Leong's Legends

I went today for lunch and contrary to what other people say the door was opened! Once inside they showed me where to seat without too much eye contact as mentioned from other reviewers. I didn't know but I guessed that I had to tick with a pen the dishes that I wanted on a copy of the menu and give to them. I am not sure how to interpreter this but I will try. Maybe just an originality or to avoid misinterpretation in the spoken language or maybe is too tiring to speak, not a clue! I ordered Prawn Dumplings, Prawn and Pork Siu Mai, Prawn Rolls Stuffed with Minced Garlic and Prawn & Celery Cheung Fun. (You might think that I like Prawns!) I had them in two slots which was good, even though I wouldn't think that if they served them all at once there was danger for them to go cold. Try to lay down a layer of asbestos on your taste buds, the dishes are seriously hot. I enjoyed the lot even though my favourite were the Prawn Rolls. Not to sure on the combination of the Prawns with the celery, a touch to sweet I thought. I also must say that although the prawns were big and juicy on the flavour side they didn't score as well. Unfortunately it is not just this restaurant I have experienced a similar thing in other restaurants. I went to this one to have a break from New World were I have been going for the last 30 years!!!! Although it is still good the prices have gone up quite a lot in recent times, I will definitely come back to Leong.

Photos at www.grumblinggourmet..com

Whatever you do, don’t turn up to Taiwanese institution Leong’s Legend without all your party present… I’d have had a better reaction standing outside a school offering peeks at my etchings than having the temerity to arrive friendless at Leongs. On learning that my guest was running late I was made to stand on the staircase, like a chubby schoolboy waiting to see the headmaster, until she arrived. It may have slightly classier decor than other Chinatown joints but the welcome and service are reassuringly brusque.

We were there on recommendation for the weekend dim sum menu, I’ve become slightly obsessed by the dainty Oriental tapas of late. Once I’d persuaded them that I did have someone joining me and wasn’t some sort of solo dining restaurant pest, I took advantage of my guest’s tardiness and got my ordering on. She arrived as the food did (or possibly the other way round), my social pariah status at an end. At an average of £3-4 a plate, £25 will more than cover two hungry souls.

It was all fresh and seemingly home made, standout were their siu leung bau, or soup dumplings, steamed purses filled with piquant broth and a hunk of garlicky pork mince. There’s nothing finer than taking one of these bad boys onto your spoon, biting the tip off and sucking the fresh hot salty liquor out. At £5.50 for eight pieces, they’re also very, very good value and an acceptable lunch in their own right. The char sui bau are also excellent versions of the pillowy soft steamed BBQ buns filled with anunctuous porky sauce. We worked our way through a number of other steamed options and a portion of fresh turnip puffs. If I had one, tiny, criticism it would be that the noodle wrapper on the cheung fun was too thick and chewy but that’s the only thing I could score them down for.

The menu goes wider than dim sum, and once you’ve got past the front door it’s cleaner and friendlier than a number of other places along the strip. You wouldn’t have a problem bringing clients or parents here and for a weekend lunch service without the frenetic trolley action of New World I’d be happy to recommend Leongs. I’ll definitely be back, just as soon as I can get my friends to arrive on time.

Leong’s legend used to be my favourite restaurant in chinatown but I was greatly disappointed on my most recent visit. The service was horrendous – staff were extremely rude and gave attitude to several customers – even turning a pair away because they did not want to give them a table that seated 4. The quality of food has declined with portions being much smaller and less flavourful. There is a mandatory service charge which they do not even advertise to the customer. I will not be going here again which is unfortunate.

The food is good, can’t complain about it. Would give it 4 stars, if there wasn’t the poor service for a Chinese restaurant. There are too few staff around to look after the customers.

