Poon's

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WELCOME TO POON'S: "My aim is to challenge improve people's perception experience of Chinese food.

There is so much more to Chinese cuisine than Sweet Sour Pork Fried Rice.

The Chinese have a deep relationship with their food.

Growing up in my parents' four restaurants gave me a passionate love appreciation of food and a desire to share it.

- Amy Poon

http://www.poonslondon.com

Restaurant Review: Poon's, Clerkenwell

Poon’s, the pop-up Chinese restaurant in Clerkenwell, is a fitting tribute to Bill Poon’s Covent Garden restaurant, frequented by the likes of Mick Jagger in the 70s.

But it would certainly be a disservice to yourself, because the Poon’s claypot rice with signature salami, wind-dried bacon and rounds of wondrous liver sausage heady with the scent of five-spice is pretty bloody great, and it’s a dish that’s been served by the family to diners in their restaurants since Poon’s first incarnation in Chinatown in 1973, and then in the flashier Covent Garden predecessor that followed in ’76.

It’s the latter site that helped the family achieve iconic status in the restaurant industry, with a Michelin star awarded and the likes of Mick Jagger and Barbara Streisand swinging by.

Which brings me neatly back to those wind-dried meats, which are listed in the ‘Bill Poon 1973’ section of the menu, and come on top of rice baked in a clay pot, the grains in the middle sticking together pleasingly; the edges toasted and crispy against the sides of the pot.

Poon’s won’t be at this site indefinitely, so do get along while it’s there, and then you can bore your friends with statements grandly announcing that you’re actually only interested in eating meat if it’s been prepared to an old Chinese family recipe and dried in the wind.

Fay Maschler's Positive Review of Poon's Is Filled With ...

If, at some point in the future, London’s restaurant critic beat gets the HBO prestige TV show treatment it so obviously merits, the casting will be a doddle: Jemaine Clement could do Jay Rayner standing on his head, while Alexander Armstrong can doubtless do a pretty good imitation of his brother-in-law Giles Coren by now.

The Times food editor Tony Turnbull once again takes the reins while Giles Coren flits off on another jolly, checking in on Arjun and Peter Waney’s newish Greekish joint, Meraki.

“Shameless” attempts to upsell things further — including bringing food Turnbull didn’t even order and trying to flog it to the table — abound; two meatballs come to a tenner.

It’s a restaurant getting plenty of hot social media action from a certain kind of (would-be) “influential” Instagram user, and accordingly food is “dressed” and “composed” to suit, presented in room boasting “eye-catching” décor, clearly designed with the timeline in mind.

In a country no longer short on delicious, fresh vegan food, this heavily-processed, “fake”-tasting iteration of it feels far from “natural” — even in its first UK site, there’s no mistaking the hallmarks of “an American fast-food chain.”

Poon's: The Return Of A Restaurant Dynasty | Londonist

But if anybody's qualified to talk big on the subject of London's Chinese food scene, it's probably the Poon family.

Dishes call on popular menu items from previous Poon's restaurants, including Chinese wind-dried meats made to a recipe from her grandparents' restaurant in Macau.

We meet it again in the Poon's Claypot Rice, in bigger chunks, baked into the rice dish along with other cured meats.

Aside from that wind-dried bacon — which, to be honest, packs so much meat flavour into both appearances that we're not enormously interested in any of the other meat dishes after that — many of the most exciting dishes on the menu are meat-free.

But between the lantern-glow, the friendly, loud buzz and the steady flow of knock-out after knock-out dish at decent value, there are plenty of reasons to hope Poon's moves on to bigger and more permanent things.

Poon's | A Legendary Chinese Restaurant Returns

We know what you’re thinking… …it has something to do with the Poon trees native to East India, traditionally used to make masts and boat spars, right?

Well no, one tracked mind, it’s actually named after seventh generation masterchef Bill Poon, who ran the legendary Chinatown restaurant from 1973-2003, gaining both a cult and celebrity following and a Michelin star in the process.

Then there’s… WHAT’S BACK It wouldn’t be Poon’s without Poon’s signature dishes, and those include their famed “wind-dried” meats (it’s like the Chinese equivalent of charcuterie) meaning you can still get their San Choi Bao cured bacon wrapped in a lettuce cups; some claypot rice with home-made wind-dried meats; a little Hainanese chicken; and a helping of steamed fish Guangzhou-style.

ALSO NOTE: Whilst Poon’s is open for lunch they are operating a selected menu.

Poon’s | ​131 – 133 Central Street Clerkenwell, EC1V 8AP Want to see some more pop up restaurants?

Fay Maschler reviews Poon's pop-up: The prodigal daughter brings ...

It was at the original Poon’s restaurant in Lisle Street, Chinatown and then at the later shinier Poon’s in King Street Covent Garden, one of the first London restaurants to make its kitchen a focal point of the design.

Chinese supermarkets sell packets of wind-dried sausages — including the Poon’s brand — and I usually have some in the fridge.

Their daughter Amy, who as a girl worked in all of the family’s establishments and was absolutely hell-bent on not going into the business, has recently opened Poon’s Pop-up in Clerkenwell in that odd three-sided square off Central Street that also houses the chippie plus plus that is Fish Central.

Poon’s wind-dried bacon san choy bao could equally be titled pork in lettuce wrap and there is little trace of that beguilingly spectral mummified flavour in the signature dish of claypot rice with salumi and wind-dried bacon.

Now in the Poon’s Pantry Essentials Range the company is offering us Premium First Extract Gluten-Free Soya Sauce made from non-GMO beans, the soya sauce equivalent of extra-virgin olive oil.

Review: Poon's has re-launched with a pop-up restaurant in ...

Here, Amy Poon is re-launching her family’s famous Chinese restaurants, dragging them kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.

Throughout the restaurant’s 30-year reign (closed in 2003), Poon’s became a cult institution, patronised by celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Mick Jagger and Barbara Streisand.

The radishes are fresh, firm and the pickling liquor has pleasant sweetness in contrast with the heat of chilli oil, yet the abundance of onion, leaves me fearing I’ll inadvertently recreate the Great Fire of London with one blast of my tongue.

Like the pork rice bowl, the beef flank version is also substantial.

Poon’s can be found at 131-133 Central Street, London, EC1V 8AP.