Royal China Restaurant

I definitely miss dim sum back in California but this place gives me a quick fix. The shu mai was a bit disappointing but overall the food was decent. We tried the bbq pork cheurng fun, don tats, and the pork dumplings. The cheurng fun had a generous amount of bbq pork and the noodles were soft and tender. The don tats came straight out of the oven with a perfectly flakey crust and creamy custard.

One of my favourite chinese restaurants in the area.

Good food and a very nice interior too! Great for a special occasion.
The service was a bit slow though..

Chicken satay was like rubber. Everything else way too salty. Not as good as i remembered (3 yrs ago).

good chinese restaurant - especially their dim sum

Seriously yummy and affordable dim sum. A little hard to get a seat on a sunday but otherwise really worth the wait and their cheung fuen is really good too.

I have visited this resto since 16 years ago when I was still in university. Visited again last week for dim sum, the dim sum still maintained its high quality and did not let us down.
Their dim sum is so reputable that you can buy certain items frozen from selected chinese groceries place and enjoy them at home.

Simply the best dim sum place in London. The fried rice is amazing too!

I have been to Royal China over a dozen times in the past 5 years and the place constantly delivers quality Chinese cuisine every time.

The service is very good and the food is excellent. They are renowned for their dim sum on Sundays but do excellent crispy duck and noodles. Having been to Hong Kong and stuffed my face there - Royal China is as good.

Great for big parties.

Royal China Queensway - Pics The London Foodie
(http://www.thelondonfoodie.co.uk)

I have been coming to Royal China (RC) for the last 12 years, and have nearly always enjoyed my dim sum there. My preferred branch is their flagship restaurant on Queensway, and the only place where I can have one of my most loved dim sum dishes “Baked Seafood Rice in Creamy Portuguese Sauce”.

Hakkasan is another favourite dim sum joint, however I find myself going less frequently to the West End as the years go by. Dim sum at Hakkasan is a completely different ball game (just as good but in a different way), and about 50% dearer.

I went to Royal China last Sunday on 27th December 09 and was a bit surprised to find the place with no queue at 1pm. On the one hand, I was pleased that I would not have to wait for a table (RC does not take bookings for dim sum at weekends), but on the other, I felt that it lacked the crazy and vibrant atmosphere seen at the weekends.

Staff were also rather uninterested, looking tired and sometimes being almost brusque. I was surprised to experience this considering RC charges 12.5% for service charges, and the level of service is usually good.

Royal China’s black and gold décor is surprisingly elegant. Despite the lack of windows, the Queensway branch does not feel oppressive but comfortable and roomy.

The most successful dim sum dishes we ordered were:

“Prawn & Chive Dumplings” @ £3.15 – these were as good as ever with the rice wrapper being silken and very delicate and the chives filling delicious.

“Pork and Radish Dumplings” @ £2.65 – I love white radish (daikon), and the addition of peanuts makes this one of my favourite dumplings.

“Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf” @ £3.50 – with a delicious filling of chicken and mushrooms, encased in sticky rice, and wrapped up in lotus leaves, this steamed dim sum is stodgy but well flavoured.

“Royal China Cheung Fun” @ £3.60 – I normally order the prawn version but as a friend wanted to try the beef cheung fun, we opted for this dish which contains one of each, prawn, beef and char siu pork. As usual, the cheung fun wrapper was delicate, silken and contrasted beautifully with the meaty fillings.

“Ho Fun Noodles with Pork and Enoki Mushrooms” @ £8 – I hardly ever have noodles with my dim sum, however I was glad that we order it. It was an excellent dish and accompanied our other dim sum choices well.

“Baked Seafood Rice with Creamy Portuguese Sauce” @ £9.60 – I haven’t yet discovered what this yellow creamy sauce is made from but it is utterly scrumptious, to the point that I dream about it. Meaty scallops, prawns, squid and fish are mixed with egg fried rice and topped with the creamy Portuguese sauce. A “must” on any visits to RC Queensway.

The less successful dim sum dishes we ordered were:

“Prawn & Coriander Dumpling” @ £2.65 – the rice wrapper was unusually thick on this occasion and I struggled to taste any coriander in the dumpling.

“Roast Pork Bun” @ £2.65 – I love this and, as with Cheung Fun and Seafood Rice, order them on every visit. This time, the dumplings had considerably shrunk in size and the char siu pork filling was rather ungenerous.

