At great new Sichuan spot Jing Alley in Sheung Wan it’s hard to decide what to eat
- The sheer range of menu choices was a bit overwhelming, but the helpful staff pointed us in the right direction
- Highlights included the Chengdu-style boiled jaguar guapote, mapo tofu and Sichuan-style beef heart
It wasn’t easy deciding what to eat at Jing Alley, a small, discreet new Sichuan restaurant in Sheung Wan.
The menu starts off with two pages of specials before moving on to three pages of appetisers, then Chinese barbecue and soups. Then it lists the different types of dishes by flavour profile, including Sichuan spice, Sichuan style, crispy soybean, and ingredients cooked with home-made pickled vegetables and chillies, mixed chillies, or Sichuan chillies. It was a bit overwhelming, but the very friendly staff helped us navigate.
At lesser quality Sichuan restaurants, there is a tendency for many of the dishes to taste the same. The appetisers we chose, which were served at the same time, showed we were in no danger of that.
Chilled Sichuan-style chicken with sesame and scallion (HK$128) was rich with a heavy sauce that coated the pieces of tender meat and the crisp raw chunks of cucumber and roasted peanuts.
