Thursday 10 November 2011

Mama Lan: A Threat to Silk Road's Crown?

One of my favourite restaurants in London, or maybe anywhere, is Silk Road in Camberwell.  No pretence, great northern Chinese food and friendly staff - it never lets me down.  There is, however, a young pretender to Silk's crown as the best northern Chinese restaurant in south London, Mama Lan - another new restaurant in Brixton Village.  I know I keep going on and on about Brixton Village but really what is happening down there in terms of new restaurants right now really is that exciting.


In the tradition of Brixton Village, Mama Lan is a small, basic restaurant with seats about a maximum of 20 at any one time.  The menu is short (always a good sign for freshness) with a couple of noodle soups (a beef and a tofu one), three choices of dumplings and a few other bits and bobs.  We went for the spicy beef noodle soup, the pork dumplings and a seaweed (kelp) salad.


The soup was quite tasty but the broth lacked a bit of heat and the noodles were a little mushy - pretty nice though.


The dumplings were incredible.  Nicely fried to be crispy on one side, the filling was super tasty - the best dumplings I have had in London (even better than Silk Road).  If you can't get a seat or just fancy a snack while wandering round the market (they do dumplings to take away) get involved- they are definitely worth it!



The Fashionista was a big fan of the kelp which was served with a sesame and soya sauce dressing -  for me it was okay but not a patch on the kelp with chili at Silk.


All in all a pretty tasty lunch and I will definitely be back, even if it is just to get some more of those dumplings!
Mama Lan Supper Club on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

  1. In fairness to Mama Lan, this style of beef noodle soup isn't meant to be inherently spicy. If you like it with a kick then I can recommend the tom yum noodles at Kaosarn - that's if you can get a seat!

    ReplyDelete
  2. No I agree, and it was tasty. Quite like Kao Sarn but think that the quality has been a bit overplayed - good, but not outstanding, in my opinion.

    D.

    ReplyDelete

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