Mama Lan opened about a month ago now and word must be getting around quick as shortly after we sat down people were queuing out the door. This little unit specialises in street food from Beijing; delicious fresh dumplings, snacks and noodles all cooked to order.
It's the brain child of Ning Ma who is also behind the supper club of the same name and it’s a completely family run enterprise with mom and pop behind the counter cooking away and her boyfriend helping out on the floor. I don’t know about you but that just makes me like the whole thing a hell of a lot more!
The food is incredibly well priced which is lucky as we ordered almost everything on the menu. The fried vegetable balls were fresh, crisp and incredibly tasty with a delicious spicy sauce.
The spicy chicken wings came perfectly cooked, too often they are pre-cooked and refried to order, but these were spot on with crisp spicy skin and tender meat. Onto the dumplings and they definitely rank amongst some of the best I’ve had in London.
The pork and Chinese leaf were sweet and juicy with great texture. The beef and carrot were delicious, I feel like I can’t do them justice really and I keep coming back to the same word in my head and that’s FRESH.
They were excellent on their own and just amazing when dipped in some of the dark sweet vinegar or soy on the table. The seaweed and sesame salad was a bowl of meh but that’s only because I don’t like seaweed that much.
All in all it’s definitely worth a visit and at £24 for two with a couple of teas it’s also incredibly good value. It’s everything good Chinese food should be; delicious, fresh and packed full of flavour and spice.
I think I’m in love with it a little bit as well!
They use my favourite light soy sauce - Pearl River Bridge!
ReplyDeleteI approve :)
Thanks for the kind words, did you come on the Sunday? If so, the guy's helping is a.. friend. The Boyfriend just wanted me to point this out lol... The Boyfriend helps out on Saturday mornings (hint: he's the geeky looking accountant).
ReplyDeleteWe came down on Sunday, will definitely be down again so see you soon!
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to pop in for lunch since they opened but I keep defaulting to getting a panini from the new Federation Coffee that's downstairs since lunch is always such a rush.
ReplyDeleteYou have convinced me I MUST find the time to venture out next week.
I wish there was somewhere like this near me:(
ReplyDeleteThis joint is definitely getting a lot of blog time pretty much all of it positive. Methinks it's time for another jaunt south of the river, passport clutched in hand to sample the dumpling delights. I really like the sound both of the place, and also of the guys running it.
ReplyDelete