foodierudy

We recently ate at Cha Cha Moon, Alan Yau’s new take on a Hong Kong noodle bar. I’ve been quite excited when I read he was opening up just off Carnaby Street, so, one Fri night, I dragged the ever-patient M along to try it out. We arrived to find a very long queue (life, after all, is one big queue…), but were assured by the friendly staff that it would only be about a 20 min wait. It must have been our lucky night, since after about 5 mins’ hobnobbing with the plebs, a waiter took us right to the front of the queue, and we were in! (Still don’t know why, but it sure made my day!) Once seated at the bare wooden tables, we were smartly joined by our waiter who sported a snazzy grey t-shirt asking “are you going to the Moon?”. Well, yes we were!

So far so good! The interior looks more like a trendy bar, with Wagamama-style long communal tables, bamboo ceilings and a high tech kitchen on display. I’ve read mixed reviews, but I really liked it. To be fair, I’ve not yet been to Hong Kong, so I can’t judge the food for its authenticity, but… Spring rolls featured crispy thin pastry with fresh-tasting vegetable fillings. “Guotie” dumplings were filled with moist chicken and prawn, their bottoms seared a nice caramel brown. I had to try the roasted duck noodle soup - nice crispy skin, moist duck breast on top of noodles in a murky broth which was surprisingly tasty. The wolfberries (my first) were an interesting touch. A big smile told me M enjoyed her fried noodle dish with nice plump prawns. Yum! And it’s so cheap! Apparently we’re still in the “promotional stage” with mains at £3.50 - cheaper than chips.

I’ll definitely be back.

Cha Cha Moon, 15-21 Ganton St, London W1, tel: 020 7297 9800

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.