Chinese food with a difference ... hidden hot-pot madness! (Chionois Chinese Restaurant (Edinburgh))

Member Name: edindave

Product:	Chionois Chinese Restaurant (Edinburgh)
Date:	10/06/09 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great food, friendly staff, very cheap, something different to try with friends.

Disadvantages: If you sit in the main section of the restaurant, the lighting can seem too strong.

Chinese food is my all time favourite kind of food so I was a little hesitant when a friend of mine suggested we go for dinner at a buffet because I have heard all of the horror stories about the food being under or over cooked and the quality generally not being very good.

Chinois Chinese Restaurant can be found in the Omni Centre, at the top of Leith Walk in Edinburgh city centre. The pricing differs according to the time of day that you eat, ranging from about £6 for lunch through to £13 for dinner - I think we will all agree that this places the restaurant toward the cheaper end of the market!

The lighting is fairly harsh, with a lot of strip lighting and bright white lights. This could put a lot of people off as it creates a similar atmosphere to a fast food restaurant like KFC or Burger King. The music is a little strange too; it is a mixture of cheesy pop music, traditional chinese tunes and chinese pop. The overall atmosphere is somewhat strange and unique to this place and I get the feeling that the experience of the customers depends very much on which staff are working that particular evening!

The set up is pretty straight forward, you go to the front desk, tell them how many are in your party and you are shown to a table and given a set of cutlery. You then approach the food buffet to collect a plate, fill up the plate with as much as you like and then once you have finished the plate, you can go back for more, as many times as you like.

The food itself is varied. There are the usual suspects: sweet and sour chicken, crispy shredded beef, egg foo yung as well as some more traditionally British dishes, including chips and roasted vegetables. The variety of food changes as the day goes on; when evening dinner starts, there is more seafood etc for example. There is also a range of desserts available from the refrigerator section, including cheesecakes, jelly, ice-cream etc.

There is a fully-fitted bar and the staff will provide you with whatever drinks you would like. It is worth knowing that the drinks are not included in the flat price and they will be added to the bill at the end.

I really enjoyed the evening. It was something different and, because I went for evening dinner, the food was quite delicious and I would happily go back there any time. It is a wonderful place to go with a group of friends because people are up and moving around all of the time so you get to talk to everyone in the group whereas sometimes with a big group at a restaurant, you only get to talk to the people around you. I would recommend this place.

I did go back here a second time and I found out something that I didn't know about! I went with a Chinese friend of mine and we booked a table for what she called "hot-pot". When I arrived, we went through to the back of the restaurant where there are smaller round tables. The waiting staff brought a burner with a metal tub of stock and we were handed a menu of various items including slices of beef, prawns, vegetables etc and we were asked to tick whichever items we wanted to be brought to the table. The various things were brought and my friend taught me that the little bits of food are dunked into the stock pot until they are cooked and then they are eaten.

It was absolutely brilliant and a real group get-together. It is not for the feint-hearted however! Dunking raw prawns and slices of raw beef into a pot of boiling stock is probably not everyone's idea of a good night. I know at least one of my friends was not a fan - she is a little more pedestrian with her taste! The good thing is that if you go for hot-pot, you are also permitted to take anything from the buffet in the main section of the restaurant too. It is well worth a go and at £15 or so per head, if you don't like it, it's not likely to bankrupt you and at least you can say you tried it!

It was explained to me that in certain parts of China, this is how the food is served on a regular basis. There are various piles of raw food that is all thrown into the boiling stock and then the fun is in trying to find the food again!

The view from the hot-pot part of the restaurant is also much better than the main section - there is a huge window that looks out onto trees and it feels really airy and bright whereas the main section of the restaurant has no external windows so the lighting can seem harsh (as I said above).

All in all, this place holds a lot more than you might think at first notice. My advice is to go for hot-pot after about 6.30/7 and the staff will explain what to do and where everything goes. It is really good fun! I recommend it to everyone.

Summary: Cheap Chinese restaurant where authentic hot-pot can be sampled.