I’m Nessa and I’ve lived in London for about ten years now. Mine is a classic story: the vast choice of eateries rapidly morphed from exciting to cumbersome. So naturally, some evolution had to be undertaken in order to sniff out the ones worth their salt. Cue an extended period of primordial chaos (my student days) and now we’ve finally arrived with some air-tight recommendations. I’ve recently launched a career in the food industry so will hopefully keep the good ones coming.
Nessa's LocalMeal-worthy rec for today: Master Wei Xi’An
Location: 13 Cosmo Pl, Holborn, London WC1N 3AP
I visited Master Wei’Xian for a birthday celebration with two friends. It was a great experience, ending with a surprise 10% removed from the bill because the staff clocked the cupcakes brought along by one of the party. This was much appreciated however, I would recommend a visit even without the prospect of a discount. The meal is quick, filling and for a table full of dishes to share and a bottle of wine, we paid around £25 per head. For a quick, casual meal this is the place. If you haven’t booked ahead and face a wait there are two pubs either side of it to wait at and there’s always the option to Deliveroo the food straight to your place.
The highlights were definitely the steamed pork dumplings and the beef biangbiang. The noodles are light but filling and soak up the sauce just as you’d hope. The smacked cucumber was also a welcome break, changing up the flavour in between dishes. We got two of those and even used the vinegary sauce as a dip for some of the dumplings. The spring-rolls were almost bite sized with very thin casing, making them extra crispy. One dish I would’t mind forgoing was the chicken and mushroom dumplings. They were fine but not as tasty as the other dishes.
Stay tuned for more recs from trusted locals like Nessa on the LocalMeal blog!