Rickmansworth, Chinese Restaurant Guide

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’.

“Very large Chinese restaurant” on the ground floor of Colindale’s Bang Bang Oriental Food Hall (with a sister venue in Chinatown) that has an “extensive menu” focused mainly on Cantonese cuisine. It’s “frequented by lots of Chinese diners” (always a good sign). Top Tip – it’s an easy visit as the site has a “large underground free car park”.

“If you’re talking street food, then just go along and take it all in!” – this vast Oriental food court in Colindale offers “20+ options, huge flavours and huge portions”. It’s “so much fun” but can be “hit and miss between the different units” – and watch the prices as “certain dishes are more expensive than in the Golden Dragon restaurant downstairs”. Top Tip – “bring Tupperware to take any left-over food home”.

“It might not be for a true aficionado of Asian food, but the welcome is genuine, the food is always meticulously cooked and presented, service standards are high, and it has pleased us for many years” – one report neatly encapsulates the strong virtues of this rather “glamorous”, “good-but-pricey” Chinese group: a family-owned chain with branches in Knightsbridge, Mill Hill, Wandsworth Common and Esher. “Why not save yourself the trip to Chinatown and enjoy a meal without the crowds, bad service, and soulless dining rooms!”

This Wembley fixture (with spinoffs in Hatch End and Kingsbury) is best known for its all-you-can-eat Indian vegetarian buffet with a choice of 45 items, including an Indo-Chinese selection with dishes such as chilli paneer. The family-owned business started out 40 years ago as a market stall.

“Well-supported and popular for its high quality” – this offbeat kosher Chinese has long been Hendon’s main contribution to London gastronomy. It’s always had a reputation for pushing the envelope pricewise, which it justifies with its consistent standards and relatively plush interior (panelled, paintings, table cloths).

The Lou family’s stalwart fixture is approaching its half a century in Acton (it opened in 1976). What’s sustained it over all these years? – a “consistently high standard of cooking, which combines with friendly service in a well-decorated dining room that’s usually nicely buzzing”. Top Menu Tip – “I’ve yet to have better spare ribs anywhere – including China!”

This stalwart family-run Chinese of over three decades’ standing is “always enjoyable” and continues to attract a high volume of consistent praise for somewhere in a trafficky suburban location (just north of Richmond, on the way to Kew).

At the foot of a large, Hong Kong-owned hotel beside Shepherd’s Bush Green gyratory, this modern (rather anodyne) dining room has built a reputation, since it opened nearly ten years ago, for “absolutely wonderful” dim sum and superior roast duck from a wide-ranging menu. The food rating dropped a notch this year on the back of one or two reports of “average” results.

“So consistent after all these years” – this “old-school local Malaysian-Chinese” in Swiss Cottage has “been going for ages”, but “you never tire of dining here” because “you know what you’re going to get and you enjoy it immensely”. Giles Coren, restaurant critic for The Times, was born in the next street and is a long-term regular, returning again and again for the “superb Singaporean laksa”. But while it’s “a cut above” and one of north London’s most popular destinations, don’t go expecting the earth (“everything is done well but it’s not amazing”).

A Swiss Cottage institution for more than half a century, this local Chinese venue (est. 1972) is in the classic (for London) Cantonese mould and still dependably well-rated on the food front.

Some of “the best Chinese roast duck and excellent char siu” can be found at this no-frills Cantonese in Queensway (with a sibling in Chinatown) – “if you can put up with the surroundings”.

“Good-to-very-good dim sum”, “excellent seafood” and “good duck” are the hallmarks of this “wonderful Cantonese” venue in a modern basement setting in Paddington Basin – although it has yet to recover the stellar ratings it achieved before the pandemic. Top Tip – it’s often recommended for a family meal with kids in tow.

“The best roast duck in the world? I have no idea, but it’s certainly superb” at these Cantonese canteens… and “you definitely don’t go for the ambience. No, You go for the duck… if you’re really smart, the roast pork… or even better, the pork and the duck!”. “But the service is comically, disastrously rude – and your arteries will probably thank you if you don’t go too often”. Launched 35 years ago in Queensway, the group now has outlets in Chinatown, Soho, the Hippodrome (Chop Chop), Colindale’s Bang Bang Oriental food hall and Oxford.

Almost everyone has walked past this 30-year fixture next-door to Queensway tube station at some point. Those who have dropped in for a meal have found “delicious and authentic Cantonese food”, including roast duck and seafood – “but don’t expect friendly service”. Top Menu Tip – “beef with black bean sauce and crispy noodles”.

“Fantastic vegan Sichuan food” – “bursting with spices and tastes” – makes any one of this “deservedly popular” trio in Islington, Golders Green and Spitalfields Market (from the team behind omnivore Xi’an Impression) “a go-to place if you want to eat vegan with an Asian twist”. “Don’t go because it’s vegan, but because the food is just so good!”

The first UK branch of one of China’s largest chains (with more than 6,000 branches around the world) opened without fanfare in early 2024, just off Hammersmith Broadway. You can eat anything you like, so long as it’s Malatang (hotpot): choose your own custom ingredients from the chiller cabinets lining the wall, place your order and you are called up when your broth has been prepared. A big TikTok hit with Asian students, it also got a thumbs-up from Daily Mail critic Tom Parker Bowles in his April 2024 review.