As with life itself, for so long I was always on the outside of Lee Garden looking in.
How happy customers seemed. How easy it was to imagine the restaurant as a place to which they had been returning for years.... for special occasions, because it was Friday, or the best reason of all: just because. Oh patrons behind the pane, which exams had your children passed? Who had learned to drive? Congratulations on your promotion and Sue, you don't look a day over 47.
I had to be part of it. I can use chopsticks. In I went.
I decided to order takeaway initially, just dipping in my toe like battered prawn into plum sauce. "Would you like a beer while you wait," was the brilliant question put to me. And wait I did. But not for long.
As befitted a restaurant of decades-standing, which, as said, always seems to attract a happy and at-home crowd, the food lived up to the popularity. With this type of fare, though, we all have our favourite places, where, somehow an individual venue's nuance claims your heart and loyally commits your tastebuds with irrational zeal. Personally, then, I have other local favourites; years put in elsewhere making me return to the tried and trusted ahead of Lee Garden. But this is no criticism of the restaurant - its fabled Sunday buffet is loudly calling my name. read more