Chinese
CANTON BLUE
The Peninsula Hotel finally opened in London in 2023, and with it came a crop of great restaurants, including Claude Bosi’s Brooklands (which quickly won 2 Michelin stars) and the modern Cantonese concept, Canton Blue. It’s a beautifully designed space, peaceful and softly lit, and decorated with Chinese porcelain plates and cups; a central blue porcelain fireplace; and a backlit ceiling panel depicting a celestial navigation map. The dim sum is an absolute must here (and even better when paired with champagne) – the xiao long bao, the steamed crab and cuttlefish dumplings, the baked duck puffs, and the signature steamed lobster dumpling with caviar are all seriously good. We’d also recommend the super soft barbecued pork, glazed with sweet honey sauce; the double boiled chicken soup with cep mushrooms, which had an incredible depth of flavour; the wok fried king prawn with XO sauce; and the braised E-Fu noodles (slightly thicker egg noodles) with Alaskan king crab.
DREAM XI'AN
With Xi’an Impression in Highbury, Master Wei in Bloomsbury and Hammersmith, and now Dream Xi’an in Tower Hill to her name, Guirong Wei has been building a loyal following thanks to her excellent food but she’s hit a whole new level thanks to turn on Netflix’s Chef’s Table. A bigger restaurant means a bigger kitchen, which means Dream Xi’an is able to offer a relatively extensive menu. Hand-pulled noodles are the most famous food from this northwestern Chinese province, where there is a long tradition of producing wheat-based foods. Biangbiang noodles are Guirong’s signature dish and the thick, chewy belt noodles swimming in a chilli sauce really are standout. Forget about making a mess, just dive on in and slurp away. Breads are also common in northern China and the pulled pork ‘burger’, or rou jia mao, showcases the bread-making tradition from Shaanxi, with a dense leavened flatbread bun encasing a rich braised pork filling. The beancurd skins in a yellow bean, chilli oil, sesame oil and vinegar sauce and the smacked cucumbers should also not be missed.
BUN HOUSE DISCO
Z He and Alex Peffly have brought Bun House out of Chinatown and onto Brick Lane, turning a corner site close to Beigel Bake and HOKO into Bun House Disco. The duo have defo got the disco part down – as well as an actual disco ball in one corner, there’s lots of red neon lighting and Canto synthpop on the stereo. Steamed buns may be what Bun House is best known for but here, it’s all the other bits on the menu that you wanna focus on. Go for the juicy prawn wontons in the hot and sour dressing as well as a selection of Cantonese small plates, like the kung pao wings, the mala tater tots (which are extra moreish when topped with satay beef chilli) and the beef tongue crispy bun, essentially a Cantonese slider. The stir-fried cheung fun – rolled noodles with peppers, beansprouts, and an optional addition of chopped lamb – reads as one of the more understated dishes on the menu but all of the parts, particularly the chewy noodles, combine to make it a real scene stealer. There’s a short list of classic cocktails with a Chinese twist, including a chrysanthemum martini, sesame old fashioned and a very punchy pandan negroni, on offer alongside a couple of wines and various hot and cold teas. Bun House Disco has also collaborated with Hackney Brewery, a Drunken Kwun Yum IPA and a Big Head Buddha Lager, both of which have very fun can designs and pair well with the food.
Noodle masterminds Xi’an Biang Biang specialise in food from the Xi’an region of China, including the signature hand-pulled biang biang or belt noodles, which are fantastically chewy and come with laced with chilli oil. Whether you go for the wide ones, the thin ones in broth or the rice ones, you really shouldn’t skip the noodles here (it’s in the name of the restaurant after all) but there are other treats dotted across the menu, including tofu skin salad, smacked cucumbers, cold skin noodles and traditional pork burgers.
With the Shanghai Supper Club at The Royal Oak in Marylebone, Lillian Luk showcases authentic Shanghainese food. The menu changes for every supper club depending on what’s in season but Lillian always cooks the kind of food her grandmother would cook at home and the kind of dianxin, or small eats, you would find on the streets of Shanghai, like drunken chicken, sheng jian bao, whole fish with mustard leaves, Long Jin green tea prawns and red bean paste mooncakes. All the food is served at a communal table for guests to share – just like you’re at a friend’s dinner party.
