What happened to the good old fashioned Chinese restaurant?

In 1909, London’s first Chinese restaurant was opened by Mr Chang Choy off Piccadilly Circus. Named simply ‘The Chinese Restaurant’ – so exotic! – Choy specialised in what was described as ‘imperial banquet’ style cuisine which required at least half a day’s notice to prepare. Customers were then required to pay a hefty deposit in advance to cover the purchase of ingredients for such imperial delights as ‘sturgeon bones’, ‘fish maws’, ‘gelatine’, ‘dried cabbage stalk peel’ and ‘chrysanthemum shoots’. A 1937 edition of Where to Dine in London declared that, ‘Englishmen who have spent their lives in the East will appreciate the traditional menu’. Hmm, I wonder.

You sit where I tell you,’ he fumed, plonking me down at a table full of chain smokers

Years earlier, a recreation of a popular Hong Kong restaurant was shipped over to London for the 1884 International Health Exhibition held in South Kensington. For seven and sixpence bewildered Londoners, more used to bread and dripping, could gorge on ‘sinew of tiger’ and ‘claws of bear’ followed by ‘yellow of crab’ and ‘blood of duck’s head’.