Review of 'Peking Restaurant'

Hidden on Burleigh Street just outside of the Grafton Centre in Cambridge the Peking Restaurant is a bit of a sheep in wolf's clothing – But not for the reasons I expected. I have been reading about Peking for a long time about how good the food was, despite the high prices. I decided to finally give it a try.

Yes, the prices are absolutely sky high with starts around the £10-£12 each and every main course about £15. The portions are huge but this does not qualify as “good” in my book. The interior is basic with a series of foam covered booth seats covered with fabric – Hardly the stuff of comfort. The walls are a cheap paneling with the occasional not-terribly-authentic picture hanging on them. As you can tell…first impressions were not terribly positive, so what was the food like?

I was afraid you might ask me that. Well, it was not good. Yes, I have been to China and I have also eaten at some very good places in Soho (in London). Let me tell you that this is not good Chinese food (not that I am a great fan anyway) – Everything fried and not terribly tasty. We started with one of my favourites – Deep fried squid which turned out to be excessively coated with batter and hardly any flavour (it did have an interesting mixture of onions and chillies but these did not really save the dish). The squid, to be fair, were cooked correctly and not chewy at all but the batter really destroyed the taste completely. We had a stir-fry for the main which was greasy and not terribly tasty. The price was in excess of £40 for the two of us with no alcohol (just Chinese tea).

I do have to say that the staff were very friendly (though did appear to be distracted when a few of their friends arrived – paying very little attention to us even though we appeared to be the only paying customers in the place).

Sadly, we were very disappointed. I am not sure if I want to go back to try them again – Perhaps it was just an off night?

Rating: “Not great, but not the worse”

Review Date: 2008-04-14


Cuisine: Chinese

Address: 21 Burleigh St, Cambridge CB1 1DG

Location: Cambridge (England)

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Telephone: 01223 354755

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