Gold Mine - Bayswater

Gold Mine

102 Queensway,
Bayswater,
London,
W2 3RR

Having heard so much about the Four Seasons, and how its head chef moved to the Gold Mine, we decided to trek down to Bayswater and try their much lauded Cantonese roast duck.



Straight through the door sharply at noon (we'd actually loitered outside for a few minutes waiting for them to open). The copious menu displayed outside didn't promise any more than the usual Chinese affair.



What Gold Mine is really famous for is the roast duck. Differing from Peking Duck and 'crispy duck' (the former is savoured for its lacquered skin, wrapped in steamed paper-thin bread with an assortment of fillings, while the latter is a purely UK invention), Cantonese style roast duck is served chopped on the bone, with a deliciously fatty and crisp skin with a mildly sweet taste reminiscent of a unctuously savoury salt caramel taste.



As soon as we were seated, a pot of steaming jasmin tea was presented with two cups. Such a change from flagging down waitresses like taxis during rush hour, this pleasantry on a cold winter's day was very welcome. The tea appeared on the bill at £1 per head, very reasonable, but I wonder what happens to those customers who do not want tea?



Not to be disappointed, the Gold Mine version is given high marks for taste. Slightly disappointingly: although we had arrived early, the duck was luke warm rather than hot. The ducks are hung after cooking to air-dry the skin for a crispier texture, but we'd hoped that they would be reheated in the ovens to a higher temperature.



Despite the reheating problems, the duck was mostly crisp, with a nice toothsome chew on the dark meat. The pieces closest to the bone were tender and sweet, with an earthy richness that I love about duck. The sauce drizzled on top was a sweet soy, similar to that served with cheung fen but stronger. The duck was suitably fatty, not having been fully rendered in the roasting process, but the fat wasn't so rich as to be sickening, and with plain rice would have made a delicious counterpoint to the sweet and savoury sauce. Unfortunately, being little piggies on the run, we chowed down copious amounts of the protein without a starch component.



Rather gluttonously we also ordered a serving of the roast pork. Generally Cantonese restaurants serve pork in two styles - char siu and crispy roast pork - and as we were going for the crispy roast bonanza, a platter of roast pork seemed a brilliant idea. Cantonese roast pork has the crispiest crackling I have ever tasted.

The skin is achieved by multiple stabbings with a jaccard (think a hand stamp with a few dozen nails/needles attached to the bottom), which creates upwards of hundreds of micro perforations for the hot fat to escape, and which crisps the skin. Generally the skin is rubbed with lye water or baking soda before roasting (the caustic effect breaks down the skin's structure slightly), making for a perfectly uniform and crisp crackling.



Not as noteworthy as the duck, but certainly a delicious plate of porcine goodness. The plate was rather haphazardly heaped, and many of the crispy edges ended up soaked in the savoury sauce, losing most of the crack and pop of the perfectly crispy skin. The fat was nicely rendered, with the marbled layers beneath the skin moist but not overwhelming.



The damage: £17.70 for a platter of very good roast pork and half of an excellent roast duck with two servings of tea. With rice, this could easily stretch to a meal for 3-4 people. Note that they serve either duck with rice, or pork with rice for £5, and I am told that it is a very generous portion.