'There's stuff here I haven't seen in the UK. If you're a tofu lover, Baiwei will thrill – it pops up crumbled, twisted, silken, pressed'
Drunkenly staggering around Chinatown in London one evening, I was delighted to find something called Great Leap Forward. Chinatowns are tricky to get a handle on: fast-moving, opaque, protean; places where leases change hands and chefs come and go before you've had time to figure out what the set menu is.
But this was clearly brand new. And had something of a brass neck calling itself after Mao's, er, misguided initiative. There was nothing about it on the internet, so I figured I might steal a march on the other critics: they are far too busy being wafted about in ortolan-fuelled carriages to stagger drunkenly round Chinatown.
Alas for my scoop, turns out it's part of the acclaimed Bar Shu group: if there's anything approaching a brand in these pigeon-pocked streets, it's these guys. When I soberly return, I find it renamed Baiwei, meaning "100 flavours" (in Sichuan cuisine "100 dishes have 100 different flavours"; seems Maoist humour doesn't quite translate to WC2). As with previous outlets, their masterstroke is hiring writer and Chinese food specialist Fuchsia Dunlop as consultant. If anyone has the lightness of touch required to play rugged authenticity off against the kind of thing that won't frighten the horses, it's her.
A tiny townhouse of the "lovely model, fifth floor" variety, it's a series of cramped rooms, all sharp-edged furniture, bottom-defeating stools and hand-decorated walls. We're on the ground floor, with a massive dumb waiter and several actual waiters staring at us as we try to make sense of the menu. There are helpful photographs of every dish; the detail they've managed to get into the glistening folds of tripe is quite remarkable.
It's a collection of "comfort food" from Sichuan and northern China; owner Shao Wei is from Shandong in the north, while chef Shu Bing is from Chengdu. There's stuff here I haven't seen in the UK: beef and coriander wontons; spicy stewed beef with tofu knots (exactly how it sounds: knots of tofu skin, plaited like mozzarella). If you're a tofu lover, Baiwei will thrill – it pops up crumbled, twisted, silken, pressed. We love the effect that freezing has on it, puffing it up into a sponge, perfect for mopping up the greasy, savoury juices from some pigs' trotters. The appendages themselves aren't in any way sanitised: as you spit out some eldritch little bones, it's hard not to think "toes".
Familiar dishes are given clever, pungent twists: smoked bamboo shoots in crisp, airy potsticker dumplings; red-braised pork given woody depth by tea tree mushrooms. The standout for me is catfish with pancakes, a Shandong dish made with huge, fatty fish heads here translated for scaredy westerners into thick, slightly gummy fillets in a dark brown sauce of such savour I want to plunge into it face first. Dried chillies jostle with star anise and more fat cloves of garlic than should be legal, all bound with fermented bean paste. The chewy pancakes, flung into the sauce, become alluringly floppy. Gorgeous.
This is cafe food, so thickly battered and fried aubergine slices sandwich fragrant minced pork. There are street food favourites, too: dan dan noodles, a rubble of beef with the numbing sting of Sichuan peppercorns and a rich, composty undertaste from preserved veg. I'm not convinced by "gorgeously spicy steamed chicken in roasted rice"; rather than a Thai larb-like crunch, the rice is steamed with the meat until it collapses into a fiery goo. And I've finally accepted I'm never going to love ducks' tongues: that unexpected crunch of cartilage is plain unnerving.
I realise we've forgotten to order Sichuan's beloved twice-cooked belly pork with black bean and chilli, but there's so much more to explore. Baiwei is the kind of rickety little joint you'd find in backstreet Sheung Wan, but with a better travelled menu. And I mean that as quite the compliment.
• Baiwei 8 Little Newport Street, London WC2, 020-7494 3605. Open all week, noon-11pm. About £20 a head with drinks and service.
Food 7/10
Atmosphere 5/10
Value for money 8/10
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