Chinese Restaurants in St James's
1. Park Chinois
Chinese restaurant in Mayfair
17 Berkeley Street - W1
An “extravagant setting” is central to the approach of this showy Chinese venue in Mayfair, whose website promises ‘the ultimate Asian restaurant’ and a ‘world of hedonism’ including ‘devilishly curious entertainment’ (such as burlesque). Its “excruciating prices” have always been an issue, but the view that the food (from a very wide-ranging menu, including dim sum, caviar, steak, noodles…) is “nothing special” gained ground this year, as did the concern that “I just didn’t enjoy the experience” – “the shows are at least a distraction from what is a pretty lacklustre meal...”
2. Imperial Treasure
Chinese restaurant in Westminster
9-10 Waterloo Place - SW1Y
“Expensive, but worth it for a treat!” is the positive view on this West End fixture – part of a Singapore-based group, whose London outpost occupies an expensively converted former banking hall in the West End, whose atmosphere has ended up somewhere between impressive and stilted. “Very good, classic Chinese cuisine is reverently served by a stream of waiters… but the prices!… £200 for Peking duck with caviar anyone?” Indeed, such is the size of the bill that there is a school of thought that the level of value doesn’t stack up and that – irrespective of its many qualities – the overall experience is overpriced and/or disappointing.
3. Hakkasan Mayfair
Chinese restaurant in Mayfair
17 Bruton St - W1
“Best Asian restaurant I’ve eaten in!” – these “beautiful” nightclubby haunts (“quite why they keep them so dark is beyond me”) have maintained an impressive standard for over 20 years, and the Tottenham Court original has since been replicated not just in Mayfair but in numerous cities around the globe. Their ratings have fluctuated over many years, always around the same concerns – “success has got the better of them…”; “chaotic” and/or “attitude-y” service; punishing prices. The believers still carry the day, though, saying they are “always a special experience” with a “delectable” mix of dim sum, Peking duck (with or without caviar) and other classic Chinese dishes – “definitely take a big wallet, but I love it!”
4. Orient London
Chinese restaurant in Westminster
15 Wardour Street - W1D
With its “marvellous selection of dim sum” raised to a “fantastic” level; “amicable and chatty service”; and its “well-spaced tables”, this low-key-looking venue “stands a cut above the usual Chinatown standard” in all respects.
5. Four Seasons (Wardour Street)
Chinese restaurant in Soho
23 Wardour Street - W1
“It’s worth the spartan interior and mixed service to eat the roast duck and/or char siu pork” at these Cantonese canteens, where “the best roast duck in the world is the claim” – from no less an authority than The FT – “and it must be up there” with “meat and crispy skin so well done (no pun intended)”; and don’t forget “the crispy pork belly – an especial fat-lover’s treat!”. Launched in Queensway 34 years ago, the group now has three venues around Chinatown plus the new Chop Chop nearby in the Hippodrome Casino. Further afield there are outlets in Colindale’s Bang Bang Oriental food hall, Oxford and Leicester.
6. Wong Kei
Chinese restaurant in Soho
41-43 Wardour St - W1
“No frills, no smiles but always fast and reliable” – this “Chinatown standby” has fed generations of West End revellers and theatre-goers with “great cheap Cantonese food”, serving up to 500 people at a time over several floors. “Service is not what it was – the staff are no longer rude!” – but “the speed with which scoff arrives at the table remains utterly predictable”. Top Menu Tip – “still love their Singapore noodles”.
7. Plum Valley
Chinese restaurant in Soho
20 Gerrard St - W1
“The dim sum is pretty good for this price range” (“all the stalwarts are available” as well as one or two “unusual/Hakkasan-like creations”) at this Cantonese stalwart in Chinatown.
8. Joy King Lau
Chinese restaurant in Chinatown
3 Leicester St - WC2
2021 Review: “In a crowded Chinatown field”, this three-story Cantonese institution just off Leicester Square “is a dependable crowd-pleaser” with a “good price-to-quality ratio”: “the queues outside speak for its popularity”. Highlights from the “reliable menu” include “fab dim sum every time”, “yummy char sui” and “legendary soft shell crab”, all delivered by staff who “although rushed off their feet are generally smiley and friendly”. Top Tip – “the ground floor is a better experience than the higher floors”.
9. The Duck & Rice
Chinese restaurant in Soho
90 Berwick St - W1
This “pub with an Oriental twist” on Soho’s Berwick Street is a concept that “works well”, with “lovely, tasty food”; even if – eight years after its launch by ace restaurateur Alan Yau – it has never matched the success of his hit concepts Wagamama, Hakkasan or Yauatcha. Top Menu Tip – “the pork scratchings are amazing”.
