Golden Lee

It is a rather gloomy post this week i'm afraid as this signals the final eatery on London Road. We were somewhat surprised when we realised that the Golden Lee was in fact the last place to dine, we thought there were a couple left. We were suprised by the news that the polish restaurant had closed, we were looking forward to that one! So instead we’re travelling to Krakow to sample the polish delights there.

The inside of Golden Lee was looking decidedly worn, and a little sad, as we entered the host turned on the heaters to warm the place he told us, I presume they weren’t expecting many diners as the place was cold and had a faint greasy smell. We ordered our drinks and perused the menu, settling for the rather boring but tried and tested option of Set Menu, C I think. We had the starter platter, followed by duck pancakes. Then out came the tea warmers and the rice, swiftly followed by sweet and sour chicken, Tokyo chicken and sirloin in black bean sauce. The starter was good, it contained the usual suspects, all fine, nothing special to be honest as I’ve been consuming this fair every week. The duck went down nicely – as always, and they served just the right amount for two. Sometimes if there is too much I can tend to gorge myself on that before the main even arrives. When they came, in decidedly chipped and forlorn crockery the black bean was sizzling away and I’d forgotten how much we ordered. The sweet and sour was the first I tried, and it was very nice, there were bite size chunks of battered and deep fried chicken and a nice tasting sauce. The chicken in the Tokyo sauce was soggy and weird, the sauce tasted good though, similarly the sirloin steak had been boiled. Why on earth you would do such a thing was beyond me. It had been cut into strips and looked as though it had been fried and when I bit through it I was vaguely annoyed that it had not been. The rice was ‘special’ and had lots of tiny bits of meat and peas through it, there was enough for about 17 people. But I suppose the chef was a little like myself, I always get rice wrong, either too little or too much! While we were eating the guy in charge spent quite a lot of time talking to us which I felt was rather odd. He was a genuinely nice guy but I wasn’t entirely happy that he was stood chatting to us throughout an entire course. While dining in a restaurant I’ve experienced brief chats with waiters but I’ve never in my life had long conversations such as in Golden Lee. It made me feel quite uncomfortable and it would definitely deter me from returning there. The food wasn’t spectacular and the surroundings were dated and showing their age.
There was quite a few people in and out of the place while we were there , ordering and collecting take away, and it felt more like a takeaway with chairs in than an actual restaurant.