Chinese restaurant - Chinatown/ central London

[poppyseedy]

Taking my teen DS to London next week and he wants to have Chinese food for lunch - ideally he’d like it to be in Chinatown but anywhere central would be fine (within 20 mins tube of Waterloo). Any recommendations? I can’t find any with great reviews and it’s making me nervous!

Someone asked this a few weeks ago and the general consensus was Four Seasons BUT there are a few of them. I'd check the hygiene standard's website first to see which one gets the highest rating. Usually a place with 4 or 5 stars on that will have good quality food.

Thank you @TheBirdintheCave - will trying searching the forum again.

Are you wanting dim sum, or just somewhere to order off the menu?

Wong Kei is a really good Chinese restaurant, @poppyseedy. You will probably find yourself sharing a table with other people - dh and I did, and it was a great experience. In fact, it was over that meal that we got engaged.

I've seen a lot of TikToks with street food suggestions in Chinatown. Is he after that kind of thing or a sit down in a restaurant sort of thing ? Would he prefer dim sum?

We recently enjoyed Bun House on Lisle St. They mainly do (really good) bao buns but a few other things too - try the milk ribs. No booking, but don’t be put off by a queue as it’s mostly for takeaway and there are quite a few tables upstairs.

This gets a 1/5 on the hygiene website :O (If you mean the one on Wardour Street).

And this is a 2/5.

I'll stop there as I think everyone gets the idea but I had a serious bout of food poisoning from a restaurant once and don't want anyone to have the same experience.

Plum valley is really nice.

Four seasons for sure
Order the roast duck!

Would not recommend Wong kei

I found which Four Seasons are the good ones:

Four Seasons, 23 Wardour Street (4/5)
Little Four Seasons, 11 Gerrard Street (4/5)

Yikes! I didn’t know that, @TheBirdintheCave - I withdraw my recommendation. 😢

We eat at Old Town 97 most weeks - they do fantastic authentic beef tripe, pork blood, and chicken gizzard dishes. Have never had food poisoning, but we’ve iron stomachs.

Most of the Chinatown restaurants are much of a muchness, aimed at tourist tastes, and atmosphere service isn’t always great. If you can make the timings work then I’d recommend going the extra (literal) mile and trying Waterhouse in Rotherhithe: it doesn’t look much from the outside but they make excellent authentic dishes.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius Yeah a lot of restaurants take me by surprise as you'd never guess they have such a low score.

The Chinese cricket club restaurant in the Hyatt at Blackfriars is lovely, and rated 5/5 for hygeine.

New Chinese Restaurant | Central London | Chinese Cricket Club (hyattrestaurants.com)

Would agree, the food is amazing - but I recall paying something like £150 for a whole Peking duck and pancakes and two glasses of wine, so it’s not cheap!

Jay Rayner's recommendation (back in January)

Take the Jubilee Line from Waterloo to Bond Street, then the Central Line to Queensway - you'll easily do that in 20 minutes.

Guys, thank you so much! I really appreciate al the suggestions (and warnings!). I’ll research these and see where has availability and is within budget. Thanks x

Go to Phoenix Palace near Baker St tube. They're authentic Cantonese (some of the best I've had in London - very popular with ex-HKers where I used to live) and do excellent dim sum. They have a 'western' menu as well as a more authentic Canto one (chicken feet etc).

https://www.phoenixpalace.co.uk/

Probably not central enough for you unless you're heading for Westfield (but if you are heading for Westfield, do not eat there! ) is Shikumen in Shepherd's Bush -- does excellent dim sum including soup dumplings, xiao long bao.
Or, more central -- https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d19346014-Reviews-Xi_Home_Dumplings-London_England.html

There is also the Michelin starred Yauatcha in Soho or A.Wong in the Victoria area. The latter has two stars and won't be cheap.
https://guide.michelin.com/gb/en/greater-london/london/restaurant/a-wong

For somewhere a bit more rough and ready -- great Szechuan food at Chilli Cool, near Russell Sq.

I love Wong Kei! Never thought to check out the hygiene ratings...

The Golden Dragon in Chinatown is our favorite.