Torquay – The Oriental Touch
It might not be the height of culinary decadence, but I do like an ‘all you can eat’ Chinese. And it’s an easy sell to Ross, so on our final night we traipsed up a big hill to get to the Oriental Touch which has been trading from here for over 15 years. Before it became a restaurant, it was the Top of the Town pub.
We arrived a bit earlier in the evening to try and avoid the rush, but it was already packed primarily with larger groups. We waited in the queue for around five minutes before we were called forwards as although we didn’t have a reservation, they did have a table for two. It was slightly cramped, but you don’t really come to a restaurant like this for the surroundings. The ordering process requires advance payment before being seated, which does speed matters up at the end of the meal. I felt sorry for the waiter who was helpful but had three groups complain that the wrong drinks had been brought over. It transpired, as I listened in, that all three groups had actually ordered incorrectly but the waiter was endlessly patient.
What was it that Jay Rayner said about the best foods being brown? He’s right, here’s chicken cooked in various different ways and what more could I want?
The two counters of hot food.
The desserts section.
There we go, there’s some green to add to the arrangement. It’s called seaweed, although I think this one was just salted fried cabbage. I ordered a Tiger to go with the meal, which was smooth, light and all that. The quality of the food was generally high, the meat was tender and everything was at the appropriate hot temperature.
The height of fine dining……
I’ve never quite understood why more restaurants don’t operate on this model as it makes it much easier for the kitchen to just bring out food when it’s done and there’s a reduced demand on waiting staff. I accept the huge cost of ingredients, but looking around, most people were relatively restrained. It’s obviously working for this restaurant given how long they’ve been here and seeing how busy it was on a Thursday evening. There’s a sign that the restaurant reserves the right to charge for food which is left, but I suspect that’s a warning shot rather than something that they actually try and do. The wastage must be challenging for the owners to deal with, I suspect it’s relatively high and perhaps one of the reasons that there aren’t more restaurant like this.
There’s the odd complaint such as:
“Cold food, chaotic experience and multiple things that could actually HARM PEOPLE! My wife is a Chef and she said there are multiple things that could be harmful, like the unrefrigerated profiteroles because of the warmed up cream.”
The venue is five star food hygiene rated and I’m more concerned that a chef thinks that profiteroles can’t stand in a cold refrigerated area and the speed in which they were eaten meant that they were hardly there for long. I didn’t see anything that harmed me at least….
The meal cost £16, which I thought was rather agreeable although I found that the portion sizes were too large but I can’t really blame the restaurant for that. The on-line reviews are very positive for a restaurant set-up like this, with the service being highly regarded as well as the value for money. Although we got lucky, I think it would be sensible to book a table in advance here given its popularity. All rather lovely.
