Chinese
Not content with opening wonton noodle soup bar Wonton Charlie’s in the arches by London Fields station, hospo group 6 of 1 opened modern Cantonese kitchen Cafe Kowloon just behind it. The team is took inspiration from Hong Kong’s dai pai dong vendors, dim sum houses, and cocktail bars to create a contemporary spin on the city’s rich food culture. That means dishes like grilled curry fish ball skewers; steamed scallops with glass noodles and XO; beef tendons served two ways; wok-fried monkey head cheung fun in shiitake XO; prawn toast with crispy prawn heads, spring onion sauce and Hong Kong chilli oil; smoked half chicken with spring onion and ginger oil; Iberico secreto char siu with bitter leaf and grapefruit salad; and Hong Kong French toast with peanut butter crème pâtissière, condensed milk and roasted peanut powder.
San Hao, from the team behind YiQi, The Eight and Dozo, is a noodle and dumpling spot that uses British ingredients to create its innovative dishes. Our favourite was the Golden Roe Chilli Crab dry noodles, but there are also some excellent Sheng Jian Bao (pan-fried dumplings) and great small plates, including the spicy mala crispy sardines. If you’re feeling really adventurous, there are foie gras noodles, and the desserts – Hojicha Crumble and Milk Oolong Caramel Egg – are worth a punt too.
Uncle Roger, aka Nigel NG, has built a 5-million-strong following for roasting people’s (including Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay) fried rice dishes, and now he’s showing us how it should be done by opening his own restaurant. Nigel already has experience in the restaurant biz – he has a number of branches of FUIYOH! It’s Uncle Roger in Malaysia – but Kawan is first UK opening, and he’s teamed up with Keng Yew (co-founder of YiQi, San Hao, Dozo and The Eight) and Executive Chef Daren Liew (Nanyang Blossom, San Hao, Duddels and Hakkasan Group) to bring it to life. The 60-cover spot in Chinatown is relaxed and informal, and the pan-Asian menu follows a similar vibe. Rather than focusing on regional authenticity, the food showcases Asian techniques and flavours adapted for British produce and tastes, with dishes like Sarawak Pepper Belly Delight; Chinatown Fried Rice; Hainanese Chicken Chop; Crispy Puff Chicken Wellington; and Wasabi Boom Boom Sausage.
Banquet 88 is a new Cantonese restaurant from the guys behind Good Fortune Club (in Wimbledon and Ealing) and Tao Tao Ju (in Chinatown). Located in St Katharine Docks, the restaurant is a big space, and like the space, the menu is massive – a good chunk of which is dim sum, available around the clock, 7 days a week. That alone is reason enough to visit. There are 2.5 pages of steamed, fried, classic, and a few fun twists. Highlights include the classic pork xiao long bao (some of the best we’ve had in London); fun spins on familiar buns like XO duck or crab roe fried buns; and a whole section of cheung fun. Go for the Three Treasure option – three rolls filled with prawns, wagyu and char siu pork – plus the pink prawn with crispy red rice skin. There are nice teas, Chinese beers and some traditional wines alongside Chinese wines that also come by the glass.
Kirin brings Chinese dining to the City, just off Mansion House, with a menu rooted in Cantonese cooking but sharpened up with a few modern flavour combos. Seafood is a big focus, alongside hand-made dim sum and roast meats – their Peking duck is one of our favourites in London. There are also private dining rooms and karaoke suites downstairs, making it a solid shout for birthdays, work dinners and any occasion that calls for more than just dinner and drinks.
Beginning as Hong Kong milk tea specialists popping up at various markets and festivals across London, HOKO opened a cha chaan teng on Brick Lane in 2023, serving char siu rice, pork chop buns, French toast and other HK diner dishes. The team then did a wonton pop-up at Wun’s Tea Room & Bar in Soho in 2024 and it was such a success that it’s now come back as a permanent concept. HOKO Wonton Noodles is on the basement level of Seven Dials Market, spotlighting authentic HK wonton noodles. There’s two types of hand-wrapped wontons made fresh daily – prawn & pork and tofu & king oyster mushroom – which you can get with soup, noodles and a side of broth (made with dried flounder from Macau), or with house-made chilli oil. If you don’t fancy wontons, there’s also Cantonese braised beef brisket and tendon on offer, alongside classic Hong Kong drinks like milk tea, iced lemon tea, and red bean ice.
Opened in 2011, Tao Tao Ju has become a firm Chinatown fave, thanks to its modern approach to Cantonese food that’s inspired by traditions of home-style cooking. The restaurant has an extensive dim sum selection, which is all handmade daily by the resident dim sum experts (so nothing is frozen) and is steamed fresh to order. The pork and prawn siu mai, the xiao long bao, the prawn and bean curd skin cheung fun, the fried turnip paste with XO sauce, and the custard buns are highlights but you can’t really go wrong here.
18-seater walk-in spot Wonton Charlie’s in London Fields (run by the 6 of 1 group that also has Mr Bao, Daddy Bao, Good Measure and Master Bao) is all about Cantonese comfort food dish wonton noodle soup. Egg noodles are made fresh every day, flavourful chicken and fish broths are made in-house, and wontons are hand-wrapped using homemade skins. The wontons come in three varieties – pork-filled fish skin (a HK specialty where fish is used in the wrapper dough), prawn, and classic pork. You can have them with noodles in chicken or fish broth, or lo mein-style, with noodles tossed in a soy, ginger and garlic dressing, with fish balls available as an optional add-on. You can pair your bowls with crispy fish skins, fresh sour plum tea, free hot tea and local beers.
Super Bowl Noodle in Fitzrovia is an ideal casual dinner spot. After opening in 2025, the bar has become known for its range of hand-pulled noodle dishes and meat skewers. Diners have the freedom to choose their preferred thickness of noodles, and whether to have them dry or in a rich soup. Be sure to get some classic dim sum and dumplings to go on the side.
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.
