Chinese New Year Dinner Review – The Gantry Union Social
The Gantry Hotel is Stratford’s new eating and drinking destination having just opened in November 2021. It boasts an artisanal food market with integrated café, a dedicated sparkling bar, and an 18th floor sky bar. And, on the 1st floor of The Gantry you will find their main dining spot, Union Social, an all-day restaurant. On 1st February The Gantry hosted a special Chinese New Year dinner in partnership with luxury sparkling tea brand Saicho.
Welcoming the Year of the Tiger, a bespoke menu was created to pair with Saicho’s newest and most exclusive tea. From the Guangdong province in China, the tea pays homage to the legendary myth of the Eight Immortals. Revered in Chinese art and literature spanning back to the Ming dynasty, lends itself perfectly to Lunar New Year toasts. Eight Immortals is served chilled in a Champagne glass, with aromas of nectarine, ginger, sweet baking spices, and confit peach.
CHINESE NEW YEAR MENU
I was invited to The Gantry to try out the special Union Social Chinese New Year and I took my housemate Tania. The customised menu had four scrumptious starter options, three mouth-watering mains and three delectable desserts. To start we chose the Hubei Sticky Rice Pearl Pork Meatballs and Home-made Steamed Chicken Dumplings. The four meatballs were served atop a slice of carrot and the five dumplings came with a house dip. Both dishes were perfectly plated and just the right portion size, and they were delicious.
For the main course I chose the braised duck leg in lihing mui salty dried sour plum sauce. Tania went for the Ginger scallion seabass, steamed in banana leaf with chiyan lake salt and Szechuan pepper. Both were served with steamed rice and bok choi and I would happily live off that duck dish for life. The duck fell off the bone and was honestly one of the best dishes I’ve eaten in a good while. The only complaint I had was that I would have loved some additional sauce as it was so tasty.
For dessert Tania went for The Gantry nian gao, homemade sweet rice and red beans lunar new year cake. And I selected the Tiger Tangerine Chalice, grand citrus jelly, hot stone dried mango and sweet lotus seeds. Every plate was beautifully served but the Tiger Tangerine Chalice looked the best with the bright colours. The mix of flavours and textures were an interesting but overall tasty combination. The new year cake was not to my personal taste, but Tania really enjoyed the dish.
SAICHO EIGHT IMMORTALS
During the meal we were able to try Saicho’s Eight Immortals, the first tea in their new Rare Tea Collection. The brewing process starts with cold brewing the tea leaves for 24 hours to extract the delicate aromatics. This avoids over-extracting the bitter and astringent compounds, to produce a clean, crisp, and complex flavour profile. The drink is then delicately sparkled to enhance the natural aromatic of the tea. A sophisticated sparkling tea, Eight Immortals allow non-alcoholic drinkers to have a more refined and premium offering.
As a non-tea drinker, I was intrigued by the concept of Eight Immortals and was looking forward to trying it. The flavour of peach and ginger were prominent for me, and the tea flavouring was more of an after taste. It was an interesting combination, but I did find the tea flavour more obvious than Tania. But for someone who’d never normally opt for a cup of tea I’d happily have another glass of Saicho’s Eight Immortals. Overall, it was an appetising drink and would be a good non-alcoholic alternative to have with food.
I would definitely recommend taking a trip to Stratford to try out The Gantry and their restaurant Union Social. The chefs are extremely skilled and created stunning dishes filled with lots of flavour and that looked exquisite. The staff are friendly, welcoming, and happy to help with any questions that you have about the menu. We will definitely be returning to Union Social in the future to try out their regular menu. And if you are looking to try out Saicho’s Eight Immortals you can purchase from www.saichodrinks.com/shop.
