China House

I was pretty sceptical when Fatt suggested we go to the China House after the fasting we endured for our health check ups. I am soooooo glad that I was persuaded to go now.

My initial reluctance stemmed from the fact that it is a Mandarin Oriental restaurant, ergo bound to be pricey. I was completely won over by:

a) the setting - it's a house outside the Mandarin Oriental. White, clean, colonial with tasteful Chinese settings. The girls wear the most gorgeous cheong saams (Chinese dresses) and tables are discretely spaced apart.
b) the dim sum menu is concise and very reasonably priced. Starting from about 75 baht per dish to 120 baht (NB more for things like fried rice etc.)
c) the dim sum is divine. We had a 100% hit rate in terms of getting good dishes. The freshness of the ingredients was simply bursting - it was all wonderfully home made. We had prawn cheung fun (which normally I am not keen on but this was fantastic), spring rolls, prawn and mango wrapped rice rolls, spare ribs in black bean (subtle) and prawn dumplings. A range of dipping sauces complemented the dishes nicely. For afters we had the mango pudding (which came with cream - tasty) and the sago & pomelo & mango pudding.
d) service of course was impeccable

I only have 2 grumbles which was one waitress was being a bit pushy on the Shanghai dumplings (after watching 'Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares' we're a bit suspicious when servers are trying to push a particular dish). The other thing was the price of the tea: 150 baht per person for a pot of jasmine tea!

However, I will gladly go again and again. It's some of the best dim sum I've ever had in my life!