Haozhan
**** (4/6 stars)
Sino Of The Times - Modern and textural
Food served with a smile in Chinatown
Another week another new Chinatown restaurant. It's easy to get blase about the area's Chinese restaurants, as so often they dissapoint, but just occasionally you get a nice suprise. SUch as Haozhan.
Haozhan is a modern-looking restaurant with a contemporary, orientally ranging menu, provided by a chef who (I was told) formerly cooked at Hakkasan for three years. You should normally take any claims of connections to Hakkasan's exemplary kitchen with a pinch of MSG powder, but what's certain is that head chef Chee Loong Cheong's cookery techniques are impeccable, and he pays great attention to detail. The dishes all look good, but what impressed us most was that so many of them were textural masterpieces.
The centrepiece of our meal was a Japanese-style oblong platter of tofu cubes, deep-fried to give them a contrast of texture and topped with scallops. This was garnished with pureed spinach and some red flying fish row, to give it visual flair. The tofu is made on the premesis, and it has a slightly elastic, gentle squish under the palate - quite sensational.
Versions of fish-head soup are eaten throughout the Far East, the fish heads prized for their volatile oils which give soups added flavour. Haozhan's version follows a Malaysian rice noodle approach, though in Malaysia the fish would be fried to take away any unpleasant fishy smells; this wasn't neccessary with the Haozhan version, as big chunks of fresh cod are used together with the fish head stock. It had a coconutty liquid, spiced up with chilli, tomato and spring onion, which masked any fish oil smells. The bowl was big enough to be a meal in itself and far superior to any chain restaurants' offerings.
There were plenty of other attention-grabbing dishes, but even the simple ones such as 'Sichuan vegetables' wowed us - not because of any Sichuan pepper hit (there was none, instead the kick came from chilli bean sauce), but because the asparagus and mushrooms used had wonderful textures.
If you've experienced abrupt or perfunctory service in Chinatown before, Haozhan might be an effectivec antidote. Our waiters were attentive to the point of being almost chummy, and - importantly - knew a lot about the dishes, so were able to explain them carefully. And after such excellent food, the low bill was another pleasant suprise.
Guy Dimond
15th August 2007