Keeping it steady at Hung Tao

10 April 2012

This article was first published in June 2001

Whatever the elixir that ensures longevity in the swirling mass of restaurants on Queensway, Hung Tao has plenty of it. (Admittedly, until a revamp or so ago, the sign at the door read Hung Toa, but transliterating Chinese characters is dangerous work and almost every spelling is correct for someone.)

The last couple of years have seen the Thai restaurant across the road relaunched as a Vietnamese, and virtually every empty site for miles around is finding a new destiny as a coffee shop. Name-tinkering aside, the Hung Tao has ignored these trendy, modernist fads and continues to offer much the same menu, selling much the same food to much the same people and, thankfully, at much the same prices. The tiled interior looks a little cleaner, but the tables are still small, cramped and covered with white paper tablecloths, and the chairs are still uncomfortable.

Hung Tao has added a few sections of fancy dishes (such as kung po prawns, £7.50), but basically this is the home of the one-pot meal targeted at the hungry. There are 15 kinds of noodle soup, the same again of barbecued meats with rice, and a longer section of fried noodles and ho fun. Most intriguing of all is a list of congee dishes.

To the novice Westerner, congee (subtitled porridge) is a bit of a shock to the system. It is a sloppy rice goo, either a thick soup or a thin stew, that tends to be slimy and bland. In China, it is served for breakfast and has the reputation for being the one thing that the very drunk can keep down when the thought of rich food provokes internal rebellion. The congee here is made on quasi-medicinal lines so there are some interesting combos: sliced fish with kidney congee (£4.90), for example, where the fish fulfils one function and the kidney another.

Beginners should try chicken congee (£4.20) before working their way up to preserved egg with sliced pork congee (£4.20), which is a surprisingly cheesy experience.

For the hungry, the noodle soups are a better bet: try a bowl of broth laden with won ton dumplings and fine rice noodles (£4.20), or lean char sui pork and noodles (£4.20). The undisputed heavyweight champion of the noodle-soup world has to be the beef flank noodles in soup (£4.20).

This is unspeakably rich and has large chunks of fat floating around, each with a skirt of meat. But don't despair, simply cut the fat off - it has done its work enriching the juices and lubricating the noodles. Delicious. Fried noodles are split into two kinds: ho fun, which are broad bands - eg, fried ho fun with chicken (£4.20) - and vermicelli, which are thin and white. The fried vermicelli Singapore style (£4.20) - noodles with almost everything that comes to hand and a belt of chilli - is good.

Hung Tao continues to offer cheap, satisfying meals - big bowls of simple, well-flavoured grub - and there is very little that costs more than £5. So next time you're thinking of squandering your last fiver on a burger bar in W2, divert to Hung Tao. You'll end up paying less and eating better.

Hung Tao
Queensway, London, W2 4QH

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