Tired and not really paying attention, we must have ordered one of the most disjointed, incoherent meals ever at Hui Wei the other Monday night. The excitement of the Olympic torch relay must have gone to our heads. As soon as we were seated in a comfy dark booth I was ready for bed.
We accidentally ordered nothing but meat and carbs, where a dish of greens would really have gone down a treat. As such I didn't really enjoy the whole meal as much as I should have done, but looking at each dish objectively there was some good stuff here.
I was after the Sichuan dishes, AS was after anything as long as it involved roast duck with pancakes. The duck was fine, but I didn't eat a great deal of it saving myself for spicier, garlicky treats to follow.
Ants climbing up a tree was a new Sichuan dish to me. I'd heard of it but never eaten it, probably because it's not on the menu at Red Chilli. A colossal bowl of crispy thread noodles is brought to the table alongside a gravy boat filled with errr gravy I suppose. Gravy made primarily from ground pork, garlic, chillies and oil that is. That's my sort of gravy. The noodles are doused in the gravy which makes them crackle and pop rice krispies style, reducing down to a spicy, noodly slop. Good fun and good to eat as well. One to share in a group though as it got a bit boring after a while.
Pan-fried beef with chillies and Sichuan peppercorns hit the mark spice-wise, with a three pronged assault. Vibrant, fresh sliced chillies, deep smoky dried chillies and numbing, tingly Sichuan pepper. Lovely flavour but let down by being swamped in too much gloopy, cornflour based sauce. It would have been better dry or oily rather than saucy.
Duck, pork and beef clearly not being enough meat, we had some Northern style pork dumplings as well, just to make sure. The filling was beautiful, tender, savoury and fragrant with chives. The wrappers less so, being a bit too thick and doughy in parts.
Including rice, tea and one glass of wine the bill came to around forty quid. Reasonably good value. I can't quite work out whether they specialise in Cantonese or Sichuan food here, or maybe something else (Beijing?), but either way the food was good although I've had better versions of most of it elsewhere. Service was friendly and efficient.
6/10
Hui Wei
221 Glossop Road
Sheffield
S10 2GW
www.huiwei.co.uk
We accidentally ordered nothing but meat and carbs, where a dish of greens would really have gone down a treat. As such I didn't really enjoy the whole meal as much as I should have done, but looking at each dish objectively there was some good stuff here.
I was after the Sichuan dishes, AS was after anything as long as it involved roast duck with pancakes. The duck was fine, but I didn't eat a great deal of it saving myself for spicier, garlicky treats to follow.
Ants climbing up a tree was a new Sichuan dish to me. I'd heard of it but never eaten it, probably because it's not on the menu at Red Chilli. A colossal bowl of crispy thread noodles is brought to the table alongside a gravy boat filled with errr gravy I suppose. Gravy made primarily from ground pork, garlic, chillies and oil that is. That's my sort of gravy. The noodles are doused in the gravy which makes them crackle and pop rice krispies style, reducing down to a spicy, noodly slop. Good fun and good to eat as well. One to share in a group though as it got a bit boring after a while.
Pan-fried beef with chillies and Sichuan peppercorns hit the mark spice-wise, with a three pronged assault. Vibrant, fresh sliced chillies, deep smoky dried chillies and numbing, tingly Sichuan pepper. Lovely flavour but let down by being swamped in too much gloopy, cornflour based sauce. It would have been better dry or oily rather than saucy.
Duck, pork and beef clearly not being enough meat, we had some Northern style pork dumplings as well, just to make sure. The filling was beautiful, tender, savoury and fragrant with chives. The wrappers less so, being a bit too thick and doughy in parts.
Including rice, tea and one glass of wine the bill came to around forty quid. Reasonably good value. I can't quite work out whether they specialise in Cantonese or Sichuan food here, or maybe something else (Beijing?), but either way the food was good although I've had better versions of most of it elsewhere. Service was friendly and efficient.
6/10
Hui Wei
221 Glossop Road
Sheffield
S10 2GW
www.huiwei.co.uk
Interesting take on 'ants climbing up a tree', which is usually made with boiled glass noodles with kust a few crispy ones as a garnish. It's got me thinking which is the pucka version!
ReplyDeleteA quick look at the menu suggests this is a bit of an all-rounder with dishes from across China.
Interesting, had no idea this wasn't the usual version. It was quite good fun and not bad to eat, would definitely order it again if I was dining with a big group.
ReplyDeleteBit of an all-rounder was what I suspected, though I've a suspicion they're not really masters of anything.
I always go to Hui Wei either with my family or for a party and the food is absoloutley delicious!
ReplyDeleteYes, however the dishes are sometimes a bit too saucy but still very tasty!
The main attraction to the restaurant is the great service and friendly staff! A long day of work and to get greeted by friendly staff really makes you feel more relaxed!
Probably that day was a bad day for them....
Hannah said...
ReplyDeleteI always go to Hui Wei with my boyfriend. I think Hui Wei is the best Chinese Resaurant ever.
Many other Chinese restaurant have a menu full of pork and beef internal organ dishes, and reading the menu just puts me off eating in.
Hui Wei have a simple menu which seems to be selected for both chinese and western people. Whenever I go the place is full of chinese people eating. That really tell you something..
Dan and Hannah - slightly dubious as to how authentic these comments are. You're not from Hui Wei by any chance are you?
ReplyDeleteNo matter, thanks anyway. A couple of additional points in response:
- I didn't think it was bad, so not sure that they were having a bad day, just not that great.
- What's wrong with pork and beef internal organs??