Chinese
What used to be a pretty terrible burger joint in Angel has been transformed into Summer Dumpling, a cosy restaurant doing excellent hand-made dumplings and noodles. The menu includes a range of boiled and pan-fried dumplings, including prawn & chicken dumpings; beef, cheese & potato potstickers; pork & Chinese cabbage dumplings; black truffle mushroom & bamboo shoot dumplings; and corn & cheese potstickers. The restaurant also includes some quirky touches to its dishes, like adding caviar-topped crisps to its prawn & fish roe dumplings. The dumplings may be the headline event but you don’t want to miss the chilled cucumber salad, sticky rice cakes or the spicy braised beef noodles. With art by local students on the walls, a great soundtrack and a relaxed vibe, it’s one all dumpling lovers need to hit up.
Open until 2am every night, Meeting Noodles does traditional Chinese dishes with chef Zhao Liangming and his team mixing in their own creative twists. The menu is extensive, including noodle, BBQ skewer, dim sum, and congee sections as well as extensive selection of meat and seafood dishes. That means you can get the likes of typhoon shelter lobster, wonton soup, beef tripe with chilli oil, sea bass in black bean sauce, three cup chicken, crab roe and tofu pot, century egg and pork congee, seafood ho fun, and beef brisket lamian noodles late into the night.
Another Dubai import has landed in London. This time it’s the turn of Shanghai Me, which began in Dubai in 2019 and has since opened in Doha too. The London outpost is on the 28th floor of the Park Lane Hilton, previously occupied by Galvin at Windows, so you’ve got some great views as part of the deal. It’s not quite Dubai-level extra but the space has been given a fully glam fit out – think lacquered screens, golden dragon motifs, and huge oversized lanterns. We can recommend going heavy on the dim sum, particularly the black cod dumplings and the crispy prawn cheung fun, as well as the tuna tataki, the Cantonese-style roast duck, and the surprisingly good Milky Cake – a HUGE slab of sponge cake with fruit and banana compote and sesame ice cream. The food was excellent at Shanghai Me – probably better than we were expecting to be honest. Add those views and glitzy interiors and you have a recipe for a fun night out.
You may have already heard of Lanzhou Lamian Noodle Bar, but there’s a new kid on the block serving up Lanzhou cuisine (the block being Central London). Papa Noodle is all about affordable, authentic and halal Lanzhou dishes, though their signature (aptly named ‘Papa Noodle’) is definitely star of the show. Lanzhou, which is the capital of China’s Gansu province, is famous for its hand-pulled noodles and it looks like you’ll find plenty of these at Papa Noodle. Their eponymous dish features freshly pulled noodles in a rich broth, served on a tray alongside beef, radishes, carrots and a tea-infused egg, then finished off with a generous spoonful of chilli oil. This sits next to the other hand-pulled noodle-based dishes on the menu, as well as the likes of garlic chicken wings and roast beef buns.
Given this Noodle and Beer is more central than its Spitalfields sister, the team have not only jazzed up the interiors but they’ve also created a bigger, better, more social media savvy menu that interestingly doesn’t feature one single pork dish. Quite a bolshy move for a Chinatown restaurant. Owner Xiaoxiao Wang, who hails from Sichuan Province, has infused the menu with the riot of spicy flavours that his region of China is known for. But unlike many other Sichuan spots, he’s also added some theatrical gold – literally. The Super King Braised Beef Ribs on blanket noodles is sprayed with gold before the server cuts up the meat with scissors at the table. There’s also a creative mash-up of less trad dishes, inspired by flavours from Wang’s childhood and international influences, like the crispy courgette fries with Persian spices, and chicken nuggets. The Miso & Butter Dry Noodle is worth an order too; the super bouncy, chewy noodles with creamy miso chickpeas, buttery chilli oil, and sweet caramelised cabbage is a welcome respite from the spice. And if you still need to cool off, dive into the beer selection.
Songhelou was first founded in Suzhou, China more than 250 years ago, during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, and now it’s opened its first international branch in Chinatown. The Wardour Street restaurant is showcasing the food of Jiangnan, a region immediately south of the Yangtze River in the south east of China. Suzhou-style noodles are Songhelou’s most famous dish – slim, delicate noodles in a sweet spicy dark broth – served with an array of different toppings, such as sweet and sour squirrel-shaped bass, Suzhou-style braised pork, stir-fried crab meat and roe, sizzling eel slices in oil, and flavoured crayfish.
London’s first Park Hyatt hotel opened up in a new luxury high-rise in Nine Elms in October 2024, together with some interesting restaurants and bars. The key one is a high-end Cantonese restaurant called Yú Gé, helmed by chef Eng Soon Yeo, who spent many years at Hakkasan and was most recently at MiMi Mei Fair. The main (but not the only) reason to come here is for the signature roast Peking duck – a glorious bronzed duck that is carved tableside. You are first given slithers of golden crisp skin to dip in a tiny bit of sugar, before being served beautiful slices of duck, together with fresh pancakes, hoisin sauce, cucumber and onion. It’s exceptional stuff. Then comes the traditional second serving for which you have a choice – stir-fried duck with ginger and spring onion, or stir-fry salt and pepper duck. The supreme dim sum selection, crispy citrus prawns, honey glazed sea bass and double boiled soup are also worth ordering, and there’s a selection of Chinese wines available by the glass, including a Riesling from the Kanaan Winery in Ningxia.
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.
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.
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.
