from nettles (92%) on January 31st, 2008 (9 months ago)

Shanghai Chinese Restaurant, 7-8 Cadzow Place, EH7 5SN, Edinburgh

That's right, I still have not had good Chinese food in this town. But, it was better than usual so I am writing this review.

We were in the area for a shop at Sainsburys nearby and since it's always good to go food shopping on a full stomach (or else you just buy everything in site) we stopped in. The service was ok but not helped by the confusion of English - but I took this as a good sign hoping that the people in the kitchen had not been in town long enough to change the food.

I ordered the special garlic monkfish and my partner had sweet and sour king prawn, like a true Scotsman (!). The monkfish was unfortunately coated in batter and deep fried so it was stringy but the sauce was lovely. Full of freshly fried garlic and whole dried chillis. Too hot for my husband but perfect for me. The sweet and sour king prawns were big and plentiful, beautifully fried with not too much batter. Of course it was topped with the ubiquitous flourescent sauce but that is to be predicted.

With our meal we ordered fried rice. Fried rice when done properly is a glorious dish even when the only additions are some onion and egg. Get a bowl of this from a street hawker on the other side of the globe and you dont need any overly sauced meat to eat on top. It's full of flavour and is a dish in and of itself. I am continuously dissappointed by the fried rice here. The grains are usually broken, the rice is hard and the dish is always brown. Why? I didn't take this into account in my stars but I think from now on it's boiled rice for me!

If you are in the area, this is an ok place to get some grub. The staff are friendly if a little challenged by the language and the prices are in tune with other Chinese joints.

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