I caught up with Big Matt this week and we fancied a bite to eat prior to our trip to the cinema. Matt lives in Ealing which is ill served by chinese restaurants so he was keen to see what Notting Hill had to offer. It was a bit parky for a walk down to my usual haunts in Bayswater so we decided to give "Seventeen" a go. It was early so the restaurant was half full however they quickly found us a table and we settled into our soft comfy but very low chairs. A freebie of edamame beans came along whilst we perused the menu. The decor in "Seventeen" is very lush and that combined with the slick automatic sliding door make you think you are somewhere very upscale. Certainly the menu suggested we were somewhere expensive where the food my delicate and the portions dainty. We weren't hugely hungry so we erred on the side of caution and went for a couple of starters and a couple of mains with fried rice.
I was actually pleasantly surprised when our starters of salt and pepper chicken wings and sticky ribs came out. The portions were indeed hearty. I particularly enjoyed the chicken which was well cooked with a lovely blast of heat. The sauce on the ribs was perhaps a little sour for me but the ribs themselves had plenty of meat on them. All in all very filling. We had a little wait for our main course but the time was well spent chatting and polishing off a Tsing Tao. The mains arrived and Big Matt went old school with sweet and sour chicken whilst I opted for the szechuan beef. The chicken was nice again a good portion but nothing special. My beef dish was very nice and huge. It consisted of lots of slices of very tender beef cooked in chilli oil. It had a lovely heat but not overpowering. The fried rice was very nice and perfect for making the most of the sauce.
All in all we were pretty impressed with "Seventeen". I had been a little put off trying it previously because of indifferent reviews but I'm glad we popped in. The service was very keen and friendly and the other food coming out of the kitchen looked very good. I was very gratified to see they didn't follow the con of many Chinatown restaurants and hit you for double service charge. The bill came to £60 for two of us which was high-ish but we had got plenty of nice food for our money. It set us up nicely for the film "Monsters" which unlike our meal was very average and undercooked!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8