Chinese

Royal China Club is a sister restaurant to Royal China and the more upscale restaurant. It is located on Baker Street, close to a Royal China restaurant. The inside is a bit nicer than Royal China restaurants but not too much different. I came here on a Monday evening with some of my school friends for dinner and I was surprised to see it get very busy, as I would not expect that on a Monday and you definitely have to book a table here.

This is now one of my favourite Chinese restaurants in London. I absolutely love it. My friend Paul, who beats me in knowing where the new trendy and good restaurants are in London, took me out for dinner here. A Wong is located in Victoria and owned by Andrew Wong (hence the name) who works in the kitchen and runs the place with his wife who seats and takes care of guests. Andrew’s wife had just given birth so I did not see her during my last visit. I saw Andrew though, working hard in the open plan kitchen (so rare for Chinese restaurants to have a trendy modern open plan kitchen) and he was lovely and had a conversation with us in the middle of his cooking. Andrew at first studied chemistry at Oxford before becoming a Chef and he has travelled and worked in China.

Ken Lo's Memories of China is one of the first restaurants I ever visited in London. I first came here about 15 years ago (the restaurant opened 30 years ago) with my friend Kristine and her family and I have been coming here infrequently over the years. The restaurant is located next to were Kristine used to live in Victoria and she loved this restaurant.

I was having a heated debate with my friend Ed about which is the best dim sum restaurant in London and he said it was Princess Garden, located in Mayfair. I had been to Princess Garden for dinner a few times and quite liked it, but as I had never been there for dim sum I was now very keen to see whether it was the best dim sum in London, so I suggested this restaurant when I decided to catch up with my friends Pepi and Patrick. Princess Garden is quite an old restaurant, it opened in 1983, although obviously the décor is not the same as in 1983 and has recently been changed by Belsize Architect into a contemporary venue that features Chinese art. There is only 1 dining room, which is spacious and light and also a few private rooms.

This is a classic amazing Chinese restaurant. Hakkasan is one of the very few Chinese restaurants that has a Michelin star (got it in 2003) and was also even included in the top 100 best restaurants in the world a few years ago. The restaurant was created in 2001 by Syra Khan and Alan Yau who are also behind Wagamama, Yauatcha and Sake no Hana restaurants in London. The first Hakkasan in London was opened just by Tottenham Court Road station in Hanway Place, but in 2010 they opened another restaurant in Mayfair, which is bigger than the Tottenham Court one. Also Hakkasan started expanding abroad in 2009 with a restaurant in Miami and nowadays Hakkasan can also now be found in New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Las Vegas and Mumbai. The main chef of Hakkasan is Tong Chee Hwee and he even won the award of the best London chef in 2005.