A Review of the Watermargin at the O2, Greenwich.

This will be a photo less experience, so If your head starts to hurt from too many words without pictures to explain, please remember I am actually an artist and check out my paintings on alexpaintings.com

The reason this will be a photoless experience because I had no intention of reviewing The Watermargin. It was just a convenient location for a large group of friends to meet that would not discriminate on wallet/purse volume. And the O2 is kind of soulless. My blog is not supposed to be about soulless places.

It’s very good for both these things. Pay per person on entry and order from the bar… Absolutely no fights over splitting the bill versus leaving tips that make the waiters think they are super waiters.

However, the fact that we were at something more than a big white famous tent, hit me when I saw the garlic prawns. Up to this point I had taken for granted the duck pancakes, which is wrong of me i know. No one should take duck pancakes for granted, especially when one of your friends declares with delight. “This is the fullest of duck duck pancakes I have ever had.” shortly followed by a crunch. But I suppose that we had just assumed that duck pancakes would be part of the course.

Steamed pork dumplings were good too. I felt very noble picking these up. The. fact that I had one of those completely justified all of the deep fried stuff I had afterwords.

But back to the prawns: king prawns large, juicy and dripping in garlic oil. Seemed as fresh as they had come straight out of the Thames (the unpolluted salt water part – you don’t know that bit?) and worthy of any gourmet pub… Without a courgette or tomato swimming in it, to bulk it out in a “we both know that i am not a prawn, but hopefully you are talking to your friends too much to notice.” And available in any volumes that you choose to indulge in.

There is also a grill stir fry where they don’t appear to bat an eye if you approach with just about every combination of their good quality surf and turf available.

It hurts. You do know that the best way to enjoy ‘all you can eat’ is by picking an item per course and staying there? I always tell myself this. But faced with diversity of seafood, chicken and pork in every sauce going, makes this an impossible objective.

I would like to commend the Watermargin on the availability of vegetables. There were three dishes of Chinese prepared vegetables dressed chinesey. Pak choi and broccoli in chilli (they actually got me eating broccoli, can you believe that?)

Dessert will always be a thwarted objective at a Chinese meal.. Do you order dessert with a takeaway, or just crack open the Baileys? You’re too full, and what constitutes Chinese dessert anyway? Well, apparently the Water Margin authority states that it is miniature Swiss rolls, profiteroles, jelly, fresh fruit, jelly beans and ice cream. (Now given the pictorial approach of Chinese writings, I wonder what is Chinese for a Swiss roll, I imagine something that looks like a minature galaxy). I never got to eat most of these. I was waylaid by a caramelised banana fritter (see- it had banana in it) that was fabulous. So fabulous I waited ages before leaving in the hope that some room wold appear in my stomach to allow me to go back for more. No such hope, gaps in the stomach did not return until lunchtime the following day. Might go back next week.