Even within Chinatown’s Chinese remit, there’s a big amount of variation of the best London Chinatown restaurant to be organised, with eatery menus spanning an arrangement of regions, culinary traditions, and spice tolerances.
We’ve picked out 11 of our favourites and the best restaurant in Chinatown for you to take a closer look at, and have assembled the rest of the reasons according to what sort of dining knowledge you’re looking for. From soul-healing hot pots to possibly the best roast duck in the town, dig into the pick of spots for Chinese cuisine in Chinatown.
Table of Contents
1. Gerrald’s Corner (好年華)
Gerrard’s Corner is a gallant dim sum that doesn’t require deep pockets, so it’s no astonishment that it is one of the best restaurants in Chinatown. Most of these shareable plates come in below £5, and there are dozens to select from. The restaurant features a large range of servings that customers can choose from based on their choice and preference. Everything they serve is very appetising from dim-sum and main courses to dishes made up of fresh seafood.
This Chinatown London restaurant is recognized for its outstanding set banquets, their culinarian’s recommendation is the Lobster Set Dinner featuring an entire lobster tenderly cooked with ginger and spring onions, along with a group of prawns, scallops, and other seafood delights.
Located at Gerrard street of Chinatown in Central London, this restaurant is renowned among many locals. You can try their amazing servings during their opening hours, that is, 12 pm to 12 am every day. So while exploring Chinatown do make sure to visit this food spot.
2. Old Tree Daiwan Bee (老樹台灣味)
Old Tree Daiwan Bee whizzed into Chinatown in 2013. From the same squad behind Golders Green’s Old Tree Chinese bakery, it’s a cool but casual cafe on Rupert Street serving up pure Taiwanese street eats, flanked by long wooden canteen-esque benches.
Many visitors skip the restaurants unintentionally towards the edges of Chinatown, like Old Tree Daiwan Bee. This small cash-only food spot cuts a casual structure with its numerous wooden bench seating and muted grey walls, but it’s not very easy to beat the flavour of its selection of quintessentially Taiwanese dishes. The restaurant is located at 26 Rupert Street, Chinatown, London. The restaurant opens at around 12 pm every day and closes by 10 pm every day except weekends.
This is one of the best Chinese restaurants in Chinatown London that does not feature alcohol on the menu, but you may find numerous traditional bubble teas in their drink section of the menu, and also drinks like Taiwanese Herbal Jelly Milk Tea, and summer refreshers like Iced Plum Green Tea or Matcha Tea Freezer.
3. Shu Xiang Ge (蜀香格)
Did you know Shu Xiangge’s founder, Terry Zho, spent a year visiting China on exploration tours to perfect their mouth-watering recipes and source ingredients? Well, now you do.
Right in the heart of Chinatown Shu Xiang Ge is located, a hot pot restaurant inspired by flavours from Sichuan. This best restaurant in Chinatown is all about tradition and authenticity. They prepare their soup in the most credible way using sauces and equipment imported from the Sichuan province.
This Chinatown London restaurant features modernised communal hot pots embedded into the tables, and super slick interior updates, like an elegant wall design featuring Chinese engravings. It’s a welcoming spot so feel free to bring your friends or family here and you all can dunk and devour together over piping warm hot pot delicacies.
You can try all these and even more from the restaurant’s menu between 12 pm to 10 pm every day of the week at Gerrard Street, London.
4. Dumplings Legend (小籠皇)
Big ones. Small ones. Round ones. Meaty ones. Juicy ones. When it gets to dumplings, the mixture is the spice of life. Leong’s family has opened more than 50 Chinese restaurants in London since the 1970s, and at Dumplings Legend, diners can enjoy dishes from both southern and northern China around banquet tables.
The restaurant’s impressive and best Chinese in Chinatown restaurant is xiao long bao, a type of steamed dumpling from Shanghai. Each is competently folded with precisely 18 folds and contains a spoonful of broth. The pork and crab are satisfactory. The Peking duck is also extraordinary – served the traditional way with pancakes, spring onions, and hoisin gravy. Other plates contain the steamed prawn dumplings, a Cantonese classic; aubergine with mashed garlic in dou ban seasoning and much more.
