A couple of weeks ago, Ellie & I got invited by Murger Han Mayfair, to try their food. This is my review. Murger Han, ‘London’s first authentic Xi’an restaurant’ (their slogan), operates at three other locations in London: one in the City near London Bridge, one at Euston, and one at Elephant & Castle.
CUISINE FROM “NORTHWEST” CHINA AT MURGER HAN RESTAURANT, LONDON
Xi’an is the capital of Shaanxi Province in central China. Interestingly, most Chinese think of it as Northwest China, even though strictly speaking, it is closer to the Southeast than the Northwest of China. Presumably this is because the cultural, economic, and political elites in China – apart from Beijing, Chongqing, and a few other cities – live mainly in the Southeast of the country in a bulging triangle vaguely between Qingdao in the Northeast, Chengdu in the Northwest, and Hainan Island in the South.
The giant provinces in the West and North, the majority-Muslim Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the partially Muslim, partially Tibetan (among others) Qinghai Province, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia do not seem to be seen as part of China proper by most.
XI’AN’S PROUD HISTORY
Historically, Xi’an is a very important city. It is literally where the Silk Road originated. There were a lot of silkworms in the area, just lazing about, not doing any good for anyone, so locals decided to use them for silk production. Europe turned out to be really keen on silk. Someone got the idea that good money could be made out of this. Dadaaaaa… The Silk Road came into life.
As if this was not enough, Xi’an also became the centre of several early-days Chinese dynasties. The famous terra cotta warriors were buried in the city’s surrounding plains. In a culinary sense, the city and the whole region are highly respected, even though they do not form part of the famous eight principal cuisines of China. With all the trading going on, this makes perfect sense, of course. The traders brought new spices, foods, traditions, recipes, and preparation techniques with them, and Xi’an became a culinary melting pot.
A WARM WELCOME AT MURGER HAN RESTAURANT MAYFAIR
Grace, the Mayfair restaurant manager, greeted us very warmly when we arrived as the first guests of the evening shortly before 6pm, and led us to our table, close to the tiny open-plan kitchen area. (There is more kitchen space in the back, I believe.)
ORDERING MURGERS AT MURGER HAN RESTAURANT, LONDON
After some deliberation, Ellie and I had made up our minds. We ordered one Tiger beer (£4.90) and a lychee juice (£3.50). Naturally, we had to order two of the murgers, traditional Xi’an hamburgers that trace their history back more than 2,200 years, when they had been invented as easy-to-carry sustenance for the triumphant Qin troops. We went for one roast duck and one spicy beef crusty murger (£7.50 each).
THE REST OF OUR ORDER AT MURGER HAN
Furthermore, we ordered their signature Liangpi mixed cold noodle (singular! – £9.90), their House Special 5 in 1 noodle (again: singular!) with pork & beef (£16.90), their famous biang biang noodle (yes, still singular!) with mixed vegetables, pork meatballs, quail eggs in chicken stock (£13.90), the grilled chicken gyoza (£7.80), and a set of six skewers: tofu (£2.80 for 2), ox tripe (£1.90 for 2), and sliced surf clams (£5 for 2). Because it would be a sin to have a meal without dessert, we saw ourselves forced to order terra cotta warriors ice cream (£7.90) and the panna cotta original (£5.80).
SCROLLING THROUGH THE STORIES IN THE MENU
Our drinks arrived quickly. The Tiger beer tasted like Tiger beer (probably a good thing), but the lychee juice was unexpectedly intense in flavour. From the menu, we learned that cold noodles were a get-out-of-jail card for the citizens under China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang during a terrible drought with meagre harvests. The people asked an old wise man, what to do, and he recommended preparing cold noodles from the few bits of rice at hand. Luckily, the emperor enjoyed the taste and reduced the tax burden for the year.
THANK HEAVENS FOR THE LATIN ALPHABET
Naturally, biang biang noodles come with their own story. A penniless scholar was on his way to Xi’an to sit the Imperial Exam. He heard the sound of biang biang from a noodle shop. The scholar ordered one pot of biang biang noodles. When it was time to pay, he asked the waiter to give him a bill stating what he had ordered. The waiter wasn’t able to do so. Come to the rescue the no longer starved scholar. He offered to teach the waiter how to write the extremely complex character biang in turn for being held free of cost. Everyone was happy. (The explanatory note in the menu shows the character, and you wouldn’t believe how complicated it looks, a bit like twenty Chinese characters all merged into one character.)
OUR FOOD ARRIVES AT MURGER HAN RESTAURANT, LONDON
After ten minutes, all our dishes arrived at the same time, as ordered. We tucked into our murgers and found them to be rather tasty. From their look both on the photos in the menu and when they arrived at our table, I would have expected the meat to be a little bit chewy, but everything more or less melted on our tongues. No extraordinary effort had been made with the garnish or presentation, only the bun, the meat, and a few sparse further ingredients like slices of spring onions, but it did the job. No wonder, those Qin Dynasty warriors never lost a battle.
OUR FEAST AT MURGER HAN
Next up, we had the cold noodle, which, once mixed with the hot chili sauce in which it was sitting, became a real treat. Our absolute highlight of the evening was the House Special 5 in 1 noodle with pork & beef. The noodle is the same type as in the biang biang noodle dish of that name. It’s simply fun to bite bits off the giant noodle, and there was an explosion of flavours with every bite. Unsurprisingly, the biang biang noodle dish was also quite to our liking and we felt that the quail eggs added a lovely note. The delicious chicken gyoza had been steamed, I presume, and was clearly only very lightly grilled. Ellie, as expected, was not a huge fan of the ox tripe skewers, which was all the better for me, as I could have both of them. We both enjoyed the tofu and the sliced surf clams, even though they were probably the least remarkable part of the evening. When it came to the desserts, the terra cotta warrior ice cream looked kind of cute, and the panna cotta was amazing.
KITCHEN ACROBATICS AT MURGER HAN
From our table, throughout our meal, we could watch the two chefs in the open-plan kitchen area go about their business, making noodles and preparing the dishes. Especially making the giant biang biang noodles looks fascinating and must without doubt involve a lot of skill.
CONCLUSION OF OUR REVIEW
We thanked Grace for a delightful meal and decided to go for an extended walk rather than head straight back home around the corner. We’ll most certainly be back soon. 5 out of 5 from us.
Looking for more London restaurant reviews? Check out my posts about Benares and Helene Darroze, also in Mayfair, Barshu and Dean Street Townhouse in Soho, Berners Tavern, Hot Stone, and Kibako in Fitzrovia, RAI in Bloomsbury, Coco Momo and Launceston Place in Kensington, and Rowley’s in St James’s. I’ve also blogged about our tours of London in a helicopter and a kayak, our trips to Porto, Nepal, Bhutan, Tanzania, and about our stays at The Exhibitionist boutique hotel in London, the world-class five-star luxury Hotel Schloss Moenchstein, and The Corner House, Canterbury.
