would you recommend?

I wasn’t invited or asked to review Little Hong Kong – I just enjoyed
the food!