The Chicken Dance

We’ve detected fowl play in this dim and narrow Andheri by-lane before. Juicy parmesan grilled chicken, to be precise.  It’s barely been three months since we devoured the dish at Grillopolis, and the block’s already made room for a new bird - Sriracha chicken chilli served at the recently opened China 1. Also in the vicinity is black bean chicken at Mainland China, roast chicken at Mesa Bistro and oyster sauce chicken at China Gate. So will China 1 be Andheri’s new cock block? We were about to find out.

Code Red

Pretty red lights strung around the entrance hold promise, but lead you to a huge waiting room where predictably, Chinese lanterns hang from the ceiling. Desperately Peking imagination?

But things get better as you progress to the main dining area – a room enveloped in shades of white and grey, a booth with its own personal fountain, and pardonable bamboo shoot motifs on the wall. Away from the buzzing crowd (wait, wasn’t it Monday night?), we sat ourselves in the booth and got ready to order as the sound of pitter patter took over chatter.

Great Potent-ial

The meal started on a promising note with a William Tell, an apple martini made heady with a dash of smoked cinnamon, and a yum strawberry margherita. Both strong points in the argument for China 1. Difficult as it was after our sweet, potent start to navigate the vast menu, we did, and came up with a bunch of starters (note: vegetarians will not be spoiled for choice here).

The Sriracha chicken chilli with its generic spicy red sauce could well have been Sichuan chicken or crispy chicken at an Indian Chinese joint, but tasted good nevertheless. Serious temptation to try the water chestnut in honey pepper was avoided for a staff recommendation of Cheung Faan vegetable from the dim sum menu, which tasted like a solidified version of sweet corn soup (minus the corn). But a dash of black pepper sauce and the dish wasn’t so dim anymore.

Chow Many

Giving the usual mains a miss, we decided on the okra and potato in cheng-du sauce, a mildly spiced preparation yum enough to eat without accompaniments. And considering the chicken fried rice was so mundane and in dire need of flavour, we did just that.  The rice crisis however, was averted by the chilli butter noodles, slippery with spices. We ended with the indulgent chocolate spring rolls, which though slightly chewy, were an irresistible combination of cocoa and fried dough.

Cravings and savings out of the way, the question resurfaced. So who wins the cock fight in Andheri? While we enjoyed most of our meal at this new Chinese joint, we would have to give it to the chicken in black bean sauce at Mainland China next door. If China 1 wants loyal patrons from surrounding restaurants to spill over, it needs to up its game. And fowl play too.

Getting there: China 1, G-05, Morya Landmark 1, Plot B-25, off New Link Road, Andheri (W), opposite Infinity Mall, call 42723333 or visit www.china1.in, Rs 2,100 for a meal for two with alcohol.

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