Quirky entrance - you have to knock the door to be let in. Once inside, you find the place is dark and lit with soft yellow lamps above the tables. The staff are brusque, but not rude. The clientele are usually Chinese.
I always go for the Kung-Pao chicken which is covered liberally in fried dry-roasted red chillies. Excellent flavour, though I wish the chicken were cooked a bit more. For a drink, I recommend the Taiwanese milk ice tea, a good accompaniment to the food. The Garlic beef is also good. Portions are small however. Overall, you will come away paying around 15-20 quid per person - not cheap. If you plan on visiting - go for the Kung-Pao chicken.

Oh dear, what a terrible experience...we entered the restaurant and were asked to sit upstairs, then were led into an empty back room. Considering the first room wasn't full I asked if we could sit there instead..."what difference does it make?" I was asked...note to leong staff...if it makes no difference then why ask?

We ordered some food asking to share some dumplings for a starter, these came after the mains (which arrived suspiciously quickly). The bamboo rice (which looked like a sauce of some kind) sat on our table with no explanation until we said we were waiting for it...fortunately a friendly customer explained what it was.

Bad service, sub-par food, no itemised bill: never going back.

For photos, see Greedy Diva @ http://greedydiva.blogspot.com/2010/11/leongs-legends.html

Leong's Legends is one of the better places to eat on a small budget in London's Chinatown.

Decor is simple but smart - dark wood, low lighting; it's like a busy teahouse. The Taiwanese fare - while it might not always blow you away - is a cheerful skip ahead of most of its near neighbours. And it's a nice change in style from the tide of Cantonese restaurants in the area.

Service is fairly swift and impersonal, but not rude in my experience (although there have been reports of frostiness in the past) - which to my mind is perfect for a good value, tasty meal in Chinatown. I'm not expecting anyone to fold my napkin when I go to the loos.

TPG can not go anywhere without trying the duck. The crispy, aromatic duck has good flavour, if a fraction dry on our recent visit. A plentiful serve of pancakes, spring onion, cucumber and a sweet hoisin sauce accompany it.

The ma po tofu adds some spice to our table - it definitely has a kick. The ginger chicken is sweet and tender, with crunchy slithers of ginger and onion to liven up the textures. The sweet, tender braised pork belly is also one to try.

Leong's Legends is any easy contender for a regular budget haunt in Chinatown. It has a good reputation for dim sum too, and particularly the xiao long bao (steamed soupy, meaty dumplings). Just watch out for the queue if you arrive during prime time. Expect to pay just over £20 for 2 people.

Please visit my blog for photos and more...
http://hungryinlondon.com/2010/10/leongs-legend-chinatown/

I love going for dim sum on a Sunday for brunch/lunch. Most restaurants serving dim sum in Chinatown however are rather mediocre and the Taiwanese Leong’s Legend is a pleasant exception. Naomi and I were lucky on this particular occasion as we had to queue only for 10 minutes to get a table – when we left, there were easily 30 people waiting. So it is popular and understandably so. Its name refers to a popular Chinese novel and even though I think the atmosphere is much nicer than in other eateries in Chinatown I thought the decoration was weird (but weird-funny). We are talking about for instance lances (I think at least that’s what they were meant to be) and pictures of scary looking heroes/villains (?). The service is quick. Too quick if you ask me, it was a real struggle to finish a dish without having snatched the plate away from us. And not to be able to finish the food would have been a real shame indeed as it was very tasty.

The steamed Prawn Dumplings (2.50) were very flavoursome.

I particularly loved the Roast Duck and Chestnut Puffs (2.20). The pastry was light and the filling delicious. A perfect winter dish and so cheap!

The Steamed Sticky Rice with Chicken Wrapped in Lotus Leaf (3.20) was definitely not the prettiest dish I have ever eaten. Hidden within the rice were some pieces of chicken (as well as chicken bones) and again chestnuts. I would not necessarily order it again but it was nice enough.

The Fillet Seabass Cheung Fun (2.80) were my favourite. I loved the slippery consistency of the rice noodles and the fish inside was perfectly cooked and nicely seasoned.

We dived into the Roast Pork Buns (1.80) as if there was no tomorrow, this was what was left when I realised I hadn’t taken a picture. They were fluffy and very tasty.

