Monday 10 July 2017

Colindales Oriental City reopens today as Bang Bang Oriental

*** Latest News ***

My dinner
So we know many readers of the blog have been eagerly awaiting the reopening of The Oriental Centre as Bang Bang Oriental. So in the line of duty to the people of the Borough, we wandered up and had a spot of dinner!

The good news is that the food hall is back, with a great selection of different cuisines and a chinese restaurant. The niot so good news is that it is far smaller than it was previously. There is no Asian supermarket, as Morrisons now occupies most of the old site. The complex is next to Morrisons  and parking is in Morrisons car park. A few of the food stalls are not open. There we big queues for the more popular stalls. It is great to have the site back, just a shame that it is not on the same scale as before, but still a good place to nip in for a bite to eat, especially if you all want to try something different.

We ate at Coconut Express. It is a Malaysian stall. I had the Special Noodles. It was tasty and well priced. Clare had a seafood rice dish. She doesn't eat meat so was disappointed to find chicken in it, even though it was not listed on the menu. The food was tasty and fresh. We had to wait around 25 minutes, although they had a beeper system, so we didn't have to sit around. There is a bar to get a beer and a couple of outlets doing green tea and juices. All in all good value, but make sure to check dietry requirements.

Below is the original blog announcing the return.

How it looks now
Many North West Londoners have missed the much loved Oriental Centre and its great food hall, situated on the Edgware Road in Colindale

Opened in 1997 the famed Oriental City was a thriving food destination offering a variety of cuisines.  It also played host to all manner of festivities and was famed for its Chinese New Year celebrations, in the UK only rivalled by Chinatown in the West End. We whiled away many a happy day eating, drinking and participating in events at the centre and afe genuinely very excited at the plans. 

It will open as ‘Bang Bang Oriental Food Hall’, which translates as ‘Good Good Oriental Food Hall’ in Mandarin. The venue, which will be open all day from 11am until 10pm, will be located next to Morrisons and will share the car parking facility. It will celebrate Asia’s vibrant culture with 33 individual kiosks offering an eclectic mix of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Taiwanese and Malaysian cuisine. This sophisticated and affordable food court, seating up to 450 guests, will bring the energy and authentic vibe of an Asian Street Food Market to the area.

There are more details at the Bang Bang Oriental website - 




 At the Barnet Eye we are always pleased to give a big plug for new and exciting businesses that tickle our fancy (note: we don't get paid to place blogs, we do it because its good for our neighbourhood for places like this to succeed, but if they want to give us a free slap up meal, it would be rude to say no! ;) )

1 comment:

Ken Holbrook said...

Oriental City was greatly missed. It had an undeniable cachet that was hard to replace. BANGBANG is now with us. Gone is the Oriental Mall, Shops, & Supermarket, replaced by an up to date upstairs Food Hall, and a downstairs Restaurant.
The Fast Food outlets are strictly Oriental (Japanese/Chinese,incl Hong Kong/Taiwanese,Korean). I did not see Thai (or Filipino which is surprising as there is a very large Filipino population in the surrounding area, so no tasty "Pancit" available).
I liked the electronic disc which indicates that your food is ready.
Portions are smaller than before, but just as tasty!
Two plates of thick noodles, one with Seafood, the other with Beef, plus two large Iced Tea's in their individual iced cooler cam to just over £18.
It's early days, but when all the Food Outlets are operational it will be popular.