Good Earth

For people who think that the Chinese around the corner is representative of what my people produce then they’re sorely wrong. If you’re in the Esher /​Walton /​Weybridge area, look absolutely no further than the Good Earth.
The food is exceedingly pricey, running about £15 for a main and £7−10 for a side, this place is not for the usual Chinese takeout or the Friday night piss up. This is posh Chinese at the quality that I’d also have in my birth town. We had the Hunan Lamb which was flavored with a bit of cumin but surprisingly (and nicely so) comes with woodear fungus (edible and good for you) which most places don’t even serve. Service is attentive and impeccable.
Yes it’s pricey and serving sizes are smaller than I would have expected but it’s like going to what would be a French haute cuisine restaurant. Chinese isn’t and doesn’t always have to mean cheap and oily. It can be delicious, healthy and fine. 5* :-)

High quality Chinese food served in a beautiful restaurant by friendly and knowledgable waiting staff. Excellent vegetarian selection and good wine menu too.

I think this place does such fast business by charging such high prices, really, it just doesn’t make sense. After eating here several times I don’t see what the fuss is about. The food is fine but super overpriced, and if you go for the ‘lunch special meal’ prepare to leave hungry as what they cut in price they also cut in portion. Also not very children friendly in attitude overall.

Lovely food. One of the better chinese’ I have been to although the price is not as friendly. It is more expensive but the food is of a higher quality to other Chinese restaurants.
Always very busy as it is popular with locals. Really like the larger tables and the spinning centres — always enjoyable for me. Fish ordered by my dad was really tasty and meat dishes the rest of my family had were of a really food quality.
Staff were attentive and very friendly.

Perhaps I should have written this review a few weeks ago, when adjectives were just beginning to ripen and fresh words were in season.
However, then my mind was elsewhere savouring the sweet delights of sea urchin trickling down my throat, its soft velvet texture seducing me and hypnotising me into a state of utter contentment that I had banished from my mind the hijacking my mouth had received from badly cooked soft shell crab one dark winters night.
How might you ask were my taste buds so violated and why now after such a delay complain.
I am writing now because in truth the memory never really goes away. it lingers and festers like the carrots and lettuce that might be fermenting in your fridge.
So two weeks ago on Saturday, I was going to go to Maru (see other review), but I had not booked, and I was not in the frame of mind to search my stock of recipes and create my own delight. okay I had no food which is a slight draw back.
I was not bothered and headed for a restaurant that I have frequented for many years, and I hasten to add, I do not deny the greeting is always warm and amicable even if they are still unaccustomed to seeing a monkey walking into their establishment.
Now the Good Earth, is expensive, and lavishly decorated and I have had many pleasurable experience eating there… but in my view the Good Earth has lost its fertile soil.
I noticed about a year ago they had changed their menu, it had become boring and dreary. it had lost its magic.
All to often I find this in restaurants, they build up a reputation then get complacent. I will point out that I was not eating in but had decided to have a takeaway.
Now for me the quality of the take away should be no different to the food that you would eat should you decide to dine at the premises. In fact I would counter that it should be better, as it is the restaurants objective to entice you to eat at the establishment. Maybe that is a naïve approach, it is possible they can not put the energy or time into it .The Good Earth is not the only restaurant I have encountered where there is a difference in quality between take away and dining in.
However considering the prices are exactly the same and as I mentioned it is an expensive place, that should not enter the equation.
It was not only the Soft Shell Crab that rendered my stomach in a state of discontent but that the order was not correct and the menu appeared to have changed yet again.
I ordered Tempora Trio, now this use to be a mixture of prawns and vegetables, but when I opened the box in eagerness this was not the case. It was deep fried pumpkin and onion… now I love deep fried pumpkin but at the price they were charging something a bit more exciting would have been appreciated to accompany it, even if they were not doing prawns anymore.
I followed this with barbecue spare ribs, which are normally sweet and succulent and it part of the experience allowing the sticky mess to drip on your fingers and then miraculously it meanders across your face like some tribal war paint.
On this occasion I was deprived of that pleasure, of tasting the tenderness of the pork and supping the juices as if it were a fine wine. instead it appeared as if a few ingredients from a bottle had been hastily thrown together. The pork was not tender but dry as if it had been walking in a desert looking for an oasis .
Then finally I come to the most delightful of delicacies, deep fried soft shell crab. .this is already tender and unctuous it does not need to be cooked for a lengthy period or resemble been cremated by a flame thrower or so shrivelled that it could pass for an old lady that has used too much moisturiser cream… I should have noticed that the chilli did not glisten and sparkle or pout proclaiming itself hotter and spicier than any glamour model. The fire had long since been extinguished and there was to be no hot tempo pulsating in my mouth.
Hesitantly, I introduced a piece of this cuisine to an expert for an appraisal, and as I took one bite. my tongue recoiled in horror. How dare you it proclaimed, for we had built a lasting and close relationship .we had an unspoken bond.
It was with regret that i did not complete the meal and it is now part of a recycling process.
I sincerely hope that the Good Earth will return for me to its former glory but it seems to me the Earth needs to be ploughed and farrowed and the weeds and rot removed. Replenish and fertilised with miracle grow.
In the mean time my memory goes to a Chinese restaurant I visited in Borneo… where I tasted a thousand year old egg… it was presented in a simple way, the white of the egg had under gone a metamorphosis
it was now gelatinous but sparkled like an amber jewel, beautifully translucent .and in it centre the egg now dull and grey but not to taste. Drizzling and glistening upon it was the most fragrant of sauces with just a trace of chilli to tease.
Yes this is how food should be exciting adventurous

Have you ever been for a posh Chinese? The two words aren’t usually synonymous — unfortunately, going for a Chinese now involves a trip down a shop that resembles a kebab shop, only with noodles instead.
The Good Earth is an old school restaurant — beautifully designed inside, with plenty of large round tables, and my favourite, those round turning slabs on top of the tables which means that that I, err, I mean everyone, can try some of each others dishes. There is a bar to one side where dressed up ladies and gentlemen of Esher discuss property prices and where they are skiing this year (I presume).
Inside the main restaurant, I would advise ordering as much as you could possibly fit. The portions are are good size, but the food is considerably more expensive then in your average Chinese, but the price difference is worth it. You will recognise a lot of the dishes, it’s just they are done with more flavour and spice than other places (but with no MSG). Look out for plenty of fish dishes that you wouldn’t normally find, such as sea bass, Dover sole and monkfish.
I wouldn’t go out of your way to make room for dessert, as with most Chinese restaurants, the puddings are not a high point. Perhaps have another drink at the bar to finish your meal. Have one for me!