Sunday 25 September 2011

Orient Express, Sheffield

Feeling slightly delicate one morning I was craving food but couldn't decide where to go or what I wanted. This inability to make a decision, along with a severe lack of motivation to move from the sofa, meant that I skipped breakfast and sat down to lunch at half past two.

Initially I had craved pasta and I fancied giving Cafe Piazza down by the side of the Cathedral, but then I remembered that Orient Express had recently opened on Glossop Road and, in the end, the Orient Express won out.

Orient Express is located where K-Pasa used to be, one restaurant I'm glad to have avoided, so it was only a quick walk from the flat.

Once there we entered a clean, modern and busy restaurant. A waiter greeted us and showed us to our table. We quickly flicked through the menu, and on spotting the lunch special we decided that was the way forward.

Before ordering and handing over our menus we spotted that Orient Express has links with two well respected Sheffield businesses. Yee Kwan provides the ice cream desserts and Le Bon Vin supplies the wines. Marvellous; it's always good to see Sheffield businesses working together.

On to the food.

Always wanting to try something different, I went for spare ribs and chicken feet clay pot with soup of the day (£6.50).



The clay pot was a decent size, packed full of perfectly cooked boiled rice, topped with chunks of spare ribs and chicken feet. I first tried chicken feet a few years ago in Leeds, and I've had them a few times since. They're quite fatty, but delicious and the meat will just fall off those tiny chicken feet bones. Ribs were good although eating proved difficult with chopsticks (I was served ribs chopped into chunks, not whole) but no one seemed to mind me using my fingers when necessary!

The dish wasn't packed with flavour, but it was well cooked and homely. Had I fancied a bit of heat there was a little silver pot of a sticky and thick chilli sauce to add some flavour. I did try a little, but oh my, it was very hot, so do be careful with it!

Digging into the dish though, I found that some of the rice was deliciously crunchy having gotten stuck to the side of the clay pot; tastes way better than it sounds!

Gav went for the three roasties with soup of the day (£8.50).



The meat was beautifully cooked, especially the pork which had a very good layer of crackling to it. There was duck on the bone and sliced duck (I think) too. Both were also delicious. The rice, again, was well cooked and there was plenty of it.

Soup of the day turned out to be red bean soup which was served as a dessert. This was a strange one. It had a savoury appearance to it, thanks to the beans (which Wikipedia tell me were aduzki), but a sweet taste to it thanks to the sago which is similar to tapioca (and thanks again to Wikipedia for the info). It was great to experience a traditional Chinese dish (one that neither of us had tried before) especially as it was essentially a freebie thrown in to a lunch deal.



Service was good and our waiter was friendly and helpful. A lady, who I can only assume is one of the owners was also keen to see that we enjoyed and she popped over for a quick chat in between courses. We chatted chicken feet (which turn out to be well liked by us Brits), other dishes on the menu (including special fried rice in lotus leaf – I already know that I'm having this on my next visit), the popularity of the lunch time deal (which runs from 11am to 6pm every day and the Golden Dragon (which they used to run).

To sum up.... the feel to the restaurant was friendly and relaxed, prices were good (about £22 for two large mains, a coke, a beer and a red wine), they claim to do a traditional martini for £4.50 and the food was tasty.

We will be back.

P.s. Sorry for the quality of the photos.  I do have a new phone, but its battery was low so we had to use Gav's.

5 comments:

  1. Love your blog!

    A recipe book and a guide to where to eat, all-in-one!

    Copied your recipes for sardines..4 for £1 at the market. bargain! Your delicious recipe where guttering lasted 10 mins which felt like an hour but the taste was delicious and added to the bargain bonus thank you x

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  2. Be glad you never went to K Pasa. Memories of the chef making a phallus out of dough as a hilarious joke for my friend's birthday will haunt me for life.

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  3. Thank you anonymous. I like to write about anything food on here, so I'm glad you like the variety. The sardines are a bit grim with the gutting, but you're right, they are a delicious bargain!

    Love Sheffield, K-Pasa was just wrong in so many ways.... more so because of your story.

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  4. thx clare, i was curious about that restaurant. so took some time out and boy there menu has too much choice, i had to ask one of the waiters to help us out. they happily recommended the combination platter, which had a good selection of some of their starters, and my mate went for the chicken on a stick with a tasty peanut sauce, a good start. i was after something spicy - the sichuan crispy fish was also recommended with rice, as i love hot stuff, it was very different, the waiter said it was something to do with the sichuan peppers. my friend went for a chicken in black bean sauce + fried rice, which i tried n was also good = around £25 and we were full to the brim, even had a doggy bag for an evening snack, 5*s from me, will be back again!!

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  5. Hi Anonymous - I'm so pleased you enjoyed your meal there... receiving your comment has made me realise that I need to make a trip back soon!

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