Where to eat in Chinatown London
While you think that eating in chinatown is easy, given that the streets are literally stacked with restaurants, it is actually fairly difficult. Crowds of people and many of the restaurants focused towards tourists it’s hard to distinguish which places serve quality food. A good rule of thumb is to avoid anything with a buffet, and the main street with the lanterns, as the side streets surrounding actually has the better restaurants, both in terms of quality and price.
Good Friend Chicken
14 Little Newport St, West End, London WC2H 7JJ
This is a tiny takeaway place on a chinatown side street that specialised on taiwanese fried chicken. My favourite, on the picture, is the fried chicken skin. Not only do you get delicious crispy chicken in massive amounts, you get to choose the seasoning on top of it. I tend to go for a mix of Sichuan chili, cheese and seaweed, but it also come in other flavours for example sour plum or more common flavours such as cumin or curry. Go get yourself a bag immediately!
Taiyakiya
If you haven’t had these Japanese fish shaped treats before you have been missing out. There are a couple of other places in chinatown making them as well, but this is the place to go. And don’t worry, the fish shape has nothing to do with the filling, they come with both sweet and savoury alternatives, such as sweet read bean, nutella or ham cheese and kimchee tofu. I would say go straight for the savoury ones, the kimchi cheese is my go to.
Curry House CoCo Ichibanya
17-18 Great Newport St, Covent Garden, London WC2H 7JE
An exception to my no chain rule. So much an exception as it is one of the only chains that is a must go to in my mind. And don’t let the look of it fool you, it is “ugly delicious”. You might have had katsu curry before, but this is it done right! You can choose from a variety of meats, the spice level of the curry sauce and loads of different add on toppings. I will just say: get the cheese topping. Not only does it add a creaminess to the dish and lower the spiciness a little, cheese just makes life better in general.
Pleasant Lady
This is what might be Europes only jianbing stall. It’s a common street food, usually for breakfast, in china, but i have never seen or heard about it anywhere else in Europe. And it is good. It is a savoury pancake with filling often with egg and a wonton cracker to make it crispy. Here you also get herbs, cucumber, chili paste and meat of your choice (or veggie) I would recommend the lamb filling. For being an unpretentious whole in the wall, literally, it is oh so good.
This is where you come to test your spice level! Food is authentic Sichuan and best enjoyed in groups (as then you can order more dishes, each one is fairly large) It is also has a surprisingly fancy atmosphere, compared to what you get in most Chinese restaurants, which to be fair is a massive advantage. Pictured are my to favourite dishes, dried fried beans (干煸四季豆) and spicy pieced chicken (辣子鸡丁) with the latter one being a spicy challenge…
Hot pot is a must! And there have been several places popping up in chinatown over the last couple of years. In my opinion the taste isn’t necessarily better in one place than the others, and there is other places with better value for money than here. But it is the most accessible if you are new to hotpot. Menu is clearly in english, service is amazing and will guide you through the process. Don’t be afraid to go in for the spice here, as it is partly meat and veg you cook on the table in chili broth. Must orders a lamb slices and fish tofu (Trust me on this one. Sounds gross, tastes amazing) The restaurants has loads of extra little perks like free side dishes and fruit, built in charger in the tables and the waiting room is part of the experience with free snacks and free manicures (try to think of another restaurant that has that)
Din Tai Fung
This isn’t technically chinatown as it is located in covent garden, but it is amazing taiwanese food and only a short walk away. This is the restaurant that popularised the soup dumpling, so that is obviously a must order here. Other than that go for a mix of dumplings that seems appealing to your taste and get the crispy prawn pancake while you are here. (you can skip the noodles and desserts though) If it is your first time eating soup dumplings, ask the staff to show you how to do it, and show up prepared to wait for about 1h for a table, as it is walk in only.
Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream
32 Newport Ct, West End, London WC2H 7PQ
Turns out chinatown is a pretty good place for desserts (and more obviously bubble tea). On this small street you get several dessert takeaways, with this Filipino shop being one of the best. And the thing to get here is the taro bilog. It is pretty much an ice cream filled donut, and for those of you unfamiliar with taro, it is a sweet purple root vegetable. While it seems like that should be nowhere desserts or ice cream it works perfectly. We tried the milo (milk chocolate) one as well, but ended up having a fight over who got to finish the taro one.
Baozi Inn
A classic, and probably one of the cheaper places you can go for dinner in central london. Specialising in baozi (the big more ‘bready’ dumplings in the front left corner of the picture) dumplings and noodles, it is difficult to order the wrong thing here. Dan dan noodles are a safe and classically tasty bet.
This is a speakeasy cocktail bar decorated as an opium bar. they do have dim sum as well, but I would recommend sticking to the cocktails. The entrance is hidden in plain sight in the middle of the main chinatown street and the bar is divided into different themed rooms, with my favourite being the peony tea room. It is hidden even within this hidden bar and has a fun atmosphere with delicious drinks.