Shikumen Express @ Tokia Square

Well I’ve made it to review number 2, which ends up being Shikumen Express @ Tokia Square.

The story of Croydon’s demise is a familiar one.

It isn’t too difficult to find a pub or restaurant which has closed down – even easier to find a closed down retail premises thanks to the “efforts” of Umbargo-Unitail-Hammerson-HammerTime-Rebargo-Westfield or whatever they are called this week.

And, of course, if you head into various spaces on social media you’ll find a Croydon that not only has no shops at all, but is some kind of hellscape on earth, roamed by foreign bandits waving machetes in every direction.

Yet, back in reality, we apparently can still have nice things. New things too.

Nokia Blurred

Tokia Square has been “opening” for even longer than the home store next to the entrance to the Whitgift Centre was “closing down”.

Despite no real evidence on the outside of Grants that Tokia Square was anything other than “coming soon”, once I made it upstairs and persuaded the security that my bottle of water really was a bottle of water and actually keeping rehydrated in 30’C days is a useful idea, I found a rather busy hall.

And on a Wednesday evening.

Look, Westfield – Croydon can have nice, (delayed) new shiny things.

I deigned to photograph the inside for some reason (not massively a fan of photographing people without their consent and I wasn’t going to ask 100 people) so forgive the lack of photos from inside, but it was like any other market halls – benches and tables with the intention of communal dining, though there is sufficient tables that likely you can have your own.

It’s actually quite tastefully done, solid oak furniture, a sprinkling of fake flowers on the ceiling, with all the food vendors around the edge, and a scattering of what seems to be microwaving vending machines…maybe someone else can clarify.

Tasteful, until you see…

Carlsberg? Has it taken so long to open Tokia Square that they signed a deal back when people drank Carlsberg, circa 1990?

Granted they did have a Stonewall IPA which is passable, and at £6.30 isn’t priced too bad either.

A Digital Glare

So as someone with difficulties around choice paralysis, going somewhere with 10 or so different food vendors, each with around 50 options on their menu, is a slightly overwhelming opporunity.

There was only one beer I could choose. There were about 500 food options I could choose.

Vendors are all Asian at Tokia Square, and ranged from Thai, various styles of Chinese, Korean, Indian (biryani), sushi…and some others I forgot.

The place I chose was Shikumen Express, which is apparently Shanghainese. A quick blast on Google’s AI tells me this is “is a style of cooking that originated in Shanghai, China”. No shit.

Had I read Wikipedia beforehand, then I might have chosen Lion’s Head as this is actually mentioned on the Wikipedia page as being Shanghainese cuisine, unlike the two things I chose. But what am I to know?

Before I go much further, I shall admit that I’ve had limited exposure to Chinese food in my lifetime. So I can tell you what I enjoyed (and didn’t), but I have little context to compare it to.

Fragrant Flair

I felt like I should order more than one dish, so all this introductory guff is actually worth reading when it comes to describing the food, so I ended up ordering the Peking Duck buns, with vegetarian spring rolls, which came just short of £20.00.

In fact, had I spent £20.00 instead of £19.93, I would have got some free Peking Duck buns. Which I wouldn’t have wanted anyway. Strange deal, at least from a single person’s perspective.

So in terms of the Peking duck buns, they were slightly overloaded and everything just spilled out – all of the duck ended up hanging out of my mouth in one attempt at a bite. And no, I wasn’t using the chopsticks.

Taking the lettuce out helped – the lettuce was fresh with quite a bit of the plum (ish) sauce on.

Also inside the buns was a slice of butter, which felt unusual. Maybe it’s the done thing in Shanghai.

The buns themselves were pillowy, the duck reasonably tender. As a whole, the Peking duck buns were a little messy, with some contrasting flavours and oddness – quite enjoyable.

The vegetarian spring rolls really, really needed some kind of dip. The pastry itself was fresh and flaky, the vegetable filling just ordinary kind of vegetable fillings like cabbage, etc. I didn’t dislike them, but also I didn’t feel the need to eat all 4 of them.

Tokia Square. I Shall Be Back.

If I sound a little underwhelmed and uncertain, that sounds about right.

I quite enjoyed what I ate yet I’m not sure I’d eat at Shikumen Express again. As I mentioned earlier, Chinese food isn’t my strong point so I’ve little concept on how good this was. Though the main reason I wouldn’t go back is that there are 9 (ish) other places in Tokia Square to try. It isn’t a failing on Shikumen Express…I just want to try other places.

And maybe the chicken feet, from whichever place I found it.

Maybe it’s worth a rating of 7 out of 10, but I hesitate to score due to my lack of knowledge – so maybe consider this more an enjoyment rating. Also worth mentioning that the guy serving was friendly, spoke good English and seemed happy to be there – which is always nice.

I’d very much be interested in what people with more experience of Shanghainese food think of Shikumen Express.

Tokia Square itself is surprisingly good addition to the food scene in Croydon, it seems to have found its market despite little advertising, bar “opening soon” for the last decade or so.

There is also some suggestion on their website of “events”, so maybe there is more fun to be had.

So Croydon can have nice new shiny things. And who knows, maybe The Glamorgan might even re-open as a local Indian restaurant one day…heck, maybe a shop might even open in the town centre before the end of the decade.