My Food Place of the Week: Chung Ying Central

At the beginning of the month of August, I was invited along to try out Chung Ying Central's new Dim Sum menu and to pop my Chung Ying Central virginity. The restaurant is located on the right of Victoria Square, opposite the Starbucks, it is a prime location on Colmore Row and is ideal for those wanting a post work drink and those wanting to start a night out on the town. It is also the sister venue of Chung Ying, which is located in Chinatown.

 So obviously when I arrived on a Friday night, there was a load of loud revellers that were enjoying the cocktail promotion. The waitress apologised for this, which was nice of her but this made me think that this would not be a great place to have a catch up with friends, as you wouldn't be able to hear them, a pet peeve of mine. However by around 8pm, which is an hour after the cocktail promotion ends, the restaurant became quant and luxurious.

 Me and my Mother were led to a reserved table at the back of the restaurant, we saw that the restaurant was clean, tidy and most importantly, the staff were very friendly and welcoming. I am a big fan of Prawn Crackers so I couldn't help but eat my way through them. You could tell they were freshly made because they were crunchy.

There is an extensive menu on offer at Chung Ying Central, from seafood, vegetarian to all types of meat, it is all on there and it all looked quite impressive.

For drinks, we choose two mocktails, which were the Lychee cocktail and Cucumber Mojito cocktail.

The Lychee cocktail was very sweet but was full of fresh lychees, but they were did not fit up the straw because of the hefty size. Nice concept but poor execution and it seemed as if it was not well thought out.

The Cucumber Mojito was even sweeter and very refreshing but also not to my liking,

 Excuse the bad picture quality but as you can see, we were enjoying ourselves.

We choose the Number 29 - Monk Dumplings, which had peanuts, carrots, onions and sweetcorn. It was super tasty and I would definitely go back for this. Especially as it is steamed, so it is low in calories (in my eyes) and I do not have to worry about dairy. Win win!

We also got Number 30 - Chiu Chow Dumplings - which had peanuts, spinach, tofu, mushrooms and peas. Which wasn't as good as Number 29 but still very tasty.

Both of these dumpling were filled and were soft and melted in your month. The presentation was beautiful as was the taste, I love it when a meal has style and substance.

 The restaurant is alot bigger then I thought it would be. It opened in November 2013 then closed in December 2013 and then they reopened permanently in January 2014. The decor is very suave, classy but has an oriental twist to it, especially with the decadent gold leaf walls.

My Mother ordered the Seabass Thai Style with Vegetables and Egg Fried Rice.

The Egg Fried Rice was sticky but perfection to eat

The noodles had beansprouts and spring onions mixed in, which went well with the Squid.

The Seabass was very sweet but had a nice chilli kick to it.

The vegetables were steamed but were nothing special.

I ordered the Chilli Squid with Noodles. I found the squid a tad rubbery, the peanuts were sticky and kept sticking to my teeth but it had a lovely mixture of peppers, peanuts, chilli and coriander.

We also had some chilli oil as a condiment and alternative to chilli sauce. That was lethal but a nice addition, if you like a hot kick in the mouth.

I feel you can tell a lot about a restaurant and their cleanliness by how clean they keep their bathrooms and I have to say I was impressed by Chung Ying Central's. Clean, tranquil, nicely decorated and fitting.

Yep that is me. I thought I would celebrate the meal with a selfie in the loo, be thankful it is not on the loo.

Food - 3/5

The Dim Sum was specular but the mains were quite basic and you could tell that is not their forte, I think maybe they should stick to having less items on the menu and make them good quality.

Food appropriate for Lactose Intolerance Suffers - 5/5

A lot of choice for me here

Service - 5/5

The staff were amazing, they gave us suggestions and really looked after us.

Cleanliness - 5/5

Location - 5/5

Value for Money - 3/5

This meal would have cost me around 40 pounds and it is worth it, they just need to bring the quality up a notch and this place could be spectacular!

I cannot wait to go back for Dim Sum soon.

Have you tried this place? Are they better at doing meat dishes?