For all this including 2 jasmin tea we paid something like 16 pounds and we were definitely had enough to eat. An excellent place if you don’t mind queuing and the rather brusque service. Apparently the non-dim sum Taiwanese dishes are very nice too, I shall give them a try next time.

For full ramblings, check out http://thehappinessprojectlondon.wordpress.com

Across the road from Leong's Legends is De Hems, a great Dutch pub on Macclesfield Street which was perfect because it had good music, an upstairs room with free places to sit (in Soho - hurrah) and Lindeboom, nice Dutch beer on tap.

Two pints later and we headed across the road for some Taiwanese food and wine. This was my second visit to Leong’s Legends, the first involving duck’s tongue (gristly bleurghness) and thousand year old egg (surprisingly yum and I don’t think its actually a thousand years old..). Last time I was here I promised Pip I wouldn’t blog about it to keep it a secret. That was until I realised it was much loved and written about by London’s food bloggers…

Service is good and efficient and very quick even though they were chocka. We got all our food at once and seemed to be in and out fairly quickly – so perhaps not ideal for a lingering romantic meal but I guess you could just take your time eating. We got a bottle of Argentinian red and ordered the food – crab dumplings (xiao long bao) and bean curd with thousand year old egg to start; and pork belly and pork with green beans for mains.

Thousand year old egg was yummer than it sounds although bean curd is an aquired taste I think! Crab dumplings – Time Out raved about them, we thought they were good but not crabby enough. Pork belly was super tender and fatty, delicious…Pork with green beans was lovely, one of my favourites – delicate, spicy, meaty.

After a bottle of wine, all this grub and very full bellies, we paid £23 each and were on our way sofa-ward again. Great value and delicious food, perfect for those who know and want authentic Asian food, or who like me are happy to give most things (apart from jellyfish) a go. Try to order stuff you’ve never had before – what a shame to order crispy duck pancakes when there’s way more on offer.

For fairly authentic Taiwanese in an evocative (if kitsch) “1120 AD” setting, check out Leong’s Legends on Macclesfield Street (or its sister restaurant, Leong’s Legends II, around the corner on Lisle Street). When you go, give the flavoursome xaio long ba burst-in-your-mouth soup dumplings a sampling. Delish. The porkbelly's pretty awesome too. In fact, everything I've tried on the menu is yummy. Finding a decent place to eat can in Chinatown can be hit or miss. Leong's is a reliable standby that's clean, with good service and offers a tasty assortment of Taiwanese food.

The dim sum menu at Leong's Legend is a lot shorter than most Chinatown dim sum menus but even its reduced list threw up quite a few dishes I'd not seen before, most of which ended up on our order. The waiter said we'd probably ordered too much, advised us to drop a dish or two and said we'd still need to move to one of the bigger tables as our order wasn't going to fit on the two person table we had. This necessitated a move to a four seater in the window, which had the added bonus of fantastic natural light for photographs. Leong's Legend's interior is highly stylised by Chinatown standards. Whilst I love the functional nature of the cafe style melamine interiors it is nice to go a bit upmarket sometimes too and the wooden furniture and mood lighting here (and in Baozi Inn) make a refreshing change.

For food I tried to order things I'd not really had before, the menu isn't the most descriptive though and so we ended up with some har gau (down as prawn dumplings, I should've figured really) which wasn't a bad thing as they were good har gau. A glutinous wrapper with distinct prawn and crunchy water chestnut filling.

I'm a big fan of turnip cake but the menu had a crispy fried turnip dish on, which I'd never heard of before, and so we got our turnip fix for the day there instead. This consisted of a gloopy grated turnip filling surrounded by a buttery, flaky pastry outside. Quite delectable. A cheung fun of pork and preserved vegetable was also new to me but not quite as detectable. I was hoping for pungent, salty vegetable but whilst it added some crunch I found it was a bit bland.

I couldn't let the Taiwan Kebab Roll pass me by and I'm glad I didn't, a sheet of char siu bao style dough was wrapped around a melt in the mouth slice of braised pork belly, salted vegetable provided both texture and piquancy to cut through the rich meat.