This best restaurant in Chinatown London largely values this small parcel of finger-licking goodness, slicing to traditional procedures but putting in a twist. The restaurant welcomes visitors from 11:30 am to 11 pm every Monday to Thursday and 11:30 am to 3 am every Friday and Saturday and 11:30 am to 10 pm on Sundays. So if you ever feel like grabbing a cup of coffee or having brunch, consider visiting this Chinatown restaurant on Gerrard street.
5. Four Seasons (文興酒家)
One of three Four Seasons in Chinatown, their Gerrard Street restaurant appears with a distinct sign of the quacking sort and it is certainly one of the best restaurants in Chinatown London. Their duck has been named the “best in the world” according to the Financial Times. Serving 100+ dishes a day to adoring foodie fans, it’s Chinatown’s premiere spot for melt-in-the-mouth, dreamy duck.
Sourced from the prestigious Silver Hill Farm in Ireland, their grain-fed ducks are unrestricted roaming and serenaded by soft-playing songs to loosen up them, making the flesh all the more tender. You can visit the restaurant anytime during their opening hours – 12 pm to 10 pm every day. The restaurant also offers takeaways so, if in hurry just grab your meal and get going.
6. Viet Food
There are various Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown but Viet Food is the most favourable and one of the best restaurants in Chinatown London. Spread over three floors with its cocktail bar, it satisfies conventional Vietnamese dishes such as prawn summer rolls, pho, and bún. We recommend trying the crispy coconut calamari as a starter, which appears with a homemade sweet-chilli herb seasoning.
For the major, go for the braised freshwater prawns with cup vermicelli and grilled black Angus rib-eye beef, each of which brings a Western zing to the oriental palate. Located at Wardour Street, London, this restaurant opens at about 12 pm and closes by 10:30 pm every Sunday to Thursday and on Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant welcomes customers at about 12 pm and clears by 11 pm.
7. Rasa Sayang
This best Chinese restaurant in Chinatown London is said to be Jimmy Choo’s favourite restaurant. And that is understandable, the restaurant serves outstanding dishes including fish, chicken and traditional Malaysian favourites such as beef rendang and char kway teow, that cannot be missed.
The backbone of Rasa Sayang’s menu is made up of flavourful, authentic dishes, which include various delicious dishes. Besides, for the Muslim community people, the restaurant even offers a Chinese halal buffet. What more are you looking for? This best London Chinatown restaurant’s pride lies with made-from-scratch choices such as Kueh Pie Tee.
This Chinatown restaurant is located at 5 Macclesfield Street, London and it is not very hard to spot since it’s very renowned there. The restaurant opening hours vary depending upon the days, from Monday to Thursday the restaurant serves lunch from 12 pm to 2:30 pm and then avails all their meals from 5 pm to 10 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant door is open from 12 pm to 10 pm and On weekends their closing time extends by an hour. And for any more information related to food, menu and orders you can contact them via their website.
8. Bun House
Bun House is one of the best Chinatown restaurants in London, as you imagined it, the exact place to pick up a steamed bun. Lately relocated from Soho, you can now pick up a few outstanding extras alongside their traditional buns. We recommend trying the classic char siu pork belly Pig Bun and then going for something different like their soft, brioche-style Pineapple Bun.
One of the original delicacies is the unctuous pork bun, stuffed with cubes of barbecue pork belly in a flavourful, rich and sticky sauce. But the real show-stopper has to be the custard bun which, as you break open, releases the delicacy of creamy, golden salted egg yolk custard that is fragrant with coconut. Eager to try them out? Visit their restaurant at Lisle street anytime between 12 pm to 9:30 pm except for Mondays. The restaurant offers dine-in and takeaways just not contact deliveries.
9. Plum Valley
If you are searching for the best restaurant in Chinatown London for date night then Plum Valley is certainly one of the best Chinatown restaurants to consider. The ambience of the restaurant is stunning and set up with all dark wood panelling and moody low lighting that makes the overall look very trendy and cosy.
Located at Gerrard street, Plum Valley is certainly the smartest Chinatown London restaurant that you should surely visit. The restaurant opens at about 12 pm every day and closes by 10 pm except on Fridays and Saturdays, specifically on those two days of the week the closing time extends by an hour. This dim sum joint features more than a passing resemblance to that emperor of Cantonese cuisine, Hakkasan.
