Dim Sum

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.

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.

I have been going to Royal China for years and if you want good quality Chinese food, this is a great place to go to, as you don’t need to book like some other more posh Chinese restaurants and it serves slightly better food than the average Chinese restaurant in China Town. Royal China has 5 branches now, one in canary wharf, one in Bayswater, one in Fulham, one in Harrow on the Hill and one on Baker street which I visited. Although I said you don’t need to book this place it gets seriously busy during weekend lunch time and you usually need to wait for at least 30 minutes if you come after 1 pm, but it is so popular because it is just a wonderful lunch place and I have been there with many different people on many different occasions. Don’t expect anything amazing, just good, decent value for money Chinese food.