Chinese restaurants in London
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New World
If you hanker after dim sum, the three-storey New World can oblige. All the old favourites – from ha gau (prawn dumpling) to pai gwat (steamed pork spare rib) – are available from steaming carts wheeled around the dining room daily 11am to 6pm.
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Hakkasan
Hidden down a lane like all fashionable haunts need to be, the first Chinese restaurant to get a Michelin star combines celebrity status, a dimly lit basement dining room, persuasive cocktails and sophisticated food.
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Shanghai Blues
What was once the St Giles Library now houses one of London’s most stylish Chinese restaurants. The dark and atmospheric interior – think black and blue tables and chairs punctuated by bright red screens – recalls imperial Shanghai with a modern twist, and the menu is just as disarming, particularly the ‘new style’ dim sum served as appetisers, the pipa duck and the twice-cooked pork belly. There’s a vast selection of teas, some of them quite rare. There’s a three-course weekday lunch for £15 and live jazz on Friday and Saturday nights.
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Yauatcha
Dim sum restaurants don't come much cooler than this, and the menu is fantastic and Michelin-starred. It's housed in an architecturally interesting building, with a choice of light-filled ground floor tables or a hip basement area.
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Ken Lo's Memories of China
The late Kenneth Lo brought Chinese food to new levels in London, and the service and décor of the place reflect that position. The interior is elegant, oriental minimalism and the noise levels are agreeably low. There are several set menus (around £20 - including a vegetarian one and an unforgettable 'Gastronomic Tour of China' (around £31r person) - and all the well-proportioned dishes feature a splendidly light touch and wonderful contrasts of flavours and textures.
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Bar Shu
The story goes that a visiting businessman from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in China, found London’s Chinese food offerings so inauthentic that he decided to open up his own restaurant with five chefs from home. Well, it’s authentic all right, with dishes redolent of smoked chillies and the all-important Sichuan peppercorn. We love the spicy gung bao chicken with peanuts and the mapo doufu (bean curd braised with minced pork and chilli).
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Dragon Castle
It’s hard to imagine that what just might be the best nonchain Chinese restaurant in London is hidden within one of the brutalist buildings of deepest, darkest Kennington. But it’s true, and even the incomparable food critic Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard concurs. The duck, pork and seafood (deep-fried crispy oysters; crab with black bean) are renowned – but come for the dim sum (£1.90 to £3), especially at weekend lunch.
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Min Jiang
This stunner of a Chinese restaurant, perched on the top of a hotel owned by a Hong Kong–based group, offers million-dollar views of Kensington Palace and Gardens as well as arguably the best Peking duck (half/whole £25/48) in all of London. You’ll consume everything from the skin and feet to the shredded meat and then get the bill. It’s cooked in a wood-burning stove. There’s excellent seafood here, too.
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Baozi Inn
The smaller sister of Bar Shu has its own personality and a unique (and cheap) menu. Decorated in vintage style that plays at kitsch communist pop, with old Chinese communist songs tinkling out of the speakers, Baozi Inn serves quality Beijing and Chengdu-style street food, with things like dan dan noodles (served with spicy beef) handmade daily. It’s authentic, delicious and cheap food gold in often-unreliable Chinatown.
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Mandarin Kitchen
This popular Cantonese restaurant with the naff décor prepares some of the best seafood in town so be prepared to wait for a table at the busiest times (eg Sunday lunch) if you haven't booked. Lobster, prawns, whole steamed grouper - all is excellent and they have a particular way with what must be house-made XO sauce, a newfangled condiment made from crushed dried scallops, chilli, garlic and oil.
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Royal China
Admittedly one of four outlets of a chain, including the Royal China Queensway, this is London’s best Cantonese restaurant and excels in standard and unusual dim sum, available daily from noon (11am on Sunday) to 5pm. The Riverside branch has impressive views of the Thames, and in the warmer months tables are at the water’s edge.
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Pearl Liang
Touted by many as London’s best Chinese restaurant, this stylish eatery, incongruously wedged between Paddington train station and the Westway, serves up Chinese with a modern slant and the dim sum (£2.50 to £3.50) is out of this world. Love the decor, just this side of naff – water features, oversized abacus, plum blossoms.
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Four Seasons
The huge pile of roast ducks in the window and the crowds of Chinese diners inside should alert you to the fact that something good is cooking at Four Seasons. The menu is straight-down-the-line Cantonese and there’s often a queue for a table, even at lunchtimes.
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Snazz Sichuan
One of the very few London restaurants brave enough to serve the fiery cuisine from Sichuan area in western China. Give your tastebuds a workout with the fire-exploded kidneys and guai wei tu ding (literally, ‘strange-flavour rabbit’).
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Jen Café
This is the best place to come for homemade wonton soup and dumplings – bar none. And you can be assured of their freshness by looking through the plate glass window where they’re in the process of being made.
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Jenny Lo’s Tea House
This is a good-value place in Victoria for rice and noodles. It was set up by the daughter of the late Chinese cookery-book author Kenneth Lo, who introduced the UK to Chinese food in the 1950s.
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Café de Hong Kong
Chinese students gather at this inexpensive canteen for tasty Cantonese food served double fast. Order hawker soup noodles or ho fun with black bean sauce and swish it down with sago pearl tea.
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Haozhan
The chef at Haozhan used to work at the glitzy Hakkasan, ensuring a refreshingly modern take on traditional soup noodles and other Cantonese classics.
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