Whilst curry and tapas are good fun to share with a group of mates, nothing quite compares with a rotating wheel of Chinese food for creating a sense of occasion.
And the jostling and tactics required to maximise the food to spin ratio, only add to the sense of excitement.
Okay…I’m a loser.
On Thursday night, a mob of us visited Riverside Cantonese.
With an English language menu consisting of familiar classics and a smattering of interesting seafood dishes like Szechuan style monkfish and salt & chilli soft shell crab, Riverside Cantonese also serves dim sum everyday between 12pm and 5pm. Furthermore, if you’re feeling adventurous, I’d hazard a guess there’s fun to be had on their Chinese language menu.
We stuck to the familiar.
As we waited for Susan to receive her goods, a couple of bowls of stale prawn crackers (£2.20) thankfully didn’t set the tone for the rest of the meal.
Starters were good. Not incredible, but good.
Sesame prawn toast (£6.50) were crisp and topped with a decent amount of crustacean. The bread, however, was a smidgeon too greasy; a ridiculous statement to describe glorified fried bread.
Barbecue spare ribs (£5.50) were coated with a pleasingly sweet and sticky sauce whilst roast spare ribs with salt and chilli (£6.95) were moreishly spicy and savoury.
Duck lettuce rolls (£6.95?) did everything needed of them – huge leaves of lettuce, tender duck and crisp noodles combined effectively.
The mains allowed Riverside Cantonese to demonstrate their class - every dish utilised impeccably fresh vegetables and light sauces which steered along way from gloopy.
Spicy Kung Po chicken (£7.75) with al dente carrot, cucumber, celery, green chillies, mushrooms and peppers was bejewelled with ultra crisp peanuts.
Spicy Kung Po chicken (£7.75) with al dente carrot, cucumber, celery, green chillies, mushrooms and peppers was bejewelled with ultra crisp peanuts.
The classic guilty pleasure, crispy shredded beef with chilli (£7.75), was pulled off with aplomb. Thin batter, tender beef, a light sauce and a liberal amount of diced chillies were all on the nail.
Chicken in chilli and black bean sauce (£7.75) effectively paired the slight bitterness of black beans and sourness of green peppers.
Even a vegetarian dish of aubergines with garlic (£4.95) was enjoyably meaty in texture.
Special fried rice (£4.95) was fluffy and flecked with a generous amount of char-sui pork and prawns.
And Mandarin noodles with beansprouts (£4.95) were laced with the fragrant aroma of sesame oil.
Having wiped every plate clean, I abstained from the usual uninspiring range of Chinese desserts (I picked up a Double Decker on the way home).
However, a friend’s banana fritters (£4.50) were crisp, tender and drizzled in lovely light caramel.
Whilst old skool Cantonese often gets a bad rep for its dayglo MSG rich sauces, the Riverside demonstrates why a plate of Chinese nosh is one of the nation's favourite comfort foods.
The details:
Address - Riverside Cantonese, 44 Tudor Street, Riverside, Cardiff , CF11 6AH
Telephone - 029 2037 2163
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