“Yam Paste & Pork Dumplings” @ £2.65 – I ordered this in error (I had meant to order the pan fried turnip paste with dried meats which is sensational) and unluckily they were rather greasy and nothing special.

“Fried Mixed Meat Dumpling” @ £2.65 – again this was slightly greasy and lacking in filling. I struggle to find anything positive to comment on this one.

“Roast Pork Puff” @ £2.65 - I normally enjoy these triangular beauties similar to Brazilian & Portuguese snacks, but unfortunately this was another disappointing choice as the puffs were served stone cold and tasted a bit tired.

I normally come out of RC feeling really pleased with the food and overall experience. I have to admit that on this occasion, I was disappointed as some of the dishes were not as good as previously and the staff had a tired and unfriendly look about them.

I still enjoyed the Baked Seafood Rice, the Cheung Fun and a couple of other steamed dumplings though so I hope that coming 2010, RC will pick up again and standards will go back to where they were.

The total bill came to £74.40 including service and Chinese tea for 4 people @ £1.20 per person. At £18.60 per person I believe this is still a good value meal in London.

Verdict – Variable quality dim sum and unfriendly staff made my latest visit to Royal China a disappointing one. Some star dishes and very reasonable prices warrant a “revisit” which I will report in the very near future.

Authentic Chinese cuisine in London. I went here with a group of friends; and the four of us got a selection of dim sum plates to share, and found we couldn’t manage the main courses as we were so full and satisfied after our starters.

The food is well cooked and of a good quality and fresh, delivered to the tables promptly by friendly, polite and efficient staff.

We had the classic items such as Sui Mai and crispy duck, which we had served shredded, with pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and plum/hoi sin sauce so we could make our own wraps, and the amazing steamed dumplings and cheung fun.

Having been so impressed by this visit, I did return (on numerous occasions) and the main courses are just as impressive, with a good value for money. Again, I tend to go for classic dishes such as sweet and sour prawns with rice or roasted duck but I have never had a bad experience and it’s the best restaurant on a street which has many Chinese establishments in close proximity.

You could call this the baby sister of Royal China Club: It’s cheaper and the food (and decor) is certainly less impressive. But I can assure you that the dim sum here is still a step up from what you’ll get at some Chinatown restaurants.

For around 12-15 pounds per person, you can get a filling meal of pure dim sum. Normally, I’d get the prawn har gau and shiu mai.

When I go with my friends, I tend to be there at 10.30 am for no reason, and I will always see that there are people there already waiting for it to open at 11am. But good food deserves this.

I have been lucky enough to have eaten Dim Sum at some of the best in Hong-Kong, and the quality of cooking here in the Royal China is comparable to the best there. The first time I ate here, just after getting back from Hong Kong, I was astonished, but after several visits, I now take it for granted. The service is polite and friendly. Also it very very cheap for what you pay for!

Royal China, as a posh Chinese restaurant, certainly looks the part with dark panels for the walls, low lighting, glass topped walls between dining sections, gold-plated cutlery and
waiters/waitresses dressed to the nines. If only their food lived up to these expectations!

For our meal, we started off with some wonton soup. The portion size was definitely not the biggest I’ve ever had and therefore I was expecting something special in the wonton itself. Well, though I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was horrible, it was nothing special.

We then moved on to our main course of Lobster Noodles (with ginger spring onion) with a side of bak choy in garlic. The Lobster Noodle is apparently one of Royal China’s signature dishes so once again I was expecting something stunning. The lobster itself certainly looked good but was let down by the noodle and overall taste. The sweetness and succulence of the lobster was let down by the fairly bland ginger spring onion sauce. I could barely taste the ginger and the only time I could get the flavour was when I was chewing on the gigantic ginger pieces! The noodles also failed to absorb any of the juices of the dish and in fact I would even say that I felt the noodles cheapened the dish’s overall appeal.

I hate to give Royal China negative press as the only other time I’ve been in here was for the dim sum (which was pretty good if on the expensive side) but sadly it was a thumbs horizontal for me tonight.

Several of my friends had been talking to me about this chinese restaurant and sugest that I should give it a try. Being an amateur of chinese cuisine, I finally decided to visit this place.
Here is my verdict: their dim sum is THE best in town. It's incredibly fresh and tasty.
Even if the staff is not very friendly (they're not bad but not the most welcoming people either), I'll definitely come back.