London Dim Sum recommendation?

[Dimsumtime5]

Not been down to London for so long, any good recommendations for Dim Sum?

Din Tai Fung. They have a couple of locations.

Ah, this is my specialist subject. Pearl Liang in Paddington Basin is lovely. If you can face travelling a bit further out, JM Oriental in Hendon is fab - slightly fancier and feels quite special. You can book for both places.

Ever since New World closed, as we live outside London, rather than the expense and hassle of travelling right into Chinatown, we go to Wing Tai on the Edgware Rd, near the start of the M1. They don’t do every dim sum dish, but it’s a good competent range. They don’t do the trollies either unfortunately.

It may not be traditional, but we usually have half a roast duck off the bone and a portion of char sui as well. The whole family goes, as we all love dim sum, and some of the men eat a lot! I was always told by Chinese friends, only restaurants, which have the meat hanging in the window, do the meat well. Wing Tai don’t hang the meat in the window, but it tastes as good as any I’ve had in China town.

The answer is A Wong. Absolutely amazing

@BlueandWhitePorcelain oh yes, Wing Tai is also great. We go there a lot.

This has made me nostalgic for Chueng Cheng Ku and the ladies circulating with the trollies! It's not the same after the postcovid refurb 😪

Din Tai Fung is extremely overpriced.

Chinatown has lots of nice dim sum places. My favourite is Loon Fung. Reasonable price with a large dim sum menu. This is the only restaurant that makes me feel like I'm in Hong Kong.

Thank you all! Unfortunately we didn't have time to get anywhere other than Chinatown, so we went with @lavendarpink 's suggestion of Loon Fung. Thank you so much for that, it was so much better than where we usually go, and really reasonably priced too - we loved it!

@Dimsumtime5 glad you enjoyed it!

Im up nearby today and will check out Loon Fung restaurant for lunch. I'm a big fan of their supermarket!

Yes, we used to go there too! I am sorry, nobody does the trollies now afaik? 😪

We went to China town two weeks ago. We were amazed how packed it was. I like Loon Fung supermarket too. I was going to Loon Fung for dim sum over 40 years ago. So many of the restaurants around then, have closed. We were surprised at how expensive Wong Kei is now! We didn’t eat there, as we were going to try Satay House in Paddington, to see how it compared to Rasa Sayang.

I looked at A Wong online some time ago. I can’t remember, but given he’s been on Masterchef, I’d have thought it was quite expensive too?

Ooo lucky you enjoy! The scallop dumpling is THE BEST

@BlueandWhitePorcelain I used to take my DC to Chuen Chen Ku when they were small to teach them how to use chopsticks (it was a favourite haunt of mine 40yrs ago as a student). The waitresses loved to fuss over them.
Wong Kei was famous for fast food and having the rudest waiters 😂 I went there with my HK friends who thought it was funny how rude they were to customers!

God yes to A Wong. Used to be my go-to special occasion place when I lived in London - I’ve never had anything other than a fabulous meal there.

A Wong has 2 Michelin stars and the price to go with it, you order a piece at a time which to me is not the essence of dim sum. I like the traditional places where it’s cheap and cheerful and you order lots to share in a big group! My favourite in Chinatown is Golden Phoenix but the key for anywhere is to go at peak time between 12-2pm where the dishes are constantly being freshly cooked.

Yes, the last time we went for dim sum, our family (7 adults, including 4 with enormous appetites and 2 children), spent over £300. That was a lot for us! How much would that cost in A Wong’s?

I went to Wong Kei today. Prices have gone up but they still don't charge tea and service charge. The waiters/waitresses are not as rude as the olden times when I was a child!

That’s good to hear! DH said

”We are not going in there, to pay those prices - for them to be rude to us!”

We took our children to China Town from when they were old enough to sit up in a high chair! We gave them chopsticks, when we thought they could master them - their initial technique tended to be to push a chopstick through the food!

My friends, who were mainly Malaysian Chinese (Hokkien or Hakka) and a couple from Hongkong didn’t ever make rude remarks in my hearing iirc? Although staff in restaurants and supermarkets openly called me “guaypor” (sp). It didn’t seem to occur to them, I had learnt some Cantonese!