Last Updated on January 1, 2025
Lunch for a Chinese Warrior in Tower Hill
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
Areas of London like Tower Bridge tend to be gastronomic wastelands where hungry visitors find themselves choosing from the same perfectly adequate but rather uninspiring chain restaurants that line every high street. But, just steps from the Tower of London you could be losing your head over authentic Chinese food. Dream Xi’an is the latest restaurant from chef Master Guirong Wei. With a menu based on Shaanxi province dishes, it is the perfect pitstop for a noodle lunch in the Tower Hill area.
We were charmed by the elegant but minimalist interior. We don’t doubt that the many Chinese tourists visiting the Tower of London will flock here for a taste of home and it’s a much more interesting choice for everyone else wanting to avoid the more obvious options.
Shaanxi cuisine originates in the Shaanxi Province in northwestern China. The region borders on Shanxi and Sichuan and the ancient capital of Shaanxi, Xi’an, was a starting point for the Silk Road. Xi’an is home to the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, often called the Terracotta Army an archaeological site containing thousands of clay soldiers. Perhaps it’s fitting that Dream Xi’an is so close to the Tower of London.
The co-owner, Chef Guirong Wei is from Bohekou village, near the Qin Mountains in Shaanxi province. She moved to Xi’an when she was 13 and attended culinary school in Xi’an, where she was one of only four women in a class of about 1,000 men. She eventually became the only female head chef in Xi’an. In 2008 she moved to London, working at Barshu a Sichuanese restaurant, where she began cooking Shaanxi food for the staff on Sundays. She now has a handful of restaurants in London including the well-known Master Wei Xi’an Cuisine in Bloomsbury and featured in the Netflix Chef’s Table: Noodle!
The flavours in Xi’an combine some of the sour spicy Sichuan flavours with the saltiness of Shanxi. You’ll find plenty of noodle dishes based on lamb and mutton with strong complex flavours using salt, garlic, onion and vinegar.
Dream Xi’an is particularly famous for hand-pulled noodles including various Biang Biang (a particularly wide and flat hand-pulled noodle) dishes but our menu choices were partly determined by the advice of our server, along with a desire to avoid anything cold on a chilly and damp December afternoon.
Crispy Salt and Pepper prawns came with a light vegetable garnish and made an easy start to the meal
We loved the wontons with chilli oil, plump and stuffed with a light, well-spiced mix of pork and chicken, served warm and with just the right amount of bite to the wrapper
But, the main event was yet to come. We’d watched enviously as steaming bowls of noodles appeared from the kitchen, wondering if we’d managed to pick the right options.
Wei’s hand-pulled noodles with minced pork and vegetables were a delight. A rich and gamey, meaty sauce laced with fermented beans and a tangy sauce and garnished with thin slithers of cucumber and green onion. We watched hungrily as our server tossed the mixture to coat our noodles perfectly. This is a dish I’ll return to try again and a snip at under £14 for a hearty portion.
Hand-pulled noodles with sauteed chicken with red and green pepper were equally successful, free from any added sugar but with a generous helping of meat and vegetables laced with a soy-based sauce.
A side dish of stir-fried choy sum with garlic was generous enough to justify the £10.80 price tag and perfectly cooked. And, all we needed on the side was a bowl of steamed rice.
There is little in the way of dessert options but if you do fancy something sweet at the end of a meal at Dream Xi’an, we can heartily recommend the glutinous rice cakes with brown sugar – a neat way to finish a food adventure.
We shared a bottle of Roos Estate Sauvignon Blanc priced at £24, a light, crisp wine with grassy richness and good flavour and body.
This is somewhere I’m keen to explore again. The food is subtly different to anything I’ve tried in China Town and I was left wanting to taste more dishes.
Dream Xi’an London,
Tower Place
London
EC3R 5BU
020 8143 3966