10. Yauatcha
Chinese restaurant in Soho
Broadwick House, 15-17 Broadwick Street - W1
“Cheung fun… just wow” – a highlight of the “brilliant” dim sum at this cool modern take on Cantonese cuisine, created by Alan Yau, the restaurant whizz behind Hakkasan and Wagamama. Now in its 20th anniversary year, there are two sites in the capital – a Soho basement (with ground-floor tea room) and a very much bigger and glossier venue in the City’s Broadgate development (plus satellites in the Middle East and India). But even fans of the “delicious food” sometimes say, “I like it here, but the bill always surprises me… not in a good way!”
11. Four Seasons (Gerrard Street)
Chinese restaurant in Chinatown
12 Gerrard Street - W1
“It’s worth the spartan interior and mixed service to eat the roast duck and/or char siu pork” at these Cantonese canteens, where “the best roast duck in the world is the claim” – from no less an authority than The FT – “and it must be up there” with “meat and crispy skin so well done (no pun intended)”; and don’t forget “the crispy pork belly – an especial fat-lover’s treat!”. Launched in Queensway 34 years ago, the group now has three venues around Chinatown plus the new Chop Chop nearby in the Hippodrome Casino. Further afield there are outlets in Colindale’s Bang Bang Oriental food hall, Oxford and Leicester.
12. Little Four Seasons
Chinese restaurant in Chinatown
11 Gerrard Street - W1
“It’s worth the spartan interior and mixed service to eat the roast duck and/or char siu pork” at these Cantonese canteens, where “the best roast duck in the world is the claim” – from no less an authority than The FT – “and it must be up there” with “meat and crispy skin so well done (no pun intended)”; and don’t forget “the crispy pork belly – an especial fat-lover’s treat!”. Launched in Queensway 34 years ago, the group now has three venues around Chinatown plus the new Chop Chop nearby in the Hippodrome Casino. Further afield there are outlets in Colindale’s Bang Bang Oriental food hall, Oxford and Leicester.
13. Golden Dragon
Chinese restaurant in Soho
28-29 Gerrard St - W1
This “very busy” Cantonese stalwart is “a cut above its rivals” on the Chinatown main drag. There’s “nothing special about the environment, but it serves some of the best and best-value dim sum available in London”.
14. Imperial China
Chinese restaurant in Chinatown
25a Lisle St - WC2
“Fresh and very tasty dim sum” ensures that this 30-year-old Cantonese over three storeys on the edge of Chinatown “soon fills up with regulars”. “It may be a blessing that the ambience is not exactly chic – it keeps the tourists away”.
15. Bun House
Chinese restaurant in Westminster
26-27 Lisle Street - WC2H
2023 Review: “Top egg yolk buns” are a big draw at China-born architect Z He and chef Alex Peffly’s well-known Chinatown pit stop, which provides an “excellent bustling ambience and wonderful heart-filling food”.
16. Fatt Pundit
Indian restaurant in Westminster
77 Berwick Street - W1F
“Delicious small plates that are unusual, interesting and at times rather spicy” distinguish this Soho and Covent Garden duo presenting the Indo-Chinese cuisine developed by Kolkata’s historic Hakka community.
17. Barshu
Chinese restaurant in Soho
28 Frith St - W1
“Spicy, authentic Sichuan cuisine” makes this Chinatown destination “worth hunting out” – it’s “way above the bog-standard fare nearby”, with “amazing taste sensations including a lot more besides the fragrant heat of the eponymous Sichuan pepper”. And “friendly staff made choosing from the huge menu easier”. Top Tip – find a table downstairs if you can, to avoid the “weak ambience on the first floor”.
18. MiMi Mei Fair
Chinese restaurant in Mayfair
55 Curzon Street - W1J
“We went there a mite apprehensive that we would be overwhelmed by pretension… but the dining rooms are beautiful!” – Samyukta Nair’s Shanghai-inspired two-year-old occupies a three-story Mayfair townhouse decorated in an elegant, classic style based on a fictional ‘Empress Mimi’. The chicness of the surroundings helps compensate for some “slightly overpriced” dishes, as does the generally excellent level of service. Top Menu Tip – “the fabled Peking duck is one of the best in town”.
19. The eight Restaurant
Chinese restaurant in Westminster
68-70 Shaftesbury Avenue - W1D
“A top choice for a Hong-Kong-style café menu” – this “rushed” tearoom on the edge of Chinatown opened in 2022 and serves everything from light bites to full meals from its huge selection of dishes. The food is consistently well rated.
20. Food House
Chinese restaurant in Chinatown
46 Gerrard Street - W1D
2023 Review: In the late 1990s, Jonathan Meades in the Times regularly hailed the Harbour City – a previous Cantonese occupant of this site on Chinatown’s main drag – as London’s top choice for dim sum. Now this latest incumbent is receiving similar treatment on the back of an Eater article hailing it as “the trendiest restaurant in central London”. According to The Observer’s Jay Rayner, the new “very different” offering is “the grand, jumpy, thrilling, chilli and numbing peppercorn hullabaloo that those of us addicted to the Sichuan repertoire just adore”.
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