Bar Shu - Sichuanese in the heart of Soho

Sichuanese Hot Pot - Chengdu

In these cold winter months I have been longing for a nostalgic taste of my Eastern travels. After all, there is nothing like a load of chillies and Sichuan peppercorns to scare away a cold. I enjoyed Sichuan Folk a few months ago but went a little closer to home this time - to Bar Shu in Soho - for my Sichuan fix.

Although I didn't enjoy my travels in China overall - oppressive politics, declined Tibetan visas and closed Tibetan provinces meant that I wasted a lot of time in Chengdu - the Sichuanese food that we experienced there ended up being a real highlight. Exploring the city, ducking in and out of torrential tropical rainfall, I stumbled upon all sorts of unlikely places serving just one or two mind-blowing dishes.

Bar Shu

Bar Shu hit the spot in that respect with the street food part of their menu which offers by far the best value of what they do. The Dandan noodles and sweet potato noodles were the best things we had and at £4.50 each are great value (compare that to the pork / beef dishes of £17-£22 or a simple plate of greens at £10).

Dandan Noodles

Sweet Potato Noodles

Alongside these we had the pickled lotus which I wouldn't recommend since I have had better elsewhere and the morning glory which was delicious but bad value at £10.

For our main sharing dishes we had a spicy crab dish which was delicious but a pain to eat - we were literally picking through the honeycomb of the crab with our chopsticks - and so messy that I would not recommend it. We also had the dry wok beef that was perfectly spicy and very, very tasty. 

All in all I would definitely recommend it and feel that if / when I return I will now know how to order much better. I would go for 3 street food dishes between 2 (2 noodle dishes and 1 dumpling dish), plain rice and 1-2 meat / fish mains (the gung bao chicken is an absolute classic if you haven't tried it already and only £12). This would come to around £20-30 each on food whereas we spent around £50 each leaving us feeling a little out of pocket. 

P.S. If you are thinking of going to ‘My Old Place’ in Liverpool Street instead, I would strongly recommend against it. It serves mucus-y MSG filled fast food that tastes a bit stale. I was pretty ill after eating there.

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