Banquet 88 brings a 140-seat Chinese menu to St Katharine Docks
Grace Dent finds a vast, sparse dining room by the marina serving 200-odd dishes, from dragonfruit dumplings to a very hot mapo tofu.
St Katharine Docks is not where most Londoners go looking for serious Chinese cooking. According to Grace Dent's review in the Guardian, Banquet 88 sits between a Zizzi, a Côte and a Slug & Lettuce at the far end of the docks, in what she calls "Ye Olde Tower of London tourist-land".
It is the work of the Good Fortune Club group, and it is big: 140 seats, a second sizeable dining room upstairs and a 50-person private dining room. Dent describes the decor as sparse and functional, with no chintz, no modernism and not much nod towards comfort.
A menu that wanders
The menu runs to 200-odd dishes. It leans Cantonese but strays into Sichuan, Shanghai, Teochew and Beijing, with a little Malaysia and Vietnam in the form of satay chicken skewers and pork and prawn spring rolls, Dent reports.
The dim sum list includes black sesame egg yolk custard buns, chicken feet with taro in black bean sauce and morel mushroom jade siu mai. Bigger plates and showier dishes include black truffle abalone siu mai, Wagyu beef thousand-layer pastry, XO turnip cake, deep-fried taro croquettes with caviar and Teochew-style poached fish with caviar. There is also a baby cabbage salad with Jinhua ham and century eggs, and sake cherry foie gras. On the wine list, Dent spotted a Fei Tswei Magma chardonnay from Ningxia.
The restaurant, she says, is especially suited to parties of six or more.
What Dent ate
Dent went alone, at lunch, and was given a vast table overlooking the marina rather than a spot by the cleaning cupboard. She likened the staff's treatment of her to that of an off-duty empress.
- Vegetarian dumplings wrapped in dragonfruit: pink, translucent, filled with a cabbagey, daikony, herby mix and served with a deep-red Sichuan-style chilli dip. Earthy, slightly bitter and hugely satisfying, she writes.
- Hot-and-sour sesame aubergine: lightest tempura batter, deep-fried and smothered in sesame-rich hotness. Her verdict: "sweet, rich, fiery and moreish".
- Signature pickled radish: uniform Jenga-like blocks, crunchy, fresh and heavily perfumed.
- Mapo tofu with ground beef: soft and silky, with a numbing, fiery sauce. The server checked she was sure about ordering it, and said British people do not like that much heat and sliminess.
- Mango and pomelo sago: served in a tiny flower-shaped glass bowl, described as an unexpected total delight.
Around her, Dent noted tour groups fresh from the Tower of London, and academic-looking British men with Chinese wives.
Christmas Day, if you want it
Dent notes that Banquet 88 is open on Christmas Day, a handy option for anyone who would rather have dim sum than a turkey. Her closing assessment is that it is a vast restaurant waiting to be populated, and she was happy to make a start.
Know before you go
- Address: Unit 2, Commodity Quay, London E1
- Phone: 020 3951 4389
- Open: all week, noon to 10pm, including Christmas Day
- Prices: from about £40 a head à la carte; set menus £38 to £68, all plus drinks and service
Sources: The Guardian
