Peony restaurant — Restaurant in Newcastle-under-Lyme

NOW UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP. Been coming to this place for many years, recommended by my friends parents who’ve been coming for many many years. It’s been a somewhat tradition within my personal friend group to come to this restaurant and have dinner before going to see a film but last night might’ve changed all of that.

Worst thing first, Tried to convince us raw/undercooked chicken wings were just ‘how this style of chicken looks’ and in fact were ‘well done’ though none of us were convinced and ate any she also didn’t fight us any harder than that and did refund us. They weren’t just one or two wings by the way we dissected the entire portion and over 2/3 were like that

we were a party of four and seated at a 6 person table initially before they set up a tiny table in the corner incase a larger group came (which never did) so it felt completely unnecessary the size of the table didn’t matter in the end as only 1 person received a full meal

We arrived at 6pm and it was somewhat busy but does not excuse the hour and a half for 2 portions of fried calimari which were extremely tough and chewy another fault is not telling us quicker that two of our meals (The chicken and pork belly on plain rice. When ordered together they just put an assortment of meat on the rice rather than just one or the other.)

This wasn’t told to us when ordering or while waiting, it took until asking that we found out we weren’t getting both meals without a greater explanation that it just wasn’t in and crossing out the menu with her pen.

we would’ve preferred to be given rice instead of an empty table all night if they didn’t have pork belly as not having chicken is unfathomable in my head for the reason we didn’t receive the food. All in all we nearly missed our film at 8pm

The fish was good and not any different than last time. Pan fried dumplings were forgotten about on the pan as they were the second to last thing to come out before we had to pay and leave with one side being extremely blackened than the other

Besides the chicken we also had refunded the imaginary pork belly, chicken and rice and given an apology glass of Fanta. And that is really the only reason for the single star in terms of service we had zero.

We left an extra two pound just to leave quicker and save ourselves...

Overall rating: 7/10

Chicken with Fresh Chilli in Chongqing Style - £10.50 - rating 7.5/10 Har Gao (king prawn steamed) - £4.80 - rating 9.5/ 10 Salt & Pep Fried Squid - £5.20 - rating 5/10 Chicken Udon - £9.50 -rating 7/10 Ice Black Tea bottle - £2.50 - rating 6/10

Chicken with Fresh Chilli in Chongqing—When this dish was served, it smelt exquisite and tasted well. The chicken was crispy, and I expected it to be spicy, but it wasn’t up to my expectations. However, the downside of the dish was that it was too oily for me.

Har Go—a must-try. It was amazing, and I don’t remember putting it in my mouth and swallowing it. You only get 4 pieces per order, and I wish I had ordered more. That's the only reason I might go back to this place. I wish they had served it with some chilli oil or sauce, but I adjusted the oil on the earlier dish.

Salt & Pep Fried Squid—This dish didn’t live up to my expectations. The squid was crispy, but there wasn’t any flavour, and the quantity was reasonable. I wish they could have added some spices or sauce to it.

Chicken Udon—I would order it again if I went there, but I have tasted better ones before. The dish was reasonable, with plenty of noodles and a few pieces of chicken.

Ice Black Tea—We thought they would make it when we ordered it, but we got a bottled drink. I'm not sure whether it was worth it as I could have got it from a shop, but it tasted nice and sweet.

I sat on the 1st floor, and I'm not sure whether they have capacity downstairs, but there were only a few tables on this floor. I saw one family trying hotpot, and it might be on my list to try at this place.

Note that they...

The restaurant is split into two sections.

The bottom part of the restaurant does all you can eat BBQ / Hot Pot with very fresh and delicious ingredients, an amazing broth and a big selection of sauces. Really good idea to serve individual hotpot pots and allow BBQ at the same time.

The top floor of the restaurant serves authentic Yum Cha / Dim Sum, with a chef from London preparing the dishes. They are all delightful and very well prepared. The Char Siu is not too sweet making it one of my favourites.

They also provide a big variety of dishes from a menu, but I have not yet tried those. I believe that they will be very good as well judging by the rest of the food I've tried.

Overall a very beautiful addition to the town with high quality food, authentic cuisine and a talented chef. A good reason to get up early Sunday morning for traditional yum cha. (They're served all day long but no Cheung...