Keep Calm and Have Lychee @ Lychee Oriental in Glasgow

I had been very busy working away last week and when I came home from work, I could not be bothered cooking. I had to admit that last week was a very lazy week for me and my cooking department let my family down too. Despite 2014 started off with great intension (i.e. supporting Emily and Maria in them following SlimmingWorld diet by cooking oil free or syn free meals for the whole family, anticipating that I too would lose some weight!) as the time goes by, this notion has escaped me.

And then I remembered that I had on-line voucher for 2-course meals with Thai crackers with chilli dip, sides and a glass of prosecco each at Lychee Oriental (http://www.lycheeoriental.co.uk) at 59 Mitchell Street, Glasgow, G1 3LN.  This is actually Maria and her boyfriend's favourite restaurant.

So Thursday last week, we decided to try Lychee Oriental. Glasgow was quite busy with late night Thursday shoppers and people going home after work. We could not find on-street parking space so we decided to part NCP car park which was almost right next door to the restaurant, albeit being rather expensive.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were seated at one of the corner booths which we found it very nice and relaxing with low light. Outside there was bustling and hassling of the city, cars and people, yet here inside of Lychee Oriental, we found calm and relaxing atmosphere.  I said to my husband, 'I think I have seen that staff who showed us to this table .... at Cotton House Chinese restaurant in Longcroft near Falkirk...'  While we were perusing the menu, the same staff brought us Spicy Thai Cracker with Sweet Chilli Dip to our table and asked us 'Do you go to Cotton House?'  Yes, I was right - we did see him before and he is now at Lychee Oriental. It was nice to see a friendly face.

Crackers were really lovely, I could not stop eating. He came back and asked if we wanted more but we resisted the temptation as we had whole 2 courses ahead of us.

When I go to Chinese/Thai restaurant, I like ordering sea bass so I ordered Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Mushrooms for main course with £3.00 extra supplement. This was very delicious. There were lots of oriental mushrooms and underneath were 3 slices of nicely steamed sea bass with lovely soy and mushroom flavoured sauce. I really liked this. Fried rice was sutley seasoned so it actually went very well with this sea bass as I could taste the fish and delicious oriental mushroom and soy sauce.  Some restaurant's sea bass could be really salty but not here. It was just right.

Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Mushrooms

Spicy Thai Crackers with Sweet Chilli Dip  - yummy

After demolished the crackers, for starters my husband had Stuffed Fresh Chillies with Prawns in Black Bean Sauce whilst I had Salt and Pepper Squid. I love squid!

Stuffed chillies with prawns - it was not too spicy -
this came with crunchy pickled carrots and cucumbers which were very lovely and refreshing

I like salt & pepper squid - this too came with crunchy vegetable pickels!

Whilst I had sea bass for main course, my husband had Fresh Scallops with Pepper and Black Bean Sauce sizzling on a pan.

By the time we finished eating all, we were quite full, yet I wanted to see dessert menu. I saw Mango sorbet with lychee fruits. I said to my husband, 'We were in Lychee Oriental, why not try lychee?' So he ordered one between us.

To be honest, I think this might have been my very first time to have tried lychee. The fruit has a delicate and sweet flavour however it never appealed to me .... it looks a bit like an eyeball (sorry for being gross!), not that I have ever eaten eyeballs. BUT, according to Wikipedia, the lychee contains on average a total 72mg of vitamin C per 100 grams of fruit and on average 9 lychee fruits would meet an adult's daily recommended vitamin C requirement,  also low in saturated fat and sodium, and is cholesterol free! Wow, sounds great! Maybe I should eat more. The same Wikipedia page also informs me that excessive consumption can, in certain extreme cases, lead to fainting spells or skin rashes.  Ok .... maybe not too much...or  I just stick to jasmine tea then .....

Overall, we really enjoyed our dinner. If you want to go there, you should ask for a booth as it is lovely and cosy. Oh, by the way, apprently there is a very nice toilet downstairs worthy of 'toilet check'; I did not realise this and used toilet I could find on the ground floor, which happens to be a disabled toilet.  Having checked their website, I also discovered now that if you want to part at NCP next door, you could park there for £5 if you phone the restaurant. We did not know that neither so I think we paid around £6.50 for a few hours parking. 

It was a lovely restaurant. Food was lovely and service was good. I may even try another Lychee fruit when we go back...

That's all forks!