Sui Long Bao (soup filled dumplings) only came in a portion of eight, so large by dim sum standards, but there was no danger of them not being finished. The pastry was delicate and the ginger vinegar added a welcome sharpness to the savoury broth as they burst into your mouth.

It wouldn't normally be something I ate with dim sum but my brother loves fried rice and so we ordered a portion. There was none of his favourite egg fried rice and so we went with chicken fried rice instead, a dish that gave me my first ever encounter with pine nuts in Chinese food. I'm not sure if they're a traditional ingredient or a bit of fusion cooking on their part but they were a welcome addition, adding both texture and a lovely toasted nutty element where they'd browned against the wok.

The mushroom and ham roll was a dish I'd never heard of before. It turned out to be leathery beancurd skin rolls wrapped around a filling of shredded wood ear fungus. I couldn't find any ham although its meatiness was discernible in the taste. A corn starch thick sauce and enoki mushrooms finished what was a very nice dish.

Won ton in spicy oil were in an egg-free wrapper and filled with pork. The spicy oil had a good kick to it, too much for my brother but perfect for me. The final dish was char sui bao, a common favourite and another request of the brother. They were pretty decent char sui bao, not out of this world bu good eating nonetheless.

We both really enjoyed our meal there, even if it was a bit of a struggle to get so much food down our throats - so much food that after a midday meal we didn't feel the need to eat again till gone 8.30pm. I think the fact that we did is testament to the quality of the dishes. Well worth a visit if you want a change from the usual Chinatown dim sum.

For photos of the food see here:

http://cookingthebooks.typepad.com/cooking_the_books/2009...

I went here last week to try xiao long bao! the dish was overly sweet, nothing like ones i tried before!

My friends ordered sweet and sour pork, that was decent and this steamed pork and egg dish!

service is slow and bad!

my friend's and me had bad stomache cramps straight after we left! As i had some of their portions my cramps came a few hours later!

The next morning I was burping acid and had to call the NHS to sort my acid reflux out!

NEVER EATING HERE again!

Full post @ www.thecattylife.com

Leong’s Legends (and its aptly named offspring Leong’s Legends Continues) is located on Macclesfield Street, adjacent to the hustling main drag of Gerrard Street (Leong’s Legends Continues is around the corner on Lisle Street). From the outside, it appears like a 16th century Chinese building, with solid dark wood walls, doors, panelling, everything. Through the heavy doors, the interior is much the time and you’re instantly transported back to the old days of Taiwan.

So on New Years Day it was maybe 1 degree celsius, and that’s me being generous. It was actually just freezing. Beating the lunch rush by a whisker, we sat and ordered copious amounts of all things small and round and steaming hot, plus some green things and a serve of sticky rice.

The dumplings (some steamed some boiled) were collectively delicious ~ they are actually adorably tiny, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to dim sum, and more importantly, these tiny packages pack a flavour punch which satisfied my dumpling whims and then some. We had the usual har gau (prawn dumplings) and also tried some garlic & chive and spicy dumplings, which were surprisingly spicy and hot tea, my friends, does not calm a tongue on fire. Lesson learned.

We also ordered a couple of serves of greens ~ broccoli cooked with garlic and dried anchovies and pea shoots, also cooked in garlic. ‘Tis not often I am impressed with vegetables, I mean veg is veg, is it not? But Leong’s Legends somehow cooks their vegetables in such a way that causes me to pause, taste, think and agree with myself that wow, goddamn that tastes good! I think it’s in the sauce. And their utter generosity with garlic, because you can never really get enough garlic.

But the dumplings and vegetables were hardly the stars of the show. A Leong’s Legends specialty, and I think why people come from far and wide, is their xiao long bao ~ tiny steamed buns filled with meat and steaming soup. The Leong’s Legends xiao long bao has a particularly thick skin, and at first I was a little unimpressed with this but really, a little thick skin ain’t so bad when you consider that the alternative is breaking the skin and losing the valuable soup.