XI HOME DUMPLINGS BAY
Xi Home Dumplings Bay specialises in northern-style Chinese dumplings from Dalian, the hometown of founder Wenjun Xiang. Having started out at Bang Bang Oriental Food Hall, a Covent Garden restaurant soon followed, and now they have a brand new spot on Blossom Street in Spitalfields. Northern-style Shuijiao (boiled dumplings) are a little thicker than steamed dumplings so they are hearty and filling, rather than delicate and pretty like Cantonese dim sum. At Xi Home Dumplings Bay, they’re made fresh and you can see the chef through the glass window creating the pastry and filling the dumplings before boiling. There’s around 20 to choose from and we can very much recommend the jade lobster dumplings; the pork and pickled Chinese leaves; and the spicy lamb and cumin. You also have to get the giant soup dumpling which comes with a straw to drink the soup from before you tuck in – this is the dish that made the restaurant Insta-famous. Elsewhere, there’s an excellent smacked cucumber salad, seaweed salad, and prawn pan-fried dumplings, as well as a line-up of noodle and rice dishes.
There’s been a pub at this address, tucked down a mews in Marylebone, since 1777 – it’s now known as The Jackalope and it’s still going strong today. The pub has 18 beers, from a mix of big hitters and indie breweries, on tap but the real gem here is to be found downstairs where Chongqing noodle specialist Liu Xiaomian is in residence. With Chongqing xiaomian, wheat noodles in an aromatic broth with toppings like minced pork & chickpea, spicy beef and spicy pig trotter; hot & sour glass noodles; and numbing pork wontons on the menu, it’s food for those of you who like it HOT.
DR NOODLE
This compact spot in New Cross specialises in Sichuan noodle dishes, so prepare for things to get spicy. The beef soup specialty noodles, with tender beef and rice noodles, is one of the signatures but the za jiang noodles and the noodles with braised pork, tomato and egg sauce are also well worth a go. Precede those with some deep fried sausage and an order of tian jin crepes and you’ll leave Dr Noodle in tip top condition.
As you may be able to guess from the name, Tofu Vegan is a plant-based restaurant that’s a celebration of all things tofu, which the team make in-house every day – the menu includes the likes of steamed tofu dumplings, tofu vegetable rolls with hot & sour dressing, deep-fried tofu & mushroom balls, silken tofu in a spicy Sichuan sauce, mapo tofu, and deep-fried tofu skin rolls. But there’s more than just bean curd coming out of the kitchen, with other mock meats like Cantonese sweet & sour ‘chicken’, Peking ‘duck’, sliced ‘fish’ in sizzling chilli oil and stir-fried cumin ‘lamb’ alongside veg-focused dishes like Dongbei sweet potato noodles, king oyster mushrooms in black pepper sauce and hot & fragrant deep-fried asparagus.
SILK ROAD
Located on Camberwell Church Street (now just one door down from its original location) Silk Road is one of the most popular spots in the area. And for good reason as it’s got to be one of the cheapest yet most delicious Chinese restaurants in London. You can spend ages in there with a big group, ordering all the food and drinking all the beers, and it’s somehow impossible to ever spend more than £15 a head. It specialises in food from the Xinjiang region and if you don’t order the smacked cucumber salad, the lamb fat skewers, the big plate chicken and the pork dumplings then you’re doing it all wrong.
YIQI
Given the trend for regional Chinese and Thai restaurants in London in recent years, its ben a while since a new place describing itself as Pan-Asian came along. But that’s what we have with YiQi, a smart new spot on Lisle Street in Chinatown, from business partners Kevin Cheong and Keng Yew, together with Stanley Lum, who was previously at Hakkasan. The menu features his take on favourite handpicked dishes from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and mainland China, and although you might think it’s hard to pull all that off, everything is done very well indeed. Favourites include the Singaporean-style oyster omelette; stir fried clams with tangy kam heong sauce; and winged bean minced chicken fried with Thai basil. As you can imagine, it’s a pretty big menu and there’s loads on there worth a go, including house speciality seafood like skate with yuzu chilli spicy sauce, and bamboo tube rice with seafood curry. Then there’s the intriguing ‘Wagyu Mousse’ for dessert. All in all, YiQi is a great new spot for Chinatown and well worth checking out.
