Restaurant Review: The China House by Q'BA

As soon as my friend and I entered The China House we looked at each other and shook our heads. This shaking of heads is not a rite of passage. It just meant that both of us could feel it in our bones that the meal would be nothing much to write home about and that we should exit pronto, Sadly our entry had galvanised the staff in the yawningly empty restaurant , lunch time on a working day in Connaught Place, and whereever we looked we saw faces which seemed to be almost beseeching us to be seated. Oh, the burden of being kind hearted !

Interestingly, once we were seated the faces all melted away into nothingness and we were left with  just one, a sort of Jack of all trades. So, he poured water in our glasses, straightened the table cover, handed us the menus, poured us some 'china tea', rushed to answer the phone and rushed back to take our order. I settled for a clear soup ( 135/) and my friend for a Tom Yum ( 160/). The dimsums looked interesting and we ordered a Broccoli and Sesame crytal vegetables dumplings ( 205/) for me  and a garlic chicken dumplings ( 260/) for the friend. Jack ran to, presumably,the kitchen to  tell the same and then hopped back to feed our order into the computer.
The soups was fine and VFM ( value for money). However, the dimsums were a disappointment. The filling in my dimsums seemed to be solely confined to grated cabbage/broccoli with the sesame crystal part seemingly being held back . I didn't really have to ask the friend how her dimsums were. The fact that she ate only one answered any unasked questions.
 

For the main meal we ordered silken  mapo  tofu  with vegetables in spicy chilli sauce (260/), sliced chicken and cashew nuts in ginger chilli sauce ( 336/) and the mandatory rice and noodles. The tofu looked and tasted like nothing tofu has ever tasted before - it looked like the paneer cubes we cut for our  ghar ka matar paneer. The friend had a few bites of her chicken and left the rest. Her verdict was that the chicken didn't taste good. The rice and noodles filled me with nostalgia- they were just what we used to make at home a decade back.

Considering The China House is ' by Q'BA' one would have expected better . Was there any redeeming feature/ Yes. Two things. Firstly, the  dessert-death by chocolate ( 185/).
Secondly, Jack.

Will I go back? You can't see me but I am shaking my head!