New Mayflower, Chinatown

New Mayflower

Address: 68-70 Shaftesbury Ave, London

Nearest Tube Station: Leicester Square/Piccadilly Circus

恭禧發財! 

In honour of Chinese New Year, I thought it'd only be fitting to put up my review of a Chinese restaurant I went to a few weeks ago. It's the New Mayflower (五月花) in Chinatown and it came highly recommended by my mother, a strict judge when it comes to authentic Cantonese cuisine but also guilty of drowning her dishes in soy sauce (the bane of my life) so I took it with the slightest pinch of salt...

We all huddled in on a cold Saturday evening and a packed restaurant full of happy diners greeted us. Now, I've always stood by the idea that the authenticity of a cuisine can be judged by the amount of locals seated there. In New Mayflower's case, 80% of guests were Asian - a sight that's very uncommon during the weekends!

This leads me to my next point... don't bother coming here if you're after Westernised Chinese food. You'll be paying double the price and it won't taste any better than your local takeaway. Canton is after all, hailed as the food capital of China and when in Rome (well, Chinatown), don't opt for the usual sweet and sour chicken balls, go ahead and try out the real deal! I promise that it's a LOT better!

We were seated in a small alcove that perfectly fitted in a table for 5. It felt like a little escape from the rest of the restaurant; I sat back and people-watched with my cup of Oolong tea before consulting the menu. Secret tip, ditch the English menu (and the stereotypical set meals) and ask for the Chinese menu instead for the best that they have to offer! Alternatively, ask the waiters to recommend you the best authentic dishes. 

 

  

Look at all of the food spread across the table *insert drool here*. The dishes are normally placed in the middle for everyone to share (with communal cutlery provided). Perfect for people like me who are extremely indecisive with their food and end up having major food envy with no matter what I order ;)

 

First up, salt and pepper chilli beef fillets. No bones, just oh-so-tender meat. It's lightly battered to a dark golden crisp (alway a plus as heavily battered dishes are usually doing breast strokes in the ocean of oil) and served with a smattering of shallots, extra chillis and garlic. Very tasty but it was slightly too salty for my liking (the teapot was my friend). The others didn't complain though. A great alternative to salt and pepper prawns/squid; it offers more flavour and the beef works better texture-wise in comparison to fried seafood.

 

I admit that this doesn't look very appetising but hot damn does it taste good. Qing Ping chicken (wait, imma let you finish but this is one of the best Chinese dishes of all time... OF ALL TIME.) It was my favourite dish growing up and it was extremely hard to get hold of as back in the day, only one restaurant in Chinatown had sold it. My dad would bring a whole chicken back from time to time and my week would be made. Easily pleased and not much has changed since then - good food is the key to my heart. 

It's marinated in a secret magical potion which makes the skin crisp (but not crispy), the meat retains its moisture, isn't dry and has an addictive slightly sour taste to it. The sauce... OH THE SAWCE. It's a white vinegar, garlic and red chilli dip. The combination of this and the chicken is a marriage made in heaven. It will quite literally make your tastebuds sing and angels cry. My explanation of it will never do it justice so promise me that you'll try it! Quick note, Cantonese chicken is normally served cold and unboned so don't be alarmed when it first arrives! 

 

I was slightly taken back when these arrived... 10/10 for looking so homemade, bro. These are mini water chestnut, sweetcorn, pork and squid cakes. What a mouthful, eh? The Chinese name wasn't any shorter ;)

Whilst they looked like they were ready for lashings of clotted cream and jam, they were actually pretty good. Never judge a dish by its scone-like cover. It wasn't greasy in the slightest and the flavour of the ingredients worked well - only made better after I drowned it in the chilli vinegar dip. Can they just send me a bathtub of that marinade please?

The fail of the meal and it was also the only one ordered from the English menu. The misleading Chinese title 'chilli prawn balls with peppers on a hot sizzling plate' made me think of prawn moulded fishcakes... not generic tiger prawns. 90% of the dishes I eat are chilli but I also despise food that's chilli for the sake of being well, chilli. No other flavours accompanied it, it was bitter and the green peppers even lost its natural sweetness with the overwhelming amount of spice used. Sticking to the Chinese menu.

 

Stir-fry ong choi (water spinach) with garlic, chillies and fermented beancurd. This is the part my mother interrupts to say that this is yet another golden dish in Cantonese cuisine and 'everyone from Guangzhou loves it' - it must have some truth behind it because I practically inhaled this and glared at anyone who even attempted to aim their chopsticks towards it. Must order.

Finally, I present to you... supreme soy sauce fried noodles. Guess who wanted this? My mother has a kitchen cupboard dedicated to 1L soy sauce bottles (she currently has 9) so this didn't escape her radar. My sisters and Jordan wanted it too and slurped it up. This wasn't actually swimming in salt and was flavoured well but seemed overwhelming when paired alongside the other flavourful dishes. It's a cheaper option than boiled rice though, don't order it thinking it'd be cheap. They sneakily charge you £3.40 per head for a bowl of rice - you're better off ordering a £6+ noodle dish and sharing it amongst you. 

All in all, the New Mayflower is a great restaurant if you're after authentic Cantonese food. It's served quickly and the staff are lovely (you get free fruit after dinner too, always a winner in my books) Most importantly, it tasted good. It's not mind-blowingly out-of-this-world delicious and there most definitely are places that have better food but for the price, location and the dishes on offer - I'd recommend it! Just let me at the Qing Ping chicken again.