Chinese
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1+1 ROUGAMO
- Monday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
- Tuesday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
- Wednesday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
- Thursday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
- Friday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
- Saturday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
- Sunday: 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
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.
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MA LA SICHUAN
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 2:30 PM, 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 2:30 PM, 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 2:30 PM, 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 2:30 PM, 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 10:30 PM
- Sunday: 4:00 – 10:00 PM
Sleek Westminster restaurant Ma La Sichuan’s extensive menu features plenty of Chinese classics but the real draw here are the Sichuan specialties, which showcase the famous numbing heat as well as the more complex flavours of fermented spiciness, spicy and sour, and spicy and sweet. Dive in with fragrant sea bass in sizzling chilli oil, chao shou dumplings, soft shell crab with chopped red chillies, spicy pig’s ear in Sichuan oil, imperial Gongbao chicken, ma po tofu, and fish fragrant aubergines.
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NOBLE PALACE
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:30 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:30 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:30 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:30 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:30 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 9:00 PM
At Noble Palace, just a stone’s throw from St James’s Park, the chefs draw on recipes and flavours from eight of China’s culinary regions for the food offering, while taking inspiration from the food once enjoyed by the Emperors of China’s final imperial Qing dynasty. And the menu is suitably luxe with dishes including braised Scottish lobster with udon, stir fried wagyu beef, and three different Peking duck dishes (one with Beluga caviar, one stuffed with abalone and one served with black truffle pancakes). BALLER. And over at the Mi (meaning ‘mystery’) Bar, you can choose your drinks based on… vibes. The cocktail list is filled with pictures designed to evoke feelings and emotions that are associated with tastes, and once you’ve settled on your mood/flavour profile, you’ll be served a cocktail to match.
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FOOD HOUSE
- Monday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
Previously the site of Harbour City, Food House is in a prime Chinatown position (it’s pretty much the first thing you’ll see if you turn off of Shaftesbury Avenue onto Gerrard Street). It’s buzzy and authentic, advertising itself as a way to “experience the real Beijing without flying to Beijing”. And this place is the real deal – classic without being too old school. In fact, in 2022 Eater mused that this may be the “hippest” restaurant in central London.
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OLD TOWN 97
- Monday: 12:00 PM – 3:30 AM
- Tuesday: 12:00 PM – 3:30 AM
- Wednesday: 12:00 PM – 3:30 AM
- Thursday: 12:00 PM – 3:30 AM
- Friday: 12:00 PM – 3:30 AM
- Saturday: 12:00 PM – 3:30 AM
- Sunday: 12:00 PM – 3:30 AM
With a name that pays tribute to the year that Hong Kong was handed back to China from the UK, Old Town 97 is a small restaurant serving up Cantonese classics alongside a range of South East Asian dishes. Apparently, there’s a secret menu item here called ‘LSE fried rice’ which, as urban legend has it, was created by LSE students as the ideal sobering-up meal. Incidentally, this spot is open until 3.30 am – if you’re a late-night Chinese food fan, this one’s for you.
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JINLI
- Monday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
Jinli has been raking in the awards since opening in 2015, so if you’re after Sichuan food, this one’s a solid choice. From dry pots to hot pots, the menu here is stacked with Sichuanese classics and all the mouth-numbing spice you can handle. The whole seabass is a particularly impressive dish, served in a pot of chilli oil, black bean sauce, ginger and spring onions.
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FOUR SEASONS
- Monday: 12:00 – 10:45 PM
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 10:45 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 9:45 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 10:45 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 10:45 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 10:45 PM
- Sunday: 11:00 AM – 9:45 PM
If you’re a fan of Chinese roast duck, here’s where to get it. In fact, Four Seasons’ roast duck has been rated the world’s best by the Financial Times. Apparently, the ducks, which are reared at the prestigious Silver Hill Farm in Ireland, are played soft music which relaxes them and makes their meat more tender. Stress-free ducks, while their speciality, isn’t all that’s on offer here though, there’s plenty more on offer from the extensive, seasonally changing menu.
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CAFE TPT
- Monday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Saturday: 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
A small and unassuming spot on Wardour Street, Cafe TPT is a solid choice if you’re after some Chinese roast meats. Choose from duck, honey-roasted pork, crispy pork and soya chicken, or get a mix of two or three over rice. Otherwise, there are plenty of classics on the thorough menu – and you’ll find that most of them won’t set you back more than a tenner.
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PLUM VALLEY
- Monday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Saturday: 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 10:30 PM
A long-standing restaurant in Chinatown, Plum Valley has been passed down through generations of the same family since the 80s. The menu is full of Cantonese and Sichuan classics, as well as a selection of hand-crafted dim sum. The name hints at an old Chinese fable which tells the story of a utopian village away from the chaos of the outside world. This is the energy Plum Valley wants to replicate, providing a tranquil escape from Chinatown’s thoroughfare, Gerrard Street.
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DUMPLINGS' LEGEND
- Monday: 11:30 AM – 11:00 PM
- Tuesday: 11:30 AM – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 11:30 AM – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 11:30 AM – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 11:30 AM – 3:00 AM
- Saturday: 11:30 AM – 3:00 AM
- Sunday: 11:30 AM – 10:00 PM
A favourite haunt of dumpling lovers, Dumplings’ Legend has an extensive list of classic dim sum, with some signatures mixed in there as well. They’re credited as being the first to put spicy pork and spicy crayfish into xiaolongbao, but if you don’t fancy trying those, you can choose from their list of 47 dim sum variations instead. All of Dumplings’ Legend’s dumplings are made fresh in their open-plan, glass-walled kitchen, so you can watch the action yourself – they apparently get through about 8000 a day.
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WONG KEI
- Monday: 11:30 AM – 11:30 PM
- Tuesday: 11:30 AM – 11:30 PM
- Wednesday: 11:30 AM – 11:30 PM
- Thursday: 11:30 AM – 11:30 PM
- Friday: 11:30 AM – 11:30 PM
- Saturday: 11:30 AM – 11:30 PM
- Sunday: 11:30 AM – 10:30 PM
Another of Chinatown’s enduring establishments, Wong Kei has been around for decades and was long-renowned as being one of the city’s rudest restaurants. Before 2014, you’d go to Wong Kei to be shouted at and line your stomach for a night out in Soho. Since then, new management has taken over and apparently purged Wong Kei of its rude creds, but you can still drop by for quick, cheap and reliable Chinese food.
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BUN HOUSE
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 10:30 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 10:30 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 9:30 PM
Get your steamed bun fix at Bun House, where Cantonese buns are very much the focus, with street food snacks and rice pots bulking out the menu. Eating here is more of a quick in-and-out job rather than somewhere you’d linger over a meal. After ordering at the counter, which is laden with those bamboo baskets, you collect your food and grab a seat wherever you can find one. The pig bun is a best seller, and with sweet, rich char siu pork encased in fluffy dough, it’s not hard to see why. The lamb bun, punched up with cumin and garlic, is also worth a go, and you can’t skip the sweet custard bun either. Be warned though, the salted egg custard floods out so don’t even attempt to split it open with your hands unless you want to be wearing it.
