Restaurant: Beijing, Guildford

So, last night a large group of us went to the Beijing restaurant in Guildford. (Thanks for the lift, Helen, and for the lift to the station after..) I've been here before, with an even larger group, and we had a set menu that was excellent - we just helped ourselves to whatever we fancied. I also remembered the decor was lovely - low lighting, lighting features that change colour, large fish tanks.. plush and comfy throughout.

I do like the way they're quite generous with prawn crackers, because I was starving. And the prawn crackers were excellent. This time, I got to sample the a la carte, which was one of those long ones. The Beijing seems to go that extra mile in attempting to offer every variety of every kind of food. It's years since I saw cha siu on a menu, so I ordered that, with chicken satay to start. Also unusual on the menu was chicken szechuan - it's usually just beef, but this place even offered lamb szechuan.

We had a dedicated server throughout, who hovered in the background when she wasn't busy with something. One of our party had ordered a starter that seemed to take substantially longer than the others - something to do with prawns - and she was left waiting for a long time after we got ours. Something she should have been warned of, if this is standard.

Honestly, I thought the chicken in the satay starter was a little tough, but it was fine, and the cha siu was lovely - although I'd forgotten how filling it is and couldn't quite finish it. Particularly after all the prawn crackers! Rice good, wine good. Murmers of appreciation from other diners. Some did find the starters quite large - the mongolian lamb is a case in point. Anyhoo, after all of that, they had the standard selection of frozen desserts, but we didn't bother.

Arriving at the station in good time, I took an earlier train - which turned out to be the slow one and got me there all of ten minutes before the other one would have. But I'd have had to wait half an hour more for that one, and I preferred to be on the move. And I arrived at Clapham Junction just in time to see the Overground leave. Which turned out to be the second-last of the night, and I had to wait on the freezing platform for half an hour for the last to arrive. Blasted Overground schedules - well, at least I made it this time. Nearly fell asleep on the Overground - after an early morning, I was exhausted. Hence the delay in blogging!

Off to Ireland this weekend. Will have a look, over the weekend, at what's on next week. I am going to a concert by Colm Wilkinson next Friday - in the University of Limerick concert hall.