I have no finesse. I’ll take thick skin any day.

The xiao long baos are tasty. Really really tasty. I’m guessing the secret’s in the soup ~ which is essentially melted solid meat gelatin which lines the insides of the buns. Ah, someone’s been reading up on wiki. Anyway, really flavoursome, really glad the skin is thick, really happy I didn’t puncture any buns with my chopsticks.

We also had the standard yum cha orders of fried turnip paste and char siu cheung which were good and the black sheep for the day was sticky rice with BBQ pork. I expected a BBQ pork version of lo mai gai, but what I got was a tower of sticky rice, topped with shredded BBQ pork and covered in a very odd, very sweet sauce. Not a fan, and still weirded out right now thinking about it.

All in all Leong’s Legends satisfied as it promised and the fact that it appeased my New Years Day hunger and gave my year a lovely foodie kick start won it infinitely more brownie points. I’ll be back.

I'm from Taiwan. I'm trying to be objective here. It's a wonderful thing to finally see a restaurant boasting its Taiwanese credentials in Chinatown. Sadly, the food does not live up to my expectation.

To start with, the seasoning is on the heavy side (way too much salt) and that really overwhelms some flavours of the ingredients. The oyster omelette I tried is one of my favourite Taiwanese dish and they really let me down: too little lettuce, too clumsy in presentation and I suddenly became very home-sick. The overall service is good but I can't help feeling any decent street food stall in Taiwan can easily beat what's been offered here. Come on!

It's always hard to know where to eat in Chinatown and uninteresting meals in a tacky decor are often around the corner.Leong's Legend is a simple, cheap and delicious restaurant offering tasty dishes for a quick dinner. The service is good and as the place is often full,they do rotate the tables quite quickly but if you do go there, it's not for a long romantic meal, it's just for great budget food. The atmosphere and setting is better than most of its neighbours with dark wood, low lights and small cubicles. The menu offers a wide choice of food which will please all palates but the shredded pork sticky rice and the pork belly rice are definites and succulent. For those who like a bit of fire, the large prawns or the chicken Kung Pao are divine!!!With a glass of (cheap) wine and about 4 dishes you end up having a bill around £30 and then, you're ready to go hit the cinema next door or have a wonder in Soho!

Leong’s Legend - Pics @ The London Foodie
(http://www.thelondonfoodie.co.uk)

I can’t think of a restaurant that attracts such a range of different opinions as Leong’s Legend. I had meant to visit it for some time but had been put off by some damning reviews by fellow bloggers. My curiosity got the better of me, and so I headed to Chinatown’s Macclesfield Street with an inquisitive but open mind.

At around 6:30pm, our group of 6 arrived at a very full and buzzing restaurant. We were soon greeted by the manager “Jade” who promised us a table if we returned in 30mins. He explained that bookings were not taken in the evenings, and that they operated on a first-come-first-served basis when seating their customers. We returned at the time agreed (by this time there was an enormous queue) and were soon shown to our table.

Our first impressions were good – the manager and staff were extremely polite and helpful (unlike in most reviews), the decor was elegant and the food looked delicious. Leong’s Legend’s interior is reminiscent of Hakkasan’s dark wood panelling and subtle lighting, but in a much more understated manner - it feels more like an old teahouse than a posh restaurant.

Some of the good write-ups, like that from World Foodie Guide, praised highly Leong’s Siu Loung Bao, its Braised Pork Belly and the Mini Kebab with Pork. We ordered these and other dishes and found, with only a few exceptions, that they were very good.

The “Legend’s Siu Loung Bao” (8pcs) @ £5 was indeed excellent. The skin was a tad too thick for my tate but the pork filling and delicious broth inside them more than made up for this. They were one of the best Xiao Long Bao (Shanghai Dumplings) I have had for a long time.

Leong’s “Crab Meat Siu Loung Bao” (8pcs) @ £6 also did not disappoint, they were just as good as their pork equivalent. I would strongly recommend ordering either of these XLB dumplings.

