I’m a sucker for a superlative.
In fact, one of my mates takes the piss of out of my tendency
to regularly declare something to be the “best” I’ve eaten in Cardiff. The best
pizza. The best kebab. The best burger. The best ham in aspic. The best
turducken.
What can I say, I’m in the hype game. And people don’t want
to read about the seventh best birria tacos in Caerphilly or the fourth best
pulled pork bun in Cardiff.
So, when an Instagram connection who knows a lot more about
Chinese food than me declared Crown Kitchen on City Road to be the best Chinese
restaurant in Cardiff, I promptly dug out my elasticated eating trousers and
booked a table.
Crown Kitchen has only been open for four months and is owned by a wife and husband team who hail from Shanghai and south China respectively. One half runs front of house with fabulous warmth and enthusiasm whilst the other, who previously worked as a private chef at the Four Seasons hotel in London for over twenty years, runs the kitchen.
The bright and simple dining room was quiet when we first
arrived at 7pm on a Saturday evening. But, it swiftly filled up with a massive
group who spread themselves over three tables and tucked into a procession of
excellent looking dishes.
As often seems to be the case, Crown Kitchen serves two
different menus. One offers westernised Chinese cooking for diners looking for
sweet and sour pork and chicken chow mein, the other features traditional
Chinese food that draws influences from across the country.
Handily, all the dishes are photographed. So, if you’re as clueless as I am then it gives you a very good idea of what to expect.
I’ve eaten a lot of potatoes in my lifetime but none like the shredded potatoes in chilli sauce (£10.80) from Crown Kitchen. Finely shredded, slippery spuds with a lovely bite and no starchiness whatsoever were served as a warm salad lightly dressed with vinegar, oil, coriander and a potent kick of dried chilli. For such a simple dish, it delivered a huge amount of flavour.
Salt and chilli squid is one of my favourite Chinese restaurant dishes and here it took the form of crunchy tentacles (£16). The pile of tender Cthulhu-esque tendrils were coated in a super crisp and light batter that was aggressively seasoned with salt, chilli and garlic. It was seriously moreish stuff and perfect with an ice-cold beer.
Beef ho fun in black bean sauce (£13) was another belter of a dish. A mound of beautifully tender beef was bathed in deeply savoury black bean sauce and piled on top of thick ho fun noodles with a compellingly savoury wok smokiness.
A lightly dressed cucumber salad that was dotted with roasted peanuts brought some freshness and lightness to the meal. However, at £10.80, it was perhaps the only dish which was questionable value for money.
Crown Kitchen’s dry fried organic cauliflower with pork (£12) transformed an all too often dour vegetable into something exciting. Florets of cauliflower had just the right amount of bite and were stir fried with nuggets of tender pork belly, peppers and onion in a savoury and spicy sauce.
Sichuan spicy boiled fish (£22) lived up to its billing. A vast cauldron of intensely flavoured, spicy, lip-tingling broth was the home to plentiful meaty pieces of white fish and a heap of beansprouts. Autumn is my soup era and this hit the spot.
A big slab of roasted lamb ribs (£22) was one of the dishes I was most looking forward to. And they very much delivered on their promise, with their combination of crisp skin, stupidly tender flesh and a liberal dusting of just the twenty different types of spice (I bet chilli and cumin were a big part of the mix). Unfortunately, the pretty platter they were served on was stone cold, meaning that within a few minutes they were tepid and had lost their mojo. I refried some of the leftovers the next day and can confirm they were just as good as the first mouthful.
The last dish of the night was Hainanese chicken curry (£18). With its plentiful chicken off the bone in a creamy and fragrant coconut sauce, it was very reminiscent of a Thai curry. Whilst it was very tasty, it was probably the only dish which I wouldn’t be in a rush to order again.
We had a superb meal at Crown Kitchen. With its immensely friendly front of house and deliciously big-flavoured cooking from a talented chef-owner, they serve some of the best Chinese food I’ve eaten in Cardiff. Oh look, there I go dishing out another superlative.
The Details:
Address - Crown Kitchen,120 City Rd, Cardiff CF24 3DQ
Telephone - 07551 037509
