11 Jul, 2011
.cn Authentic Chinese Restaurant and Takeaway (食间)
Posted by: Wen Ching In: Chinese Food|United Kingdom
After hearing good reviews from a few of our friends that a new Chinese restaurant was opened recently on City Road, we decided to give this place a try.
The restaurant is located on City Road near Tenkaichi Sushi & Noodle Bar and Ambala Restaurant & Takeaway.
Different from most Chinese takeaways in Cardiff, this restaurant serves authentic Chinese food mostly from northern China and Szechuan province. The interior of the restaurant was nice and pleasant.
There are three types of tea to choose from, green tea, jasmine tea or chrysanthemum tea. We opted for the chrysanthemum tea since it is not often that we can find chrysanthemum tea in Cardiff restaurants. The tea was priced at £1 per person.
Food was served faster than we expected. In fact, all main dishes arrived before our pearl milk tea. Our first main dish was the hot and spicy duck tongue (香辣鸭舌) which was priced at £8. This dish is rather popular in Mainland China. Cooked with a great deal of red chilies and Szechuan peppercorn, the duck tongue was relatively spicy. The meat was soft and smooth, and it was cooked long enough to absorb the spicy broth. If you are feeling adventurous or feel like trying something new, do give this dish a try!
Next up we had a stewed trotter (红烧猪手) which cost £6.80. This was one of our favourite dishes. Served piping hot, the pork trotter was tender, juicy and fatty and the thick sauce complemented very well with it. We would highly recommend you to order this dish!
We also had a crispy lamb breast with ground chili (香酥羊腩) priced at £8.50, simply because the photo almost made us drooled. The lamb was very nicely deep-fried, crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. The chili flakes and spices gave the dish an extra kick. However, the gamey taste of the lamb was rather strong to my liking.
Finally, we had the star of the day, fish in Szechuan pepper and chili sauce (水煮鱼). Priced at £12, small pieces of fish fillets were cooked and served in hot Szechuan pepper and chili flakes and oil. The fish was soaked with the spicy broth and it was so soft and flavourful. The bean sprouts, on the other hand, were nice and crunchy. This is one of my all time favourite Szechuan dishes. However, be careful not to bite into the tiny Szechuan peppercorn or it will numb your tongue!
We also tried their pearl milk tea (珍珠奶茶) as we don’t often see this in Cardiff Chinese restaurants. Priced at £2.80, the milk tea was sweet and delightful, the tapioca pearls were just nice and chewy. We quite liked it!
To sum it up, this restaurant is very well worth a visit for authentic Chinese cuisine. Service was good as well. As indicated by the Chinese name of the restaurant, it’s time to eat! For more information, check out their website here.
Restaurant Information
228 City Road,
Roath,
Cardiff CF24 3JH
United Kingdom.
Tel: 02920486688