The star of the evening however was “Leong’s Braised Pork Belly” @ £6. The sauce was sweet and intensely flavoured while the meat was tender, utterly soft and delicious.

Since we had two children with us, we also shared a “Half Crispy Aromatic Duck” @ £14. This was good with plenty of meat and pancakes for all of us.

The “Aromatic Chilli Lamb” @ £6.80 was an interesting dish. I would not normally have ordered lamb at a Chinese restaurant before being introduced to Sichuanese cuisine a few years earlier. This dish was a delicious example of Sichuanese food, and one I would like to try again.

Another star dish of the evening was the “Aubergine with Mashed Garlic and Tao Pan Sauce” @ £5. These were by far the best stir fried aubergines I have ever had. Similar to Gourmet San’s Aubergine with Fish Fragrant Sauce, they were packed with flavour and the sauce was not too liquid. A real winner.

The other two accompanying dishes that we had were “Fried Special Noodle with Shredded Pork, Chives, Carrots and Onions” £4.80 and the “Bamboo Rice” £3.80. These were passable, and portion sizes were on the small side.

The “Taiwan Mini Kebab with Pork” @ £2.60 was flavoursome – the pork belly was slightly on the fatty side but the flavours were good, and together with the steamed dough, couscous and herbs made up a delicious dish.

Having had oyster omelette in Singapore many times previously, I was a little disappointed with Leong’s version “Fried Oysters Wrapped with Egg” @ £6.60. It contained tong choy (morning glory) which was an interesting addition, but the amount of oysters was not overly generous and it was a little dry. It was a mediocre version in comparison to its Singaporean equivalent.

Leong’s wine list was well prices with their white or red house wine starting at £12.50. We had two bottles of the Cuvee Le Bosq Blanc de Blancs at £12.50 – it was very easy drinking and partnered the food well. The total bill was £111 or £18.50 per person including 2 bottles of wine, tea for 6 people, soft drinks and service.

Verdict – Very good Taiwanese/Sichuanese dishes at reasonable prices in Chinatown. I would happily return to Leong’s Legend, particularly for their superb Xiao Long Bao (Shanghai Dumplings), and Braised Pork Belly. Good service.

Guys, I may not be from Taiwan, but the food in this restaurant rocks! It is like the dream come true fusion of Chinese and Japanese food and for 6£ you get two mains(that's the minimum per head) so be hungry. The decor is wooden throughout, a little bit dark but very intimate. Service was really fast and happy to joke about my attempt to pronounce my order. New favourite spot in Chinatown.

4 Star review from ages ago:

You will usually find this restaurant packed with diners, majority of them Chinese (testament to the authenticity of the food), altho you’ll see a growing number of discerning non-Chinese patrons these days.

If you’re expecting the usual Sweet and Sour Pork or Beef in Black Bean Sauce type of dishes, don’t bother coming to Leong’s Legend - the restaurant prides itself in offering chiefly popular Taiwanese home cooking, and street eats.

They do an excellent xiao long bao (steamed meat dumplings with a bit of soup in the wrap) - the texture of the dough skins are excellent, and seldom break, unless you’re really clumsy with your chopsticks. I tend to find the crab meat version tastier than the traditional ones. It’s excellent value at £6 for 8 morsels.

The Taiwanese Beef Noodles are excellent, as good as any I’ve tried in Taiwan, and portions are big, so you might want to order to share so as to have a good mix of dishes on your table.

One of the speciality is a stir fried beef dish with lots of garlic (priced around £9.80) - this was tasty, but portions were very small, although the fried garlic was very fragrant. I strongly recommend adding the fried garlic to your white rice.. adds a lot of flavour!

The fried oyster egg is a traditional Taiwanese street food, and I was surprised to find Leong’s Legend did a pretty decent job of it. I’d definitely order it again on my next visit.

Try the stew pork belly if you have a chance… the meat is tender (almost melts in your mouth), and the layer of fat across is flavoursome, if you’re not counting calories (or cholesterol)! I confess I removed the fat and skin before sinking my teeth in, but the gravy (excellent with rice!) with meat and a mouthful of white rice almost brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes. This is one of the best dishes on the menu.

