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Royal China queensway


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I had dim sum at the Royal China on queensway yesterday and it was excellent. I felt that it had slipped badly the last time I was there but it seems back on form. One of the specials was very good -- deep fried prawns in a crunchy almond coating. Everything else was spot on -- especially good cheung fen.

I just got back from San Francisco and was rather underwhelmed by the dim sum at Yank Sing which is meant to be the best in the city. Royal China was distinctly better -- and Hakkasan is a good two notches above that, but at a different price point of course.

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  • 1 month later...

Not convinced it's on form. 14 of us had lunch there on Sunday (admittedly the busiest time), and a lot of the dim sum slightly missed the mark - the fried ones a bit greasy, the curried squid oversauced - while the one seafood dish we had to fill the gaps after the dim sum had a high proportion of vegetables to seafood (although what seafood there was was very fresh. Considering we only had two beers and most of us were drinking tea or water, I thought the bill (over £300) for a rather ordinary meal was excessive. And there were bloody smokers everywhere.

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Better than Royal China [something I wrote a few weeks ago]

"Golden Dynasty - review

Ugg... just back from lunch in Chinatown with my best friend in London, G. Here to report that we discovered a new restaurant.

As with all Chinese restaurants, we measured our first impression proportionally to the number of Chinese customers eating in the restaurant. After peering in, we decided it was definitely worth a try. We had dim sum (what else can you have for lunch in Chinatown?). Nothing exciting, but what they had was very well done indeed (and for the same price as elsewhere). Dare I say it? Even better than Royal China. The turnip cake was crisp, the siew mais meaty (as opposed to prawny). G tasted the chive dumplings and declared that a yet before undiscovered ingredient in them (it remains undiscovered). The char siew baos were top dollar, sweet and sticky on the inside, soft and fluffy on the outside. And my favourite, hum shui gok, was absolutely perfect - crispy on the outside, sweet and gooey on the inside, and chalk full of wonderful ingredients! We were also very impressed that they served Bo Lei tea, which few restaurants do. Unfortunately, the xiao long baos had no soup in them. However, we should be fair and measure them against the like. So, compared to what I've had so far in London (except Hakkasan - but then again, Hakkasan should really be considered in a different genre), it was very tasty indeed. As expected, we ate too much (hence the "ugg").

Altogether a true dedication to perfection in dim sum. We've always said, the best Chinese food is not found in Chinatown. But, this might change that now."

Golden Dynasty is on the road next to/parallel to Gerrard St that is not Shaftesbury Ave. -AL

Edited by Ai Leen (log)

Fresh from London. Eating as always.

http://www.artisanedibles.blogspot.com

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Last time I went to Golden Dynasty I felt it had a number of original dim sum items for which they should congratulated. Sadly I also felt the cooking wasn't quite up to scratch. Given the posts here, I'll obviously have to pop back.

All the best,

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The Chinese expatriates I've asked all swear by the Phoenix Palace, saying it's much better than the nearby (Baker Street) Royal China, and cheaper.

I know absolutely nothing about Chinese food apart from knowing that I'm not very fond of really bad Chinese take-aways, but I went there the other day for a quick dinner and I found it a real eye-opener. I had an octopus, walnut, mushroom and celery dish with some jasmine rice. It was wonderful - the texture was fascinating, and the flavours of the walnuts, little mushrooms (no idea of the name - little acorn-like ones) and octopus went together wonderfully. Managed to taste spring-like and yet very umami at the same time. Also had some lettuce wraps stuffed with, I think, rice noodles, mushrooms and pine nuts which were very good as well.

But as I said, I speak as a real Chinese-food ignoramus.

Phoenix Palace; 3-5 Glentworth Street, NW1 5PG; Tel 020 7486 3515

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I went back to Golden Dynasty and the dim sum had improved greatly compared to my previous visit. I was less impressed though when I took a bite out of a beautiful dumpling only to discover a 3 inch black hair. I called the manager who looked shocked and took the item of the bill immediately. I work in a kitchen so I appreciate things like this can happen but yeeeuuuukkk!

All the best,

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  • 3 months later...

went to Royal China on Queensway for dim sum on Sunday and frankly not impressed. The quail (on the specials menu) was good, but not great; the steamed baby squid in garlic (also specials) looked like boiled eyeballs in vitreous fluid and tasted similar; and the pork cheong fun, or 'slithers' as I like to call them, my absolute favourite dim sum, were too doughy. Pork puffs were very good, slightly sweet with sesame seeds sprinkled on, as were the steamed prawn and coriander dumplings. Service was surly to the point of rudeness - I actually got a hand held up to my face at one point when trying to ask for a menu to order some more food. Bill remarkably cheap - £15 a head (no alcohol though), but that wasn't enough to save the experience. Next time I'll stick with the Chuen Cheng Ku.

Fi Kirkpatrick

tofu fi fie pho fum

"Your avatar shoes look like Marge Simpson's hair." - therese

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