Wong Kei, London

If you dont like Wong Kei, I dont like you.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Scrambled Egg and Stewed Pork £5.50

This restaurant keeps giving. I thought I was all done on the menu (well there are a couple of vegetarian versions I still need to eat, but I’m procrastinating on them) then saw someone eating this. It’s not a looker but the savoury and tender stewed pork is a great match with the MSG-heavy scrambled egg.  

Easy eating comfort food that would make a great hangover dish.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Fish and Green Vegetable on Crispy Noodle £6.90 I haven't posted on this blog for a long time but seems there's still things hidden away on the menu that I've not eaten, namely vegetarian versions (which i never fancy) and battered fish with... This was an enjoyable dish but the price was rather steep so can't imagine I'll eat again. Could work out well for the pescatarians though.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Assorted Meat Ho Fun Soup £5.50

Just look at it, so much meat and veg it is standing 5cm proud of the broth. The squid, fish stick and veg are a constant but the meat seems a bit of a lottery, maybe hinting at the leftovers in the kitchen. This was char sui and pork belly but other days chicken or duck makes an appearance.

Don’t forget to bring your chopstick game because ho fun in soup are damn slippery.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Pork Chop with Black Bean Sauce £6.20

On my quest to eat all that Wong Kei has to offer one of the pleasant surprises has been the black bean dishes. I’ve always associated it with crappy takeaways but I’ve enjoyed without exception here and the pork chop version is no different. It’s full of veg and the earthy sauce goes great with the buttery tasting fried meat.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Pork Chop with Ginger and Spring Onion £6.20

After the recent discovery of Pork Chop with Green Veg I thought the sensible thing to do was ask a waitress if there were any other pork chop dishes I’d missed. She looked at me as if I was stupid before listing off a good few, seemingly anything on the menu with pork chops subbed in. If I were you I’d expect lots of pork chop based posts to follow.

This one was a delight, the ginger doing a good job of cutting through the rich fried pork fat and the onion providing a welcome vegetable.  

Just look at the size of that portion too.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Pork Belly with Green Vegetable £6.20

I’ll often browse fellow diners plates when I arrive at Wong Kei looking for some inspiration for my order but when I did it recently I was bowled over. Not only was it a dish I’d never seen before (very rare when your Wong Kei visits number in the hundreds) it was a Wong Kei dish I’d never seen before that contains the holy grail of Wong Kei meats, the pork chop.

It was three pork chops nestled in a little gloop with a heap green vegetable and was as good as it sounds. It makes me wonder if there are any other off menu pork chop dishes I don’t know about.

[wongkeilondon]

Wong Kei Prices Up!

It seems not even Wong Kei is immune to price inflation.  I was in there yesterday grabbing a quick Assorted Meat Noodle Soup and was charged a whopping £5.50 instead of last year’s £5.30.  Looking on the menu 20p up seems pretty standard across the board.

Still one of the best value lunches about though.

[wongkeilondon]

#Off Menu - Squid with Green Vegetable on Fried Noodle £6.50

I thought I’d been through everything available at Wong Kei until I overheard someone order squid and black bean last week. It seems there is a whole cephalopod-based selection I can work my way through, which is great news as this was lush.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Assorted Meat Noodle Soup £5.30

I don't know how I missed this all these years. It's literally my favourite Wong Kei noodle dish in soup form and many a visit I've lusted after a soup with both meat and veg yet I was totally unaware it was an option.

Pork belly, char sui, squid and fish cake plus a heap of green veg, carrot and mushroom. That's getting towards a healthy balanced meal and it's delicious too.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Pork Belly with Green Veg on Boiled Rice £5.30 

 You may notice a bit of a theme here, but I'm really struggling to find things I've not eaten now. Repetitive or not it's very tasty.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Crispy Pork and Green Vegetable on Crispy Noodle £5.30 

Just look at how much food there is, the pork belly and veg completely cover the not insignificant amount of crispy noodle. All for £5.30 too - ridiculous.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Crispy Pork Belly on Crispy Noodle £5.30 

I saw someone eating this in another Chinese restaurant so thought I'd see if Wong Kei world knock one up and, obviously, they did. I found the sweet sauce on the noodles not my favourite taste combination but if you want belly and crispy noodle this could be the dish for you.

[wongkeilondon]

Off Menu - Pork Belly and Beancurd on Boiled Rice £5.30 

I’ve tried and failed to get this as a one-plater on rice before but that may have been because I tried to get green veg on as well. Even without the green veg it's a dream, with masses of pork belly and soft fried bean curd.

[wongkeilondon]

Wong Kei one-platers - done!

[wongkeilondon]

#128 Fried Ho Fun and Assorted Meat (squid & fish ball) £5.20 

For a long time I this was my staple order at Wong Kei. It is also the dish that suffered the most when the owners changed last year as they removed the pig stomach from it. On the plus side it gained a load of veg so is probably healthier now. 

It has chicken, char sui pork, pork belly, squid and fish ball in so is perfect when you can't make up your mind. You need to like your gloop though as it does come well bathed.

[wongkeilondon]

#162 Chicken and Chinese Mushroom Hot Pot Rice £8.80 

Annoying all round, from the 20 minute wait to the fiddly to eat boney chicken through to the £8.80 price tag.

[wongkeilondon]

#161 Wind Dried Sausage, Bacon etc. (small) £8.80 

As mentioned previously I don't think these hot pots really come under the one-plate banner but as they sit on the menu between 100-186 I feel compelled to eat them, which is a pain in the arse as they take 20-25 minutes to come out. 

Wait aside this was actually pretty damn tasty and the amount of Chinese sausage and bacon was obscene.