We recommend you to try their prawn in a sesame roll that is full of flavours, sweet and fresh. We’re sure that you will love it. Considering the price point, the dumplings they serve are decent. The restaurant menu also features dishes like crabmeat soup dumplings and taro croquettes, which are meaty and have the richness of flavours, if a little floury, and there was a lovely hit of ginger in the pork that is made in Shanghai-style.
10. Leong’s Legend
No one eats out in Chinatown for a masterclass in courteous service. So it’s no astonishment that at this Taiwanese restaurant’s condensing of its antecedent two sites into one compact Gerrard Street location, wait for staff varies between disinterested and slightly grumpy.
This is one of the best restaurants in Chinatown London with a very business-like ambience, decorated very minimally with dark wood, and offers speedy service aimed at rapid turnover. But the biggest transformation here is the food, rather than sticking to the strictly Taiwanese cuisine, they have now launched a sushi bar, and a hotpot table with a built-in heater that avails diners to eat limitless broth-boiled ingredients just for £19.95 per individual.
The menu segment of this Chinatown London restaurant is devoted to ‘Poeken’, a fusion of the Japanese rice dish donburi and poke, a Hawaiian raw fish salad. Out of the many dishes, this best London Chinatown restaurant’s signature dish is xiao long bao, it is a squidgy broth-filled dumpling from Shanghai. You can try all these delicacies anytime between 11:30 am to 10:30 pm every day, besides, the restaurant even offers both takeaways and deliveries.
11. Imperial China
Step over the bridge and spot yourself in a Cantonese wonderland and it’s for sure that Imperial China’s wow factor will hit you the minute you step through the doors. This best restaurant in Chinatown London is situated in White Bear Yard, just off Lisle Street, the courtyard-dwelling restaurant is one of Chinatown’s biggest. It is perched over three floors and has 8 private karaoke-ready dining rooms. In other words, Imperial China is an absolute choice for corporate events, wedding parties, and large-scale banqueting.
What’s the restaurant’s authenticity? Well, it’s the Abalone or ‘bao yu’. This is one ingredient that is probably hard for you to find in other Chinatown spots. We recommend their famous and delicious servings of seafood and lobsters offered in the best Chinese in Chinatown London Seafood Feast, a hefty fisherman’s haul of fresh lobster or soft shell crab with scallops, Sichuan prawns, and gently cooked fish cubes with the flavourful black bean sauce.
In case you are big on barbecues, the best day to visit the place is the weekends because that is when they roll out a generous Mixed Roast platter, starring finger-licking good barbecue pork, roasted duck, and crispy pork. Moreover, you can always enjoy a good brunch at this restaurant from 12 pm to 11 pm every Monday to Thursday. However, on Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant opens at around 12 pm and closes by 11:30 pm and on Sundays, it welcomes customers from 11:30 am to 10:30 pm.
And this wraps up the list of the 11 best Chinese restaurants in Chinatown London. Above mentioned all the restaurants hold their authenticity. We would recommend you start exploring Chinatown restaurants based on your preferences in food and ambience. Now, what else is stopping you to splurge?
FAQs
Is Chinatown London worth visiting?
Chinatown resides in the heart of London’s West End, a distinct melange of paper lanterns, street shops, restaurants, and cosy cafes, bounded by four gates that mark your passage into an area unlike any other in the city. Stellar food, beautiful location, quirky finds. Chinatown is worth a visit, especially for tourists who haven’t visited before. The neighbourhood is pensive, unique, and bustling with people.
What is Dim Sum in Chinese?
Dim sum is an ancestral Chinese made up of tiny plates of dumplings and additional snack dishes and is usually accompanied by tea. Similar to the way that the Spanish eat tapas, the dishes are shared among friends and family. Generally, dim sum is served during brunch, that said, from late morning to lunchtime.
How many restaurants are there in Chinatown in London?
There are presently more than 100 restaurants in Chinatown, which is bound by Shaftesbury Avenue to the north, Rupert Street to the west, Charing Cross Road to the east and Leicester Square to the south.
