If anyone wants to know where I am this week, I've gone to the Moon. Alan Yau's long-awaited Chinese noodle bar, Cha Cha Moon, opened last Friday 9 May, with everything on the menu priced at £3.50. I said, with everything on the menu priced at £3.50.
The long communal tables are filling fast, because Londoners aren't stupid – and in one of the world's most expensive cities, we're also desperate for anything under five quid that's not going to poison us.
But Yau is on a winner here, with a high-tech kitchen turning out modest bowls of the lesser-known northern and western Chinese staples and Canto favourites, at high speed.
Not sure how long the £3.50 prices will last, but I'd happily pay twice that for the quality. Don't go for a long, leisurely night out, however – this is "feed 'em up and get 'em out" food – you'll probably be in and out within the hour.
A full review will be in the Independent on Sunday on 25 May.
Flying visit to Cha Cha Moon:
7.23pm: Put the order in, for two.
7.25pm: Chinese Harbin beers arrive (£3.30 each)
7.31:
Wok-fried Chinese chives with garlic arrive; a singular dish of glossy
green purity, with the flavour of wild garlic (£3.50).
7.34:
Zhajiang mian noodles arrive; a dense, dark savoury mince with sliced
cucumber on flat wheat noodles – China's answer to spag bol - and a
side dish of broth to add (£3.50).
7.35: Char kweay teow arrives; rice noodles with crisp lup cheong sausage and fish ball, sizzling from the wok (£3.50).
7.39: Guo tie dumplings arrive: crisp-bottomed, dry outside, juicy chicken filling (£3.50).
7.50: Waiter wants to clear our table: go away!
7.57: Waiter wants to clear again: go away!
8.02: Waiter wants, etc: this time I make him a happy man and ask for the bill.
8.05: Bill arrives (£20.60 plus tip).
8.10: Leave.
Cha Cha Moon, 15-21 Ganton Street, London, W1. Tel: 020 7297 9800 (no bookings) Open daily from 12 noon.
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