Ah, Park Chinois.
The Chinese… Park.
Tucked down a Mayfair street just off Berkeley Square, Park Chinois is a Chinese restaurant and bar that oozes old-school glamour, dripping in gold, red velvet, and opulent art deco motifs. You’ll walk into one of the most jaw-droppingly decadent dining rooms you’ll likely have seen in London – a title that will quickly be replaced by the illicit, speakeasy style Club Chinois below, accessed via a winding staircase. This shimmering subterranean den is unlike anywhere else in Mayfair, serving up elegant Cantonese and pan-Asian dishes alongside live music and entertainment.
Be aware before you go, this is the kind of place that comes with a birthday-and-Christmas-present-in-one sort of bill (the sea cucumber appetiser is £110, while main dishes regularly hit the £40 mark). But for a special occasion, there’s nowhere better for slow-braised Angus beef ho fun noodles; king crab steamed in Shiaoxing wine; their model Peking Duck, roasted to order; and specials like the ‘Park Carbonara’, with udon noodles; sea urchin; egg and pancetta.
Thankfully, if you’re only after “a taste” of Park Chinois, it’s possible to soak up the lavish surroundings without the eye-watering bill. There are three-course set lunches for a far more modest £35, or if you’re swinging by in the evening, take a perch beneath the chandeliers at the lustrous cocktail bar. Here you can dine on bar snacks like tea-smoked beef ribs, dim sum platters and venison puffs as you peruse the cocktail menu.
Befitting their surroundings, those drinks include a dignified collection of aperitifs, Champagne cocktails and signature serves. There’s the China Berkeley, with rye whiskey, Zirbenz stone pine liqueur, yuzu, vetiver water and white balsamic; the Ume Dynasty Nippon with Japanese whisky, umeshu plum wine; plum bitters; salt solution and marigold foam; and a martini cold-dripped through eight different botanicals.
You’ll find them all in the Park.
NOTE: Park Chinois is open daily, with live entertainment in the downstairs dining room every night (+£10pp cover charge). You can find out more, and book a table, HERE.
Park Chinois | 17 Berkeley Street, W1J 8EA
Last Updated: 1st July 2019
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