chinese food in london

[mongo_jones]

our flat is in westminster, a stone's throw from ma la sichuan, one of london's better reviewed sichuan restaurants--opened by the chef of barshu, apparently. we ate lunch there on arrival on saturday. some things were quite good, some were fine, some were blah. will report in more detail once we've tried more of the menu.

 

yesterday, we had dim sum at joy king lau on leicester st. in chinatown. london dim sum doesn't seem to have the best reputation and chinatown's reputation is even more faded but we thought this was far better than decent. superior to anything in minnesota certainly and would probably be squarely in the middle of the sgv's second division (the more old school places like ocean star and nbc). i wrote this meal up quickly this morning on the blog for those who are interested. our next stop for dim sum--unless i'm guided away/elsewhere--will likely be to royal china on baker st.. will probably combine that with cadenhead's and la fromagerie in a week or so. for now i'm going to get my first lot of cheese from paxton & whitfield and my first lot of whisky from the whisky exchange in covent garden.

[CheeseMonger]

Howdy Mongo,

I don't know if you follow Fuchsia Dunlop on the Facebook, but she's a pretty active poster, and lives in London. Today she made an intriguing post about Sichuan Chef, near the Earls Court Tube station. Report back, please.

[mongo_jones]

Howdy Mongo,

I don't know if you follow Fuchsia Dunlop on the Facebook, but she's a pretty active poster, and lives in London. Today she made an intriguing post about Sichuan Chef, near the Earls Court Tube station. Report back, please.

 

yes, i follow her on twitter. she's been ignoring all my attempts to get specific intel. which confirms her good taste.

[joethefoodie]

 

Howdy Mongo,

I don't know if you follow Fuchsia Dunlop on the Facebook, but she's a pretty active poster, and lives in London. Today she made an intriguing post about Sichuan Chef, near the Earls Court Tube station. Report back, please.

 

yes, i follow her on twitter. she's been ignoring all my attempts to get specific intel. which confirms her good taste.

 

 

Wait'll she comes running to you for whiskey recommendations.

[CheeseMonger]

Hi again,

 

I know this isn't necessarily food related, but thought your erudite self might be interested.

https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/get-down-to-the-hunterian-museum-before-it-closes-its-doors-for-three-years-032917

 

Cheers.

[mongo_jones]

if i wanted to see weird, deformed things i'd do a tour of buckingham palace. thank you! thank you very much!

[balex]

The best dim sum in London by far, in my opinion, is at Min Jiang on top of a hotel on High St Kensington. Excellent xiao long bao.

It's also a bit more salubrious than many of the Chinatown places.

 

You should definitely go to A Wong since it is quite near you if you are in Westminster.

Avoid having the tasting menu as it can be painfully slow.

 

There are a half dozen good Sichuan choices. Bar Shu has gone off a bit.

[balex]

Oh and for high end Chinese I think HKK is the only serious option.

[mongo_jones]

thanks! will look into a.wong soon and we should be in the vicinity of high street kensington regularly for museums and repeat visits to the diana memorial playground, which the boys loved yesterday.

[hollywood]

Meanwhile, at your old stomping grounds. http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/chinese-food-trucks-around-usc-8079018

[johannabanana]

Try the Gold Mine for duck on Queensway. Dim Sum at Royal China on Queensway is usually satisfying, too.

[mongo_jones]

we are scheduled for dim sum at royal china in a few weeks with a couple who hail from scotland and wales.

[IanT]

Largely in agreement with balex. HKK is very good and easily the best Chinese restaurant in town. And I was impressed by the roast duck at Min Jiang.

 

I agree that Bar Shu isn't as consistent as it was, but it's still the best Sichuan in town in my view (including the various places opened by ex-Bar Shu chefs).

 

The various Royal Chinas are good for dim sum and very consistent. We often go to the Canary Wharf branch which is on the river beside the Thames Clipper stop (which adds some extra fun to the meal for our kids, and I suspect yours too).

 

Our other regular for dim sum is Sai Kei in North Greenwich which is a fun scene (it's a 400 cover restaurant - just huge - packed to the brim with multi-generational Chinese-British families. There are often 30 of us in our group when we go and they don't bat an eyelid. Quality wise it's decent but a notch below Royal China in my view so not a destination place. Seeing my little kids wolf down cold chickens' feet and duck tongues gladdens my heart.

 

Chinatown is generally to be avoided but Dumpling King is good for xiao long bao (which you can see made in front of you).

[mongo_jones]

we had lunch at a. wong yesterday and had mixed feelings. this is chinese food passed through the contemporary, cheffy blender and while everything is very interesting on paper and looks very beautiful, the results are mixed. the misses were all in the dim sum end of things--the innovations were either mostly superfluous or let down by poor execution on the traditional base. such, for example, was the har gow with a citrus foam on top. the har gow themselves were less than pedestrian. however, we really liked the few things we got that were not on the dim sum menu. i suppose their strengths may lie in that area.

 

more details (and pictures) on the blog.

 

[Wilfrid]

If you're in Chinatown again, take five minutes to walk up Rupert Street to number 55, gaze up at the third floor, and wonder why they didn't put a blue plaque on the building to say I used to live there.