Bar Shu (Chinese) - Review - London, England (7.5/10)

Bar Shu is one of several Sichuan restaurants in London, alongside Angeles, Sichuan (both pre-Bar Shu), Snazz Sichuan and Red ‘N’ Hot (both post-Bar Shu). It opened in 2006 to rave reviews, with British food writer Fuschia Dunlop as consultant. Although it’s located just minutes from my office in Soho, I’ve resisted going there until now, because I’m not the greatest fan of spicy food.

The two years I spent in Beijing from 1996-97 really changed my palate, and I slowly became more accustomed to eating Sichuan dishes and Korean food (in those days, there weren’t that many great restaurants in Beijing, and so a small Korean restaurant, near the Beijing Language Institute where I was studying, became a favourite). I returned to London a changed person. But I still worry that I won’t be able to handle a certain level of spiciness, and being used to the more subtle flavours of Cantonese cooking, I still don’t enjoy that feeling of ‘mala’ numbness in my mouth.

However, I survived Snazz Sichuan a few months ago, which my friend thinks is considerably more authentic than Bar Shu. She’s familiar with Sichuan cuisine as she travels regularly to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. Her opinion is that the dishes at Snazz are somewhat oilier than those in Bar Shu, but that this is part of their authenticity, whereas Bar Shu have tailored their dishes in order to cater for ‘Western’ palates. The portions at Snazz are also more substantial, and cheaper. So I didn’t think I would have a problem at Bar Shu. And Sichuan cuisine isn’t all fiery hot and spicy anyway.

Actually I hadn’t planned to eat at Bar Shu at all. I was sitting in Wahaca, waiting for my friend who was visiting from Tokyo, and looking forward to some Mexican street food. But she got lost and called me, so I had to give up our precious table in order to go and find her. Spontaneity isn’t one of my strong points, and so I had to think hard to recall my restaurant wishlist. Where on earth could we eat on a Thursday evening, without a reservation?! Bar Shu only had free tables down in the basement, otherwise we would have had to wait over an hour for an upstairs table. Downstairs is very different to upstairs, as it lacks atmosphere. But if you just need a table to eat, then it’s fine. Groups will also be seated downstairs. No alcohol is served downstairs though, which drinkers will need to know.

We were the first to arrive downstairs but were soon surrounded by young, wealthy Mandarin-speaking Chinese, who must have ordered half the menu, only to leave half of that behind when they left. The menu is thick and filled with impressive colour photos of each dish. I suppose for the uninitiated, it’s useful to have a visual guide. The prices were startlingly high though, and £22.00 seemed to be a common price for many of the seafood dishes.

After some mental arithmetic, I ordered: xiao chi (literally ’small eats’) of dan dan noodles (£4.50) and Bar Shu boiled crescent dumplings in chilli oil sauce, flavoured with spiced soy sauce, garlic and just a hint of sweetness (£4.50). The xiao chi are at the back of the menu, so don’t miss these! To follow, gong bao chicken with peanuts (£9.50), dry fried string beans with pork (£8.50) and fish-fragrant aubergine with minced pork (£8.50), with steamed white rice. I thought classics would be safer than experimenting with unknowns this time. There are chilli signs next to each dish as a guide, but unless you know the restaurant’s level of spiciness for one chilli, the guide isn’t particularly useful.

We thought we’d died and gone to heaven when the dumplings arrived - six little treasures in a bowl. Tender, flavoursome, meaty, not at all spicy, with just a slight tingling on the tongue from the sauce. I could have eaten twenty of these. The dan dan mian were good too, but hardly spicy at all again. I’ve had far hotter noodles in Beijing, so true connoisseurs will be disappointed. The gong bao chicken (with some chopped red chillis which I avoided) and dry fried beans (with dried minced pork and shrimp) were both delicious. Incidentally, I heard the waiter ask, in Mandarin, a Chinese group whether they wanted their dishes ‘extra hot’, so it’s another indicator that dishes have been toned down. Even I could have gone a notch up. So if you think you can handle it, by all means ask for ‘extra hot’!

In terms of service, it could be much improved. Although polite, it was as if our waiter didn’t really want to be there. He also forgot to place our order of fish-fragrant aubergine, but by then, we were already full from the other two dishes. And we had to give up our table after 90 minutes (understandable given that we didn’t have a reservation). It doesn’t seem to be a place where it feels like one could linger over a meal.

But having said that, I will go back. Now that I’ve ‘tested’ the menu, I’ll be more adventurous next time, and maybe even try Sichuan hot pot. For this meal and service charge, we paid £34.00, which was pretty reasonable (given that I had worked hard to avoid all the expensive dishes!)

10 - Perfection, 9.5 - Sensational, 9 - Outstanding, 8.5 - Superb,
8 - Excellent, 7.5 - Very good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 - Average

Contact details:
Bar Shu
28 Frith Street
Soho
London W1D 5LF
Tel: 020 7287 6688
www.bar-shu.co.uk

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide