Best Asian chow this side of the ... Wisła
Being a journalist sometimes has its perks - and I've had a few of them in Asia. Like the time I was flown first class to Hong Kong on a travel junket and found myself eating in supposedly the oldest yum cha restaurant in the city, followed by high tea at The Peninsula hotel and then a seafood dinner on Lamma Isand in the South China Sea. Well, you know, someone had to do it. I've sailed around Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand - all for the purpose of work - eating and drinking, as was my duty well, any port in a storm. I've seen fish caught in the Malacca Straits steamed in front of my eyes, and popped on my plate. And I've peered into the steamy underbelly of many fine Asian restaurants in Sydney too - and it's been charged to someone else's expense card. Well, now I've had yet another memorable Asian meal paid for by the WBJ - this time at the Warsaw Sheraton's Oriental restaurant. With its Asian art, mahogany-toned fixtures and a waiter-cum-bouncer at the door, I'd put The Oriental in the class of posh nosh. But I can also say that on the few occasions I've dined there, the Asian food served has never failed to put a smile of satisfaction on my face. (Although once I did order soup that was a gelatinous bowl of something salty and inedible. Unfortunately I cannot recall which soup it was, so as to warn unsuspecting diners ...)
On this most recent occasion, the meal was perfect, although the ambiance was lacking because the restaurant was completely empty for the first hour. When some other diners did finally arrive, the waiter sat them at the table right next to ours. This couple looked like they were on a first date and it sounded like it too - well, they were so close, it was hard not to eavesdrop a little! But back to our meal, David and I started our evening sharing a bamboo steamer basket of dim sum served with head-lifting chili paste - the best dim sum we'd had in Warsaw. David followed this up with a bowl of wonton soup - the dumplings were fresh and the broth, subtle and smooth; and it had glass noodles and plenty of fresh bean sprouts. It was just a shame it was doused with a heavy-handed splash of sesame oil. For our main course, we shared a dish of stir-fried beef fillet with black pepper sauce; Hong Kong-style crispy roast duck and Cantonese-style fried rice with chicken. It's hard to say which dish was the nicest. They were all so good, but the fried rice won. The rice was crisp and dry, with a sprinkling of five-spice chunks of golden chicken, the right amount of soy sauce, and something that I don't see very often in Poland, spring onions!
The Hong Kong-style crispy roast duck was just as perfect: Pieces of deep-red marinated duck, fried until splinteringly crisp on the outside, with dark, tender duck meat on the inside. It sat in a delightful puddle of sweet lemon sauce with a dash of chili. The stir-fried beef fillet with black pepper sauce was the perfect contrast: wonderfully salty with a pervading pepper bite. The beef really was fillet - great thick slices you could get your mouth around, which is something you don't usually see in Asian dishes, but this beef is so good, it deserves the opportunity to stand up and speak for itself. The food at The Oriental doesn't come cheaply - and neither does the wine or the 300 milliliter beers. But the serving portions are generous and what's more, it's excellent quality. In addition to serving Chinese, The Oriental also has Thai, Indian and Japanese influenced dishes. And on Sundays, it has an oriental brunch, which some friends tell me is excellent. Dinner for two, not including drinks, came to zł. 220 ($55).
On the menu: Steamed dim sum zł. 40 Spicy grilled beef salad zł. 38 Deep-fried squid rings zł. 40 Wonton soup zł. 24 Stir-fried beef fillet with black pepper sauce zł. 60 Hong Kong-style crispy roast duck zł. 48 Grilled black tiger prawns served with garlic pepper sauce zł. 78 Grilled seabream with oriental herbs zł. 70 Cantonese-style fried rice with chicken zł. 48
