Marylebone, Chinese Restaurant Guide

“Best dim sum I’ve had in a long time – everything was best-in-class”: reporters are unanimous in their praise for the “always great” Cantonese cooking at the Marylebone flagship of the Royal China group. But there’s some pushback against the prices: “eye-wateringly expensive, compared to the standard competition, if comparable to their Hakkasan/Yauatcha-peers”.

“Sunday dim sum lunch is always full of happy families” at this popular Cantonese group with 1980s-nightclub decor – an occasion for which they “cannot be beaten” for many diners: so “arrive around 10:45 to join queue for 11am opening”. With the closure of its Bayswater branch a few years ago, Baker Street and Canary Wharf are its preeminent spots (and SW6 can be “disappointing” by comparison). All feedback is about the lunchtime service – “the evening offering is a bit ordinary”.

A “big Chinese restaurant” – the London outpost of a Shanghai group – which serves Cantonese fare that’s “really good and not too pricey”. It occupies part of an office block near Portman Square in Marylebone – a setting that “can seem a bit sterile”.

This “reliable old-school Chinese” near Baker Street tube is “great for big family lunches” – with its sheer scale, traditional décor and eight menus, “one could be in Hong Kong of old”. It’s also “pretty good value for money” for its address.

“Please whatever you do, don’t dress up to dine here!” – “This is a tiny, cheap hole-in-the-wall” near Great Portland Street tube, serving “comfort noodles for Chinese students and others”: “magical broth that feels utterly authentic and packed with flavour (we absolutely wolfed ours down!)”. “Everyone gets a warm welcome” too! (The Times’s Giles Coren is also a fan – “it drew tears of nostalgia for a 1970s Shenyang childhood that I never had”).