Tea Time in Wonderland

Strolling through London, I always enjoy going through Chinatow. Being French, I just adore food. I go for steamed buns filled with sweet meat, mochis – deserts with a heart of red bean paste – or just admire the Asian biscuits packagings, funny and colourful. I never fail to bring soe exotic mikados back.

In Wardour St, a street I have taken hundreds of times,this building catches my eye:

Sarah Bernardt? A whigmaker, French? The building once belonged to Willy Clarkson, a famous theatre whigmaker in his time. Not suprising that Sarah Barnardt laid the first stone of his house.

These days, the glamour is lost, remains… a Chinese restaurant, Wong Kei. My collegues smile; this is the most famous place in alla Chinatown! Ah? The food must be superb? No, no. The decoration, then? Neither. It all comes down to the service, so arrogant and insulting it became a joke and people came to experience it for a real laugh. Customers are taken all over the building to find a table, then ordered to wait in the stairs, forgotten there. It’s amost theatre like, the waiters sighing and swearing, intimidating. The food was allright and cheap which seems to have made it a hit. Unfortunately, I learn, these days the staff is way too polite…

41-43 Wardour St
London, W1D 6PY