“ It may have been the first place in London (Britain, even) serving deep fried duck in pancakes as a sort of ersatz Beijing duck. It was certainly the first place I ever had it - and my goodness how it caught on!!!”
— Simon Napier Bell, Music Producer
“It was so surprising to find some of the best Chinese food in Britain in what was then quite a run down corner of London.”
— Simon Napier Bell, Music Producer
“But in the mid-sixties a new one came along that bucked the trend. The chef from the Chinese embassy had defected, claimed political asylum and opened Kuo Yuan in Willesden at premises that had been a workmen’s café. And he didn’t even bother to redecorate.
It was the first place in Britain to serve Peking duck so people flocked to it. They couldn’t book - it took three months to get a phone line installed and the owner couldn’t wait - neither did it have a licence to serve alcohol, you had to bring your own. ”
— Simon Napier Bell, Music Producer
“And there was absolutely no A-listing. I was standing in the queue with friends one night when Princess Margaret and Tony Armstrong- Jones arrived clasping a bottle of wine. They stood meekly, if briefly, at the back of a line of twenty people before the owner came rushing out to take them inside. Another night the prime minister turned up – Harold Wilson. He refused to queue and sulked in the back of his car till a table was ready.”