LANZHOU LAMIAN NOODLE BAR
Open until 1.30am during the week and 4.30am on Fridays and Saturdays, this noodle bar is the place to go when you find yourself in need of sustenance (and sanctuary) in Leicester Square. The noodles come la mian (hand-pulled) or dao xiao mian (knife-cut) and you can get them with a variety of toppings like fried pork chop, cold sliced beef, tomato & egg and dan dan sesame & shredded chicken. And if you really need nourishing, you can get them in warming soups too. Don’t get that in Burger King do ya?
7TH CAT
Ellen Chew has built quite the restaurant portfolio (including Chinatown’s Rasa Sayang) and she’s added to her Chew On This collection with Chinese spot 7th Cat inside the Empire Casino in Leicester Square. 7th Cat is all about serving up authentic Asian comfort food right on the gaming floor, meaning you can indulge in Cantonese roast duck, chargilled chicken satay, wonton noodle soup and salted egg golden lava bao buns without having to stray too far from the buzz of the blackjack and roulette tables. And because 7th Cat is inside a casino, you can get food from midday right through to 4am every single day of the week.
If the dumpling cravings strike during a designer shopping trip, the new Dim Sum Terrace at Harrods is the perfect place to go. Taking over one of only two terraces at the department store, the all-day restaurant on the fourth floor has a conservatory area and an outdoor space with awnings – if the weather is good, it’s a lovely sundowner spot with a cocktail in hand. Handmade dumplings and other dim sum dishes are the order of the day, with the likes of pork xiao long bao, turnip cake with XO sauce, duck spring rolls with hoi sin, BBQ pork char siu bao and lava custard buns on the menu. But this is Harrods so, of course, you can expect some extra high-end flourishes, like wagyu & taro croquettes topped with caviar, foie gras on scallop & prawn siu mai, and venison puffs finished with gold leaf. That means the dim sum here will set you back more than you’d pay in Chinatown, so head up to the terrace if you’re ready to splash out.
SAIKEI
If you’re looking for dim sum south of the river, Saikei in Greenwich is the place to go – with room for up to 400 people, you won’t struggle to get a seat in here. It’s all about traditional, authentic food here and the selection is extensive. The dim sum menu includes everything from prawn cheung fun and Shanghai pork buns to rainbow chicken claws and egg tarts, as well rice, noodle and congee dishes. There’s also a large a la carte menu featuring hot pot and BBQ dishes alongside Chinese classics, and if you’re looking to turn your feast into a real occasion, there are karaoke rooms at Saikei too.
LOTUS GARDEN
The main attraction at Lotus Garden is their dim sum menu: a comprehensive list of well-prepared crowd-pleasers at reasonable prices. Head to the corner of Gerrard Street and Macclesfield Street to fill up on neatly sliced cheung fun, tender parcels of xiao long bao and fluffy, sweet char siu bao without breaking the bank. Or, if you fancy something else, you’ll find all your faves on Lotus Garden’s menu, whether you’re craving crispy aromatic duck with pancakes, shredded chilli beef or classic barbequed meats with rice.
The Pleasant Lady Jian Bing Trading Stall has been insta-famous ever since the hatch opened up on Greek Street, and though that hatch is temporarily closed, you can still get your pancake fix at Old Spitalfields Market. Jian bing is a traditional Chinese crepe coated with egg and filled with sweet & savoury sauce, pickles, herbs and meats like char siu pork, cumin lamb and miso chicken, and it’s the perfect street food to eat whilst you mosey around the market.
1+1 ROUGAMO
For authentic Chinese food in Bloomsbury, you can’t go wrong with 1+1 Rougamo. Of course, you’ll be able to grab rougamo here (the clue’s in the name), a popular street food sandwich made with spiced pork – sometimes referred to as a ‘Chinese hamburger’. Go for a classic braised pork rougamo, or choose from the likes of beef, crispy fried duck or vegetables. If that’s not what you’re in the mood for, they’ve also got a range of traditional Xi’anese noodle dishes to choose from – and you don’t wanna miss the dumplings with sour soup.