Bite Me

A China Crisis 

Imperial Oriental House

22 Castillian Street, Northampton

Wandering around town on a Sunday afternoon, my partner and I began to feel peckish. We considered our tried and tested options, a pub lunch or a quick snack, but neither appealed. With indecision being a trait we share we wandered some more, coming across this restaurant. My partner had been several years before and we decided to try their set buffet menu, reasonably priced for a lunch.

Our first impressions were not great, there was only one other set of diners, but it was late-ish afternoon so once seated we ordered drinks and perused the choice of two set priced options.
The waiting staff pounced immediately for our food order and were politely sent away, the choice of crispy duck or lamb needed careful consideration.

We decided on the lamb, but first we had the mixed starters, standard Chinese fare of a platter of spring rolls, ribs, sesame prawn toast, crispy seaweed and what what described as Chicken Samosas, that turned out to be a single squished prawn in a massive wrapping of pastry. Aside from the latter offering the rest were tasty and hot, as was the lamb when it arrived swiftly after, mildly spiced, I cannot guess at it’s Mongolian authenticity as the menu described, but it was good and made a nice change from crispy duck.

The mains included special fried rice, stir fried vegetables, beef in black bean sauce, chicken in cashew nuts, prawns in chilli sauce and egg noodles all served on small dishes to share. We tucked in eagerly but were disappointed by all. The beef in black bean sauce was edible, but apart from the cashew nuts being picked through to avoid the strangely spongy chicken, the remaining food remained barely tasted.

Had I cleared the plates from a table such as this, I would have asked if something was wrong with the food and as regular restaurant goers we expect staff to at least ask if we enjoyed our meal. This did not happen, plates were cleared as soon as the chopsticks were lowered and the bill was paid.
As we wandered back through town, past our rejected options offering Sunday roasts and the like, we sighed in unison and with lighter wallets and unsatisfied bellies made our way home.