Chinese Restaurants in Buckhurst Hill
1. Kai Mayfair
Chinese restaurant in Mayfair
65 South Audley St - W1
Billed by Malaysian-born founder Bernard Yeoh as ‘liberated Nanyang [ie South Seas Chinese] cooking’, the well-accoladed cuisine at this Mayfair fixture has impressed diners for more than 30 years, with Adele one of the more recent celebs to sing its praises. High-quality hit dishes include a “definitive wasabi prawns and slow-cooked pork”; and there’s no compromise on the quality of the drinks offering, with a comprehensive selection of teas, cocktails and wines. But... “the prices! £23 for a plate of brocollini tells me the trick is to get someone to take you there!” (and, you can spend over £10,000 per bottle on the wine).
2. Uli
Pan-Asian restaurant in Notting Hill
5 Ladbroke Road - W11
“This unusual Asian-fusion restaurant” from Michael Lim “delivers extremely high-quality, fresh-tasting dishes almost uniformly across the board” from its variety of cuisines – and “Michael always takes care of the customers”. After almost three decades in Notting Hill, it now has a spinoff in Seymour Place, Marylebone, where it’s “a very welcome addition”.
3. Lucky & Joy
Chinese restaurant in Clapton
95 Lower Clapton Road - E5
“Exciting, innovative, interesting Asian-fusion dishes at great value prices” mean you should keep an eye out for this easily-missed venue amidst busy Clapton high street. The food is primarily Chinese, but flavour and fun, not foodie purity, is first priority (Sichuan Negronis anyone?). It’s not super-plush, but fans say “the ambience has improved recently with a refurb”.
4. Yi-Ban
Chinese restaurant in Victoria Docks
London Regatta Centre, Dockside Rd, Royal Albert Dock - E16
2022 Review: No feedback this year on this distant Chinese restaurant, near Royal Albert Dock DLR. If you are looking to eat in these parts though – while watching the take-offs and landings at nearby London City Airport – it is worth knowing about.
5. Sichuan Folk
Chinese restaurant in Whitechapel
32 Hanbury St - E1
2023 Review: This “tiny place near Truman’s old brewery” serves an “excellent and authentic take on Sichuan cuisine, in a calm atmosphere, away from the agitation of Brick Lane”. Top Tip – “‘numb and spicy’ dumplings live up to their name”.
6. Royal China
Chinese restaurant in Canary Wharf
30 Westferry Circus - E14
This “always reliable” and “slightly upmarket” Cantonese group “remains the standard that all other dim sum places should be judged against – exemplary is an overused term here but is very much justified”. But a somewhat dark cloud has hung over the operation since its prominent Baker Street branch was stripped of its licence to sell alcohol and fined £360,000 after a series of Home Office raids over six years discovered multiple cases of illegal immigrants working, in one case for 66 hours a week at almost half the minimum wage. As of August 2024, the Fulham Road branch is ‘Temporarily Closed’.
7. Yipin China
Chinese restaurant in Islington
70-72 Liverpool Rd - N1
2022 Review: “The atmosphere is downbeat but the food is addictive” at this Chinese canteen near Angel, which serves “tasty, spicy food with lots and lots of pepper”. “Try and avoid the more conventional Chinese restaurant dishes for an authentic regional treat.”
8. Xi'an Biang Biang
Chinese restaurant in Tower Hamlets
62 Wentworth Street - E1
“Great hand-pulled noodles” – “and the best cold starters” – are the highlights of a meal at this Spitalfields canteen featuring “spicy pot-stickers” from Shaanxi province in northwest China. (‘Biang’ is apparently an onomatopoeia, said to resemble the sound of noodle dough hitting a work surface).
9. The Sichuan
Chinese restaurant in City
14 City Road - EC1
“Authentically fiery dishes” light up the menu at this City Road restaurant where head chef Zhang Xiao Zhong hails from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan – a third-generation chef, his grandfather was personal chef to Deng Xiaoping, China’s leader through the 1980s.
10. Yauatcha City
Chinese restaurant in City
Broadgate Circle - EC2
“Consistently excellent dim sum” served in a vibey setting that “even after so many years is still a fun, cool place to be” ensures continuing plaudits for these sleek venues (founded by Alan Yau in 2004 and nowadays an international brand owned by Tao Group Hospitality with three siblings in India and one in Saudi Arabia). Food aside, its two London branches are very different – the original, intimate ground floor and basement in Soho contrasting with the more “spectacular”, large, “light-filled” modern unit in the City’s Broadgate development. Both scored highly this year – “service appears to have become a bit less standoffish”; and “the only drawback is eating too much!”. Top Menu Tips – “Cheung fun, Venison Puff, Sichuan pork wonton and Wagyu beef puff are some of the tastiest things you can eat”.