The Pipa Tofu (tofu with stuffed meat and gravy) was a little disappointing, although tasty. I have had better, but it still makes a good dish with rice, if you like tofu dishes.

I would avoid the Lion’s Head Minced Meat Ball…as it was disappointingly dry and a little hard. There wasn’t enough salted egg on the big lump of meat to make it tasty, and all you get is a mouthful of rather bland minced pork.

There are so many other dishes on the menu I’ve yet to try, and I’m keen to head back again some time. This is definitely one of my favourite restaurants in Chinatown… it’s different because it does not serve you the boring formulaic dishes so easily found in more than half the restaurants in the area.

If you’re adventurous and lack the experience of venturing into a non-Cantonese Chinese restaurant… try Leong’s Legend. You might be pleasantly surprised.

1 star review from 4 Jul 2009:

I feel duty bound to add on to my previous review. My most recent venture to Leong’s Legend ended in near disaster. The food quality has dropped so much, I would be horrified to recommend this to any of my friends.

The fried oyster egg dish was so starchy you could probably use the corn starch to plaster your leaky roofs. There was hardly any oysters in the dish, and it was truly the worst fried oyster egg I’ve ever had in my life.

The stew pork belly with rice dish was also a tad disappointing - there was too many layers of fat on the 4 small portions, such that you would be lucky if you could even get more than a mouthful of meat from each bite (more like a nibble here and there if you intend to skip the fats). Although still tasty, the dish was rather dry, and the meat was tough and chewy. Definitely not their signature dish anymore (neither is the oyster egg!).

I ordered a new dish this time - one of the chef’s recommendation, preserved vege and minced pork vermicelli soup.. this turned out rather tasty, if you like light, soupy dishes.

The crab meat xiao long bao (shanghai dumplings) were still good and flavoursome.

All in all, I’d be surprised if it was the same chef who cooked my delicious meals the last few trips.

I am still stewing in disappointment regarding my last visit, and will not be going back any time soon. I’d give it at least half a year before I try Leong’s Legend again.

I’ve only been here for lunchtime Dim Sum, which was variable - very good soup dumblings, but not so good fried dough sticks. Everything else was quite nice and not too expensive, and tea was topped up regularly.

The staff sorted me out a chair at the end of the table and a table setting when I turned up late and seemed efficient but nothing special.

Not a bad place but nothing particularly special either. I did rather like the soup dumplings though.

I went to Leong’s last night with two Chinese colleagues. The restaurant is a semi-Taiwanese themed restaurant that is in China Town in London.

The menu and decor of the restaurant are appealing as the place is reputed to be themed around 'Water Margin’, which I understand to relate to a Robin Hood style legend in ancient China… :)

Onto the food…

We ordered soup (Chicken and Herb -speciality), Pork Belly, Glass Noodles, some steamed dumplings, spicy vegetables and so forth. I’ve not named all the dishes formally, some were marked 'must tries’.

The food when it arrived was poor. The menu vastly exagerates both the size of portions and the quality. To give you an example Pork Belly is not meant to be ALL fat! But yes, we had 90% fat and 10% meat. In addition when you run out of a starter the normal thing to do is not cook one portion of it when three are ordered.
Normally you goto the kitchen, find out there aren’t enough portions and tell the customers so they can re-order rather than having two customers having no dish!

Besides from the Pork belly, the other dishes tasted decent, especially the dumplings and the vegetables. If the service hadn’t been so poor this would have been 3*

Onto service. This was the worst service I’ve had in Chinatown I can remember. I won’t go into the details more than saying that some of the waitresses were very rude, including throwing menus, making rude comments and finally shouting at us when we complained to the manager.

The manager gave us a 10% discount, and removed the 'optional’ gratutity from the bill, which was a needed gesture…

Find somewhere else, there’s plenty to offer in Chinatown including places where the customer is treated at a reasonable level.