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Restaurants In Birmingham 1960s

So what was the Chinese restaurant open in 1958 either in Station Street or very close by?

Maurice :cool:
 
Hi

I remember visiting the Kam Ling in around 1961-1963 with some workmates
when I worked in Newhall Street, but like Roger Baker I just recollect where it was.

Kind regards
Dave
good and am sure you must have enjoyed te meals. What was your usual dining meals. They were good in curry
 
My friend and I ate at the Kam Ling restaurant after shopping for clothes etc., on a Saturday morning during the 1950's and I think Kam Ling restaurant was the first Chinese restaurant in Birmingham (I daresay someone will correct me if I am wrong!).
Anthea
I would said it was the one of the first sit down restaurant first owned by a Chinese family and in theearly 1970's sold to the Indian Family and closed in late 1990
 
That was called The Happy Gathering. I used it regularly in the 60's.
Would you believe that the original Chinese restaurant never had curry on the menu until through circumstances coping to compete with Indian Restaurant and demand from those who had lived in the Far East like India and Singapore. Today a good and real typical Chinese restaurant in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia do not carry much curry dishes as spics were not part of Chinese menus
 
The first Chinese restaurant I knew of was one at the end of Sutton New Road, Erdington. It was in that block of shops between Wilton Road and Station Road, by the church. It was there for years.
 
I think I knew that restaurant as the owner was someone that came in from Hong Kong after working a few years with relatives who got them over. The owner went to open another - The Slow Boat - close to the Chinese quarters at Hagley Road
 
In the 1974, I was studying in Birmingham and was a working waiter at Kam Ling over the weekend. At that time the restaurant was owned by two Indian brothers and the Chef was a Chinese. The restaurant no longer exist and I wonder anyone can still remembered patronizing the place as I am writing about that time in Birmingham
The Kam Ling was my favourite restaurant and our scooter club The Birmingham Cerubs used it quite often in the late 50s early 60s. My last meal out was there in June 1961, it was a suprise the club sprung on me when I left for Australia. Cheers Tim. Ps always ended my meals there with Lychees and icecream.
 
The Kam Ling was my favourite restaurant and our scooter club The Birmingham Cerubs used it quite often in the late 50s early 60s. My last meal out was there in June 1961, it was a suprise the club sprung on me when I left for Australia. Cheers Tim. Ps always ended my meals there with Lychees and icecream.
Thank You Sir, I am sure that taste of Lychee still lingers in your memory taste. Just to share a humor with you that that was the dessert that the restaurant loved to sell as that makes the best return of profit. Today a good restaurant would try to get fresh Lychees. Hahahah
 
My apologies to the mods as this is very slightly off topic, but when I was a musician, my trio plus a lady vocalist regularly appeared at a popular Chinese restaurant in Bournemouth in the late 1960s/early 70s. We had access to the basement, used for storing food, so that we could leave our gear if we were appearing on two consecutive nights.

I was amazed at how much of the food came in large tins as opposed to being freshly made. However, it tasted very good and we always got a free meal in our interval, and it was an enjoyable job.

Tsing Shih, is this a normal practice still in the majority of ordinary Chinese restaurants? I'm ignoring the ones in the West End of London, which probably have easier access to fresh produce and charge prices to match!

Maurice :cool:
 
My apologies to the mods as this is very slightly off topic, but when I was a musician, my trio plus a lady vocalist regularly appeared at a popular Chinese restaurant in Bournemouth in the late 1960s/early 70s. We had access to the basement, used for storing food, so that we could leave our gear if we were appearing on two consecutive nights.

I was amazed at how much of the food came in large tins as opposed to being freshly made. However, it tasted very good and we always got a free meal in our interval, and it was an enjoyable job.

Tsing Shih, is this a normal practice still in the majority of ordinary Chinese restaurants? I'm ignoring the ones in the West End of London, which probably have easier access to fresh produce and charge prices to match!

Maurice :cool:
Sir,

Good Point! One must study how Chinese restaurants emerges in England especially in smaller cities those days. Unlike the prime restaurants, they cooked a lot of food from canned goods as most cooks are really cooks by needs as a job when they immigrate to England. They cooked as how they eat and canned goods was cheap to improvise the taste along with much large dosage of MSG ( mono sodium glusomate ) that any enjoys but was not good for health. Some do not know as how to do a BBQ meats and they will buy off from other shops that could. Chinese food was much more filling and cheap then.

What distinguish a good dosage of good Chinese food was what the heat that ones cooked with the wok to get that slight burnt element that added the good flavored

Today, one cannot do that anymore to cook from canned food if one wants to get a good menu priced. Also more Chinese raw materials are much available now all over

Last year I sold a restaurant off that I build up on good patronage from quality food that came off from the recipes of my Grandmother. I am looking to start another but not certain of theme or taste

I hope you still enjoy a good meal of the Chinese cuisine
 
Can any of you more mature people out there :lol: remember the name of any restaurants in Brum during the 60s , any type of food English, Chinese Indian etc many thanks Pam.
I remember the Chinese restaurant called the Green Dragon on the corner of James Watt St and Corparation St.
 
Tsing Shih,

For the last15 years I have lived on the island of Crete, so I don't have the variety of Chinese or Indian restaurants as exist in the larger UK cities. Our nearest one is in Aghios Nikolas in north eastern Crete and has changed hands many times through various Chinese families and the quality is quite goods and all the families have been very friendly. Further westward in the resort of Malia, the Indian & Chinese dishes are to be had from a restaurant that is owned by a Pakistani family, but he manages to cover both national menus and produce good food. But in general most Greeks prefer a Mediterranean diet and the customers are mainly local British and foreign tourists in the summer.

Aghios Nikolaos has quite a number of Chinese-owned clothing shops, but that hasn't tempted the majority of Greeks to try Chinese food.

Maurice :cool:
 
I and a friend ate at the Kam Ling restaurant in Livery Street when it first opened in the 1950's for a treat after we had been shopping for clothes (as girls do)...I loved Lychees (spelling?) for dessert.
Anthea
 
I and a friend ate at the Kam Ling restaurant in Livery Street when it first opened in the 1950's for a treat after we had been shopping for clothes (as girls do)...I loved Lychees (spelling?) for dessert.
Anthea
We may have passed each other, were you the brunette in the yellow mini dress ?
 
Ran into this post and did some search online.The archive photos and video clips below may jog your memories.

Kam Ling on Livery Street.jpg
(Kam Ling 金陵樓 on Livery Street)

Lieng Nam on Station Street.jpg
(Lieng Nam 嶺南樓 on Station Street)

A video clip of television news (ATV Today 12 Jan 1960)

A video clip of television news (Midlands News 17 Feb 1965)

Another information about Chinese restaurants in the city found in a youtube video called "British Chinese Heritage Project" presented by Birmingham Chinese Community Centre (from 00:18 to 00:22)
 
Thanks for the pictures, Andrew, I must have a wade through the old directories to see if I can get my head around this!

Maurice :cool:
 
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