"Sai Kei Restaurant, North Greenwich – In my experience, the better dim sum places in London are mostly Hong Kong style. Sai Kei restaurant is one of them. This Chinese restaurant was recommended by another fellow foodie Malaysian who works in See Woo at Greenwich. It took us a while to go to Sai Kei because our 'local ' dim sum restaurant, Yi Ban, was a family favourite and that was quite hard to beat. So, the style at Sai Kei is, you collect a ticket number upon arrival and wait. There are two queues for this; small groups for up to 4 people and big groups for 5 or more people. The queue for big groups generally moves faster. There were only 3 of us so joining the the small groups queue, we waited well over half an hour until we got a table. I am not complaining but every time a number was called we were longing hopefully that it would be us. When it did, it turned out to be a late lunch. Definitely hungry! Walking quickly with springs in our steps (I wonder if, in the eyes of others, we looked as though we were running) we did not waste any time to order. Chinese tea and congee first! Still it was out first time here so we had to spend a little more time to study the menu going through the list of steamed, fried, noodles, desserts, cheung funs, specialities and chef 's picks. I do initially judge dim sum places by the variety that the restaurant serves. Chicken feet, jellyfish, duck claws, chicken claws all sound pretty authentic but squid in satay sauce suggest that they felt a need to compromise. Still, as it is I find it pretty good and ticks on dim sum sheet done, the food came pretty quickly. preserved egg pork congee £5.10 – Steaming hot bowl of porridge to calm the hungry tummy first. The congee was good – consistency, thickness was so smooth that it was as though drinking a thick soup. It had chicken strips instead of pork, as described on menu, but otherwise delicious! After the ordering and had my first bowl of congee, I felt I could let the atmosphere soak in. Many locals, families, Cantonese speaking people. Ah...felt like Chinatown, with better service. More good news is that Sai Kei is opene for dim sum during week days too. So, hopefully there is not such a long wait! I am looking forward to trying out the Sai Kei a la carte menu after my dim sum experience. Parking is free if you dine in Sai Kei. Give your car registration number when you collect your ticket for the dim sum queue. But, don 't worry if you forget because there is a big bright sign. It 's quite impossible to miss. A unanimous vote for Sai Kei as our new family favourite restaurant. It is difficult to say if it could beat Yi Ban. I think we need an up-to-date visit soon to make the comparison."
Fried Squid
