Cheli — Restaurant in London

The folks from Yangtze River Delta area who live in the UK are feasting on some giant freshwater hairy crabs! They are big and fresh! Each one weighs about 150g, and in the UK, these are considered gigantic freshwater hairy crabs.

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This restaurant is located in Elephant and Castle and specialises in Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine. We, a group of seven people, ordered 12 dishes, and among them, I particularly enjoyed these:

🍖 Salty Pork and Vegetable Rice

It's exactly the taste of my childhood! Salty, fragrant, and oily pork, tender green vegetables, and well-cooked rice grains, exuding a crispy wok hei aroma. It disappeared from the table within seconds!

🐟 Osmanthus-Smoked Fish

Autumn is the season for osmanthus, and the sweet and smoky flavour of the fish is amazing!

🦐 Braised Shredded Pork with Dried Bean Curd

They use real shredded dried bean curd, not like some places that use tofu shreds or thousand-layer tofu. The soup is very fresh, made from chicken bones and Jinhua ham, and it's accompanied by large shrimp.

🥗 Indian aster with Dried Tofu (Chrysanthemum Greens with Marinated Tofu)

Indian aster is a spring wild vegetable, but now it's autumn, so they used chrysanthemum greens instead of Indian aster. It's refreshing, fresh, and a very appetising cold dish.

🦆 Salted Duck

A huge platter of salted duck, very authentic in flavour. It's a whole duck, so the portion is huge, and even with seven people, we couldn't finish it. We had to take it home and could use it with noodles or put it in the rice cooker at home.

🦀 Crab Meat Xiaolongbao

Thin-skinned and juicy, one bite bursts with flavour. It's really delightful.

🐚 Braised Pork with Abalone

The skin of the braised pork is crispy, forming a slight honeycomb pattern, and it's genuine five-spice pork, with a well-balanced ratio of fat and lean meat. It melts in your mouth and is paired with small abalones and quail eggs.

🍶 Osmanthus Sweet Fermented Rice with Glutinous Rice Balls

The balls are glutinous rice balls without filling, and the Sweet Fermented Rice broth exudes an intoxicating aroma. The golden osmanthus on top adds to the...

Oh my gosh! ! too delicious! ! Woohoo, I discovered the best Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine in London! And it’s super high. Just after entering the store and looking at the environment, strolling around, seeing the dishes, and taking a bite: this is more than 100 per person. Check out the bill: only 40 per person! Focus on a surprising contrast! !

🐟Large yellow croaker with scallion oil, highly recommended! ! If anyone doesn’t eat it, I’ll replace it for you! ! Absolutely delicious! It’s a huge piece, and the tray it’s placed on is also very high-end and classy! My friend also helped me pick up the fish meat. I was really moved and cried!

🐟Fried rice cake with flower crab is also delicious! The rice cakes are so delicious, you can take in all the umami flavors and you can’t stop eating them!

🐟Pork roasted with pickled vegetables and dried bamboo shoots. It’s so delicious. The dried bamboo shoots and meat go well together. It’s salty and delicious!

🐟Marinated pork, you can also eat authentic marinated pork in London! Take a sip and your eyebrows will fall off!

🐟Longjing Shrimp, really has tea art! There are many shrimps each! !

🐟Shanghai Xiao Long Bao is so green and green, I love it! The skin is made of spinach juice, so the color is very beautiful!

🐟The crabs are raw and marinated, which I didn’t intend! Lots of crab roe!

🐟Osmanthus dumplings, the store’s aesthetics are great, the tray is very greasy, but there is still filling in the dumplings~

Overall, it was a really happy meal! The environment and service have to be said. The dishes are really authentic and delicious. The level is too high! It’s really suitable for dinner parties or when the elders of the family come over, bring a big meal to grab the first one. Anyone who eats will praise you for choosing the...

Basing this review with consideration of the price...left underwhelmed after £190 for valentines dinner for my wife.

We were sat on a small table for two, and asked if we could have a slightly larger one. We were told these were just tables for 4, despite others having 2 people on them only and only two places set, whilst other smaller tables were empty. They then put extra settings on the larger table next to us. These were all then filled up with just 2 people not 4, and we were then told it was because they had booked earlier than we had. If that's the case, I wouldnt mind, but why lie to us and do the token 4 settings?

The food was a higher standard than normal restaurants but not overwhelming, the cumin lamb I've made better at home. Though no dumplings or buns available for starter.

Towards the end asked for a beer, which didn't come for 20 minutes so by then we'd finished and asked for the bill. The bill came with the beer, so told them it hadnt come so remove it. 15 minutes after waiting for the revised bill, they bought a beer over so sent it back, and then 10 minutes after that someone came back with the original bill asking if we'd paid. It had got busier by that point, and noticed a few frustrated tables waiting, including one dish sent to the wrong table, touched by the customers to check, and then the waiter took it away and straight to the right table. Seemed they had got busy and overwhelmed.

An unsatisfactory experience so won't be going back, and will be taking my wife for a 2nd valentine's dinner...