This restaurant has been here for many years and until till last night had never set foot in it,…read moreI've always heard good reviews about this place, but never really had the inkling to go. It was a case of Saturday night, no plans, crap TV listings, so we decided to go out and settled on the Peking Garden. I phoned to ensure they had a reservation available and was told that they only had a 7pm one available and had to be clear by 8:30pm*, which seemed a bit early but accepted it as I now wanted to try the food here. The evening was one of cold wind and rain, which made us think twice about going, but as I'm made of sterner stuff and after strapping the life raft to the top of the car we set off (its only 1.5 miles away). On entering the restaurant, we were warmly greeted by one of the staff, who swiftly took our coats and hung them up and escorted us to our table. The restaurant caters for at least a 100 covers, and can seem somewhat cramped at first, but the staff are professional in making you feel comfortable. We opted for one of their set menus which had a good mix of meat dishes with the main being half a lobster served in a ginger and lemon sauce, we did find that our main dish was delayed, but on looking around, this seemed the case for other diners, we attributed this to the high volume of takeout clients, man this is one busy restaurant! There was a good mix of diners, from very young (baby) to some oldies, the former deciding to try out for the loudest baby award and the latter persisting in taking flash photos, with an old Pentax camera to which he had attached a huge flash gun, which resembled a 2nd world war search light being switched on and off repeatedly!
That aside, we found the food to be just incredible, simply put, the best Chinese food we've ever tasted! In this area there are chinese restaurants and takeaways, then theirs the Peking Garden, totally in a class of its own. So if your in this neck of the woods, then do try this place, just ensure you phone first to make a reservation.
* Oh yes, did we get pushed out by 8:30, well no, we didn't leave until 9:15 which was nice.
NB: Parking out front tends to be for takeaway customers, but there is a public car park a short walk down the adjoining side street.