Unexpected & truly tasty!
20 Nov 07, 11:56
Above expectations
Bar Shu has been around for a year or so and I admit, I just assumed it was a touristy Chinese place best avoided. How wrong I was.
Not a whiff of MSG was to be had: this menu will not leave a nasty taste in your mouth. Bar Shu showcases Sichuan cuisine to great effect: fresh, spicy and imaginitive. Some of the dishes are worryingly referred to as "numbing and hot" but it's the kind of spice you can taste as opposed to the Vindaloo variety. We had a good mix of vegetarian and meat based dishes (the gung bao chicken and the sesame beef were particularly good) and several bottles of rather nice Burgundy. Our bill came to £43 per head - not bad at all for all those taste sensations.
And guess what? Not only did we not feel too full afterwards (believe me, there was enough food left over), we also didn't feel hungry again an hour later. Result!
My one gripe is that the staff kept trying to hurry us up to release our table for the next sitting, but in the end they let us stay an extra half hour (must have been all that nice wine we kept ordering).
Try it - I think you'll like it. I'll definitely be going back!
Amy L.
Bloomsbury
11 reviews
Not for the faint hearted
20 Jul 07, 17:22
Above expectations
Bar Shu is daringly unlike most other Chinese restaurants, it is super hot and spicy. The majority of its dishes deserve a spice warning of at least 4 chillis. The Sichuan province of China is notorious for its spicy food, yet in Central London, this is only one of two that I know of (the other being near Kings Cross on Chalton Street). It is quite pricey, depending on what you eat, on the menu, there was one dish that's price tag read something like £73! I steered clear of that one. But even though each dish is probably spicier than you think you'll be able to handle, they are so delicious that you just can't help pinching more of it with your chopsticks. The twice fried pork was very good. The dish to watch out for is the Beef in water. This dish was literally caked in almost a cm of chilli seeds, enough to probably give you a stomach ulcer. When I tried this, within seconds my tongue had gone numb. A meal for two cost around £60. The service was ok, but all the recommendations were for the spicier foods and we had to push for a more balanced meal to find the less spicy dishes.
