In Lille for footie we were in that in-between French eating time of around 5 o’clock. So why not do Chinese? Le Palais du Dragon was completely empty on arrival and not much fuller on the way out.

I’m not sure what your idea of a palace is but this Dragon Palace was less Forbidden City and more student canteen with a bloody great arch stuck in the middle of it. But it was minus two and snowing outside and we weren’t in the mood to quibble about décor. Food is buffet. A word to spread fear in the heart of any genuine food lover unless provided by a reliable (and well budgeted) source. I’d say the PdD is reliable but not luxurious.

There was a lot of sushi which we immediately agreed not to touch, in the interest of being able to attend the lunchtime match the following day. Most of the rest was brown food done various ways. Brown food in sauce, brown food fried, brown food in rice. Actually, it was pretty good as in edible and I managed to get a bit of green on there by ladling on some sloppy seaweed. Various sauces didn’t have the potency of Non but helped it all go down. A Tsingtao washed that down. I can’t remember how much it cost but it wasn’t much.

The highlight of the evening was the arrival of two squaddies complete with large machine guns carried across their chests. In France in these troubled times this wasn’t exactly reassuring. But it turned out they were there to pick up some grub for the boys and girls back at the barracks so we could relax again. After that it was off for hipster ‘fun’, strong beer and a well-earned kip.

5/10

To see where else I’ve been click on the google map below.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=18qCyiPZih_gzhGG8mwfacnNRWD3b0bo&ehbc=2E312F

Food Restaurants Chinese France lille Machine Guns restaurants