Review | Golden Dragon Restaurant at Bang Bang Oriental Hall, London

Golden Dragon restaurant boasts sleek and stylish interiors

Bang Bang Oriental is London's biggest Asian food hall, located in Colindale and just a ten minute walk from the tube station. The eco-friendly venue brings a pan-Asian dining experience and social space to the north of the city with over 20 individual kiosks, including a mix of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese and Malaysian cuisine, and a fine-dining restaurant - Golden Dragon.

Golden Dragon restaurant, which originally opened in Chinatown over 20 years ago before opening its new flagship branch in Colindale, specialises in dim sum by day and an extensive Cantonese and Pekinese á la carte in the evening. It's well known amongst London foodies as it's well-known for its famous dim sum.

We were invited along to review the menu at Golden Dragon restaurant and as we were booked for 7:30pm on a Thursday evening, we ended up tasting the evening menu.  Upon arrival I was shown to my seat within the huge restaurant space that boasts an extravagant rich, golden decor with oriental touches. The restaurant itself had a tranquil atmosphere compared to the busy bustle and excitement upstairs in the food hall.

To keep things simple we ordered the vegetarian set menu, which is priced at just £17.80 per person and is a minimum of 2 people to order the set menu. We figured that a set menu is a great way to enjoy most of the vegetarian dishes that were on offer at the Golden Dragon.

Bang Bang Oriental is London's biggest Asian food hall

The set menu has nine different dishes and appeared as three rounds of food for us both to share. The first plate that was brought out consisted of crispy seaweed, vegetarian spring rolls, garlic salt & chilli breaded mushrooms and vegetarian honey roasted bean curd. Luckily for me, James hates mushrooms so I had the breaded garlic & chilli mushrooms to myself and I devoured them all. However, unfortunately they were a little cold but the rest of the plate wasn't, so I'm assuming they may have been waiting on the plate a little while longer than the rest of the food. The honey roasted bean curd however was the stand-out dish amongst the rest; it was extremely sweet and loaded with sugar as it was dripping in a rich, brown, honey-based sauce, that although was a little unusual as a starter, was absolutely delicious!

The second round of dishes was the Aromatic Vegetarian Crispy 'Duck', which was a lot different to what I expected. My experience with vegetarian imitations of duck have either been along the lines of a gross, jelly like substance or the frozen Linda McCartney hoisin pulled 'duck' range, which happens to taste incredibly similar to actual duck. However, what we were presented with at the Golden Dragon restaurant was completely unexpected; we were greeted with a crispy, pastry that is made from deep-fried bean curd, pressed with flour, to create a wafery and sweet dish. The pressed bean curd on it's own didn't quite taste like duck, but once it was trickled with hoisin sauce and added to a pancake with cucumbers and onions, it all combined perfectly to taste like traditional duck pancakes. Considering that we were so unsure what to make of the dish when it first came out, we were both taken aback by how delectable it was. 

The third round of the vegetarian tasting menu consisted of four plates: Braized Tofu, Szechuan Vegetarian 'Chicken', Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables and Vegetable Fried Rice. The only plate here that I personally didn't like was the braised tofu, which was far too soft for my liking as I'm someone who can only eat crispy tofu. The rice and the stir-fried vegetables made a nice accompaniment to the fiery Szechuan 'chicken', which was flavoursome and possessed the same stringy texture as chicken breast.

By the end of the set sharing menu, we were both incredibly full up and although we peeked at the dessert menu, neither of us could stomach it. Considering the set menu only costs £17.60 per person and we both came away clutching our well-rounded stomaches, the price point seems more than reasonable for the sheer amount of food you get. Also, the vegetarian set menu is a great way to try all of the vegetarian options from the wider menu.

Address: Bang Bang Oriental, 339 Edgeware Road, London, NW9 0FH
Nearest tube station: Colindale (Northern Line)

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