London's Best Chinese Restaurants

A path breaker in the North-Chinese-European fusion cuisine. Not gourmet but a trendy place with a very cool London crowd.

What chef Andrew Wong has done in his modern Chinese 2 Michelin star restaurant in Pimlico is unique. It's almost impossible to get a table, and I’ve had many wonderful meals here. Such a beautiful place.

The hand-rolled dim sun parcels at Mama Lan in Brixton Village are without question, list-worthy. Small parcel Beijing dumplings, or gyozas, are made onsite, and rolled into bitesize servings of five. Served alongside pickled vegetables they come in ‘beef and spring onion’, ‘pork with Chinese leaf and woodear mushrooms’ and ‘Chinese leaf and carrot’. All vegetables are sourced from the doorstep in Brixton Village Market and put to exquisite use.The beef noodle soup in its dark, rich broth with carrots, thinly-sliced leeks and red chilies is probably the best you’ll find anywhere outside of Beijing. The quality of the beef is exceptional; no surprise as the meat is free-range and supplied by swanky butchers, The Ginger Pig. Served liberally and in thick, greedy chunks, it’s the crown jewel in the bowl. The broth is steaming hot and heightened by the addition of lip-tingling red chilies. The noodles are prepared on-sight in front of you while you order. The pasta is rolled out, flowered and tossed; then cut into squares, flowered again before being cut into noodle-strands before boiling. The freshness and quality is evident immediately.

Great place for dim sum.Everything is freshly made on site.All dumplings, baos and wontons are delicious. Cheap and cheerful place for dinner with friends in the heart of Covent Garden.

This restaurant has built its steadfast reputation on serving a selection of deeply comforting Chinese favourites.Located within the iconic Dorchester hotel, this Chinese restaurant has built its steadfast reputation on serving a selection of deeply comforting Chinese favourites. I enjoyed a brilliant array of pastel-coloured parcels and gelatinous, shrimp-stuffed har gau. The Dover sole dumplings, with that added chopped chilli garnish, was silky and luscious, and packed a pleasing punch. The crab meat noodles, umph! Great chunks of sweet crab meat, sumptuous and luxurious. The caviar and Wagyu beef taro puffs, like delicate, fine assembly clouds of buttery nivarna. The mushroom dumpling, light and airy and laced with truffle. Then a brilliant sliced (not shredded) Peking duck with its dark, blistered crackling skin. Oh, and the nai wong bao (steamed custard buns)… you gotta try these!

Steamer baskets of joy! Nestled away just past the bustling Borough Market are London’s best dumplings. With classic flavours of prawn and chive and delicious pork bao buns, this place is well versed in the language of dumpling. Every dumpling is handmade in the window, you can taste the quality.

Local Xinjiang and Sichuan style dishes in a simple restaurant in Camberwell, well known for hand-pulled noodles. I’ve been coming to Silk Road for over 10 years and it’s still my favourite spot in London. Hot, no frills food that tastes like home-cooking and the dumplings remind me of the kind i used to eat for lunch as a student in Beijing. I also like that you can have a feast with a group of friends and spend less than £20 a head. The food comes out instantly and is piping hot, you’re usually in and out in less than an hour too. There aren’t many other places that do this kind of comforting, simple cooking so well with no gimmicks. The taste of black vinegar, cumin and chilli is what I taste when I think of Silk Road. Their cabbage dish has to be one of the greatest cabbage dishes of all time.

Arguably the best Cantonese cooking in LondonSome serious lunchtime gorging at Dim Sum Duck in King’s Cross, what the UK restaurant critic Fay Maschler (of the Evening Standard and Tatler) has called “arguably the best Cantonese cooking in London” (the peerless Marina O'Loughlin lauds it too). Please excuse the low-quality photos, but dim sum baskets were steaming and arrived thick and fast - and I was ravenous. Plus, who has the patience for a Vogue-style photoshoot - this is food to be eaten, not stage designed. A whopper won ton soup with noodles was plentiful and would have been sufficient, but on we went… piping hot xiao long bao with a deliciously soupy mixture and shredded ginger, then prawn dim sum with chopped chives, crystal shrimp dumplings, pork & shrimp siu mai, shao mai and a couple of fluffy char siu bao. And breathe.

Cantonese fast food with queues around the block. Simple menu - roasted meats including peking duck & dumplings. Three uncles is Cantonese fast food done well - no greasy plastic containers. A hipster small menu chinese, great flavours. Their stars of the menu are the roasted meats (can be done as a combo) with either noodles or rice. Very tight on space to sit inside so be prepared to collect your food and walk to a nearby bench.

Quick, casual, warm and tasty - the most perfect combo for a noodle spotNear Brick Lane, in London, you’ll find this hand-pulled chinese place that serves some very tasty specialties from the wheat filled region of Shaanxi, in northwestern China.Slurp your cares away with ultra savoury broths (almost always on the spicy side of life) with several combinations of beef, pork and vegetables. Choose between belt, thin or rice noodles and don’t skip instant classics like the hand-pulled noodles with braised beef and broth or the handmade traditional pork burgers. It’s not exactly the best place for a first date or for a fancy business meeting - the whole spot has a fast-food vibe in its decor and it’s very hard to avoid pesky stains - but it’s definitely a must.