My only worry with ‘authentic’ Chinese restaurants is that I may get an animal or bird component that I find repellent, even though it’s regarded by the Chinese as a delicacy. A tendon, perhaps.
So at first I wondered if perhaps 3 Gorges referred to a dish containing the throat parts of three different creatures?
Of course it doesn’t, it’s the other meaning of ‘gorge’. The Three Gorges are in fact three deep, narrow, steep-sided valleys along a 120-mile stretch of the Yangtze River in China and known for their exceptional beauty.
And you can’t fault this restaurant for its looks. Located on Goodge Street, which despite its proximity to Heals and other classy places, still manages to stay resolutely seedy with its tatty newsagents and down at heel shops. And, on the lunchtime we visited, an actual down and out asleep in a nearby doorway.
Inside though it’s all good. Three floors of dark woods, leather furniture, classy floor and wall tiles and smooth jazz on the stereo, You’re definitely not in Fitzrovia now, nor in Chinatown either, as there are no rude and pushy waiters, only smooth, refined service.
3 Gorges is a Cantonese and Hubei restaurant from Miss Li Zhang, founder of Sichuan inspired Sanxia Renjia, a branch of which is over the road. She has as her head chef, Chef Qian, recently Head Chef at Gouqi on Cockspur Street, one of the few Chinese restaurants in the UK to have a Michelin Star. He also did time in Hakkasan, so he’s no amateur.
The menu prices reflect the high end decor, this is billed as Chinese Fine Dining, a phrase that many might find an oxymoron, but eating at 3 Gorges should change those minds.
Perhaps the pre-nibbles might not though. These seemed to be imports from another restaurant. Some lightly spiced peanuts, cashews in honey and sesame seeds, quick pickled cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Nothing wrong with any of them, but the tomatoes certainly seemed a rather odd idea.
We’d chosen one of the set menus. One of the less expensive ones, none are cheap. It makes life easier when ordering, and with ten courses we reckoned we’d get a good selection of dishes and so it proved.
The first proper dish was a traffic-light trio of soup dumplings. Rather than wait for them to cool, we took the option of nibbling a small hole in each and slurping out the stock. This is of course proper etiquette in Dim Sum land. One was Iberico pork, one crab meat and one hot & sour chicken. Absolutely delicious.
Next up was a Kataifi prawn roll, the head and tail laid out at each end, so it was very elegant to look at. Kataifi Pastry is batter which is passed through fine spouts onto a heated metal plate to create a ‘string’ that’s wrapped around the prawn before it’s deep fried.
A jug of mala sauce ( basically Sichuan peppercorns and dried chillies) added extra depth. I also scraped out the excellent head meat.
Double boiled herbal duck soup had tasty bits of roasted duck, along with goji berries, yam beans and Peach Gum to ‘jellify’. It made me rather nostalgic for the glutinous chicken and sweet corn soup that was always served in Chinese restaurants back in the day. This was far, far superior, of course.
Crispy soft shell crab with almonds was spicy and surprisingly delicate, the batter finely crispy and the almonds an interesting addition. Iberico pork ribs with a seasonal plum sauce and a teeny carrot were gnaw-down delicious. Not often one sees Iberico pork ribs, we should see them more. Waste nothing.
Cubes of Angus beef in a pepper sauce with beans was wonderfully soft to the bite, with a square of crispy rice contrasting well, and a dish of hand rolled, corn-fed, chicken with glass noodles was equally delicious.
If it was unusual to see Iberico pork on a Chinese menu, it was even more unusual to see Padron peppers. Here these semi-spicy peppers had been split lengthwise and stuffed with Iberico pork plus prawns, and then charcoal grilled. Superb taste and one perhaps I will try at home with cheaper pork this summer.
Iberico pork again reappeared for the final dish, Dong Po pork, a classic Chinese dish from Zhejiang, belly pork braised in soy sauce with aromatics. Always a good dish, it was elevated by the Iberico pork and showed that every bit of the pig is good, which is just as well as Iberico pork is not cheap.
We both had ‘fruity mango pudding’ to finish which, while perfectly pleasant, reinforced the cliche that Chinese cooking doesn’t really do desserts.
However it can do fine dining as 3 Gorges showed. If you are a little bored with multi-course European tasting menus, which are too often overpowering leaving you locked to your chair and rather regretting ever setting out on your odyssey of eating, this tasting menu will leave you actually able to walk, and not waddle, out after.
36 Goodge St London W1T 2QN
3gorges.co.uk