11. Three Uncles
Chinese restaurant in
12 Devonshire Row - EC2M
“A takeaway hole in the wall with some seating” characterises the branches of Pui Sing, Cheong Yew & Mo Kwok’s HK-inspired group, which specialises in Siu Mei (“authentic roasted Chinese meats”) served in “generous portions” plus noodles – “top Hong Kong food, affordable and better than at ‘normal’ sit-down restaurants”. Towards the end of 2024, they will open their largest site to-date: a 50-cover restaurant in Ealing’s Filmworks development.
12. Kaki
Chinese restaurant in Islington
125 Caledonian Road - N1
“Authentic, mostly fiery, Sichuan cooking” is showcased at this modern pub-conversion, “conveniently a few minutes’ walk along the canal from King’s Cross”. The menu includes plenty of items that in Britain used to be hidden away behind untranslated Chinese characters – chicken feet, frog legs, pig intestines – and “given the large plates, you need a big group to do it justice”.
13. Mei Ume, Four Seasons Hotel
Japanese restaurant in City
10 Trinity Square - EC3N
“Well-executed Chinese and Japanese fare (if at strictly expense account-only prices)” from Singapore-born chef Peter Ho, wins consistent praise this year at this plush dining room. Part of the Four Seasons hotel in the extremely imposing former headquarters of the Port of London Authority (built in 1922), near Tower Hill, this august chamber “very much feels like the high-end hotel restaurant that it is”.
14. Chilli Cool
Chinese restaurant in King's Cross
15 Leigh St - WC1
2022 Review: “A basic restaurant with many fiery dishes” – this student-friendly canteen in Bloomsbury is known for its good prices and lip-tingling Sichuan noodle dishes.
15. Hutong, The Shard
Chinese restaurant in London Bridge
31 St Thomas St - SE1
“Being situated so high up in the Shard”, this glossy Asian venue (part of the HK-based Aqua group) on the 33rd floor of the UK’s highest building has “one of, if not THE best outlook in London”, making it “perfect for any celebration, with atmospheric lighting to boot in the evening”. The stratospheric expense of a meal here, though, dampens its ratings. Fans say, “yes, you pay a premium, but the food is amazing” and “beautifully presented”. But even such supporters can still leave “feeling totally fleeced”, or that it’s “insanely reliant on the outlook” given a bill that “arrives like a dragon’s fire in the face”. This is particularly keenly felt by those who encountered incidents of “haphazard” service.
16. TING, Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard
British, Modern restaurant in London Bridge
Level 35, 31 St Thomas St - SE1
“The views are fantastic, especially if you get a window seat” at this 35th-floor venue at the top of the Shard. It’s open from breakfast (Asian or Western) onwards, via lunch and afternoon tea to dinner, when there’s an Asian-inflected menu where items like Glazed Cauliflower “Steak” with Couscous, Coconut & Lime Foam rub shoulders with more wholeheartedly Oriental dishes such as Bo Xao Luc Lac Five Spices Beef. Especially by the standards of the venues in the Shard, moans about prices are most notable by their absence.
17. Chinese Cricket Club
Chinese restaurant in City
Crowne Plaza, 19 New Bridge St - EC4
For a Chinese meal in the City, a number of reporters recommend this venue at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Blackfriars (fka the Crowne Plaza, reopened post-refurb in summer 2023). The unusual name marks the debut of the Chinese national cricket team in 2009, the year the restaurant opened. Classic dishes range from dim sum and Peking duck to xiao long bao.
18. Master Wei
Chinese restaurant in Camden
13 Cosmo Place - WC1N
“Gloriously textured noodles and flavoursome sauces” draw a wide-ranging crowd (including plenty of Chinese students studying nearby) to Wei Guirong’s “friendly” Shaanxi canteen near Russell Square. It’s a sibling to Xi’an Impression near the Emirates Stadium and the new Dream Xi’an at Tower Bridge. Top Menu Tip – “for the price you pay, the cold chicken in sesame sauce and the biang biang noodles are amazing”.
19. Baozi Inn
Chinese restaurant in Southwark
34-36 Southwark Street - SE1
“Brilliant, lip-numbing” northern Chinese cooking has put this Soho fixture from Wei Shao firmly on the map, and it serves a flexible menu of skewers, noodles and rice, wok dishes and other dim sum options. Some feel its Borough Market offshoot is “weak” by comparison (“it’s as if the Soho one benefits from the proximity of Chinatown but they don’t expect anyone with any discernment in SE1!”).
20. Red Farm
Chinese restaurant in Covent Garden
9 Russell Street - WC2B
2023 Review: This modern pan-Asian in Covent Garden – an import from NYC – offers “playful dim sum”, alongside other “cut-above” dishes. There are “relaxed long tables for groups or cosy red-checked spots for two diners”, and the atmosphere is set by the “fun 90s playlist and friendly team”.
View full listings of 88 Chinese Buckhurst Hill Restaurants
Popular Buckhurst Hill Restaurant Searches
Buckhurst Hill Restaurant News