China House
Rated: Average
based on 12 reviews
Grand Hyatt Mumbai, Off Western Express Highway, Santacruz (E), Mumbai
66761086
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Jan 14, 2008
dinner/food review
Went to China House w/the fiance this past Friday, expecting to be treated like I was a Ming Dynasty emperor. The entrance to this place is quite breathtaking - large wooden doors open up onto giant slabs of concrete seemingly floating in a shallow pond littered with fish and pond foliage. A few scattered tables, mostly for large parties, are in this open-air section. Follow the path to another set of large wooden double-doors, and you've reached the main entrance to the dining room. The decor is fantastic here. Although I'm not familiar with Chinese artifacts and interior decorating sense, this place seems to be somewhat authentic. The kitchen has got a glass pane facing the dining room, so revelers can peer in to see what's cookin', as well as try and guess what the dried ingredients might be in at least 50 glass containers sitting on the kitchen shelving.
We sat at our small table for two, and were instantly served small, palate-cleansing portions of cold vegetables (yellow squash, cucumber, and tempeh), as well as something a little squishier, almost the consistency of seaweed (it was tasty).
We decided to peer at the wine menu, but were very surprised to see a lot of the wines on their list included the name of the vintner, the vintage and the year, but failed to list the varietal! I pointed this out to the waiter, and he embarrassingly started to bring bottles to our table so I could read the varietals from the label. We ended up with a bottle of the 2005 Morton Estate Pinot Noir from New Zealand - not quite ready to drink, but a fair table wine.
We ordered some dim sum to start, one of prawns and the other of chicken, and it was great. The dim sum came out piping hot, in bamboo steamers. Carrots were intelligently placed under the dim sum, as to prevent sticking to the wood.
We then moved on to a seafood dumpling soup with prawns and abalone. I have always been a big abalone fan, and I remember days when my father would buy abalone directly from fisherman and cook it in his style. It would remain soft, buttery in consistency, and utterly delicious...which was why I was extremely disappointed to find the abalone in the soup as chewy as rubber. Some of it even had stringy flesh, making it impossible to swallow.
We then wrestled in between continuing to order more dim sum, or try some of the main course. We errantly opted for the latter. We ordered the much-written about hand-pulled Dang Dang noodles, and they were way too salty, doused mostly in soy sauce, and the chicken tit bits seemed to be extremely low quality sausage meat. The soft-shell crab dish was fried until they resembled pakoras, so after a few artery destroying bites, we left it alone as well.
All in all, the experience started out very promising, but then soon took a nose dive when we migrated away from the dim sum menu. I've heard from friends that Royal China in Bandra is the much better option for dim sum, so the reasons to dine at China House continue to plummet. All in all, an average experience, but such a highly touted 5-star joint ought to really be striving for perfection. Disappointed and will probably not dine here again.
