Imperial China I once remarked to a Chinese colleague of mine, “is there such a thing as a good quality Chinese restaurant in London’s China Town™?” To my mild surprise I was told that such things did exist. Perhaps I had been sullied in my early days as a Londoner by the munch-and-go “eat as much as you like/can” venues that surround Gerrard Street or perhaps I had simply been overcome by the ducks hanging from every windowed shop front.
Recently, however, I discovered Imperial China on Lisle Street, which pleased me to such an extent that I have been three times in two months! You enter the large, white tableclothed restaurant from the bustle of London’s China Town™ and immediately pass along a covered pathway leading onto a small bridge that crosses a pond before entering the eating space. The staff that greeted us were amazingly blunt on our arrival, barking directions to where our family group of eight was to be sat. Bizarrely on a Friday evening and having made a reservation in advance I was asked if we would like a nice quiet corner table - the reality was that there was only one table left in the whole restaurant and that just happened to be set out for eight, well seven actually, but never mind. We were in the corner, yes, fact, but nowhere was quiet - not that it mattered at all. In fact the hospitality, if anything, worsened as the night progressed, much to the amusement of our group. Bottles of wine (£13 house red) were reluctantly brought to the table, there was a dispute as to how many people we had actually reserved the table for and when the table was cleared the waitress ordered items to be given to her. In some reviews rudeness had been put down to language issues, that is not the case - a scowl is a scowl in any tongue. But this takes nothing away from the experience. Starting with roll-your-own beautifully cooked Peking duck pancakes we ate as slowly as possible to allow for the arrival of latecomers to the meal. We moved on to enjoy a wide range of dishes including beef in oyster sauce, chicken with cashews, HUGE prawns and chilli at £8-10 a dish from the extensive menu which we gladly shared amongst the group using the lazy Susan attached to our table. I am not an expert on Chinese food, but there is something about the food at Imperial that seemed more natural and less like the syrupy goo I may have bought at 1am on the way back from the pub. Incredibly sweet mango sorbet and amusingly bland deep-fried battered bananas were shared by the table for pudding, for some unknown reason, but they failed to push the bill beyond £200 for eight immensely well fed and watered adults - surprising many of us! We quickly paid and left supposing we had been given the wrong bill…which we hadn’t. The Imperial is well worth a visit for a slightly, but not overly, upmarket Chinese meal in the centre of town. There are also private dining and karoke rooms to be en(dured)joyed… maybe next time! 4/5 
Main £8-10
House wine £13 Imperial China,
White Bear Yard,
25a Lisle Street
WC2H 7BA 020 7734 3388
Http://www.imperial-china.co.uk/Homepage.htm
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