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Summary
“Sublime, very different, Taiwanese cuisine” delivering “flavourful and stylish” dishes in a “super-cool setting” (evoking a 1930s tea parlour) makes this “tiny but beautiful” three-year-old on the edge of Chinatown many reporters’ “new favourite place for Chinese-style food”. Owned by the people behind Bao, its “subtly flavoured delights” include “brilliant tea-based cocktails” and a “lovely selection of the teas themselves”.
Summary
“Sublime, very different, Taiwanese cuisine” delivering “flavourful and stylish” dishes in a “super-cool setting” (evoking a 1930s tea parlour) makes this “tiny but beautiful” two-year-old on the edge of Chinatown many reporters’ “new favourite place for Chinese-style food”. Owned by the people behind Bao, its “subtly flavoured delights” include “brilliant tea-based cocktails” and a “lovely selection of the teas themselves”.
Summary
From the team and backers behind the brilliant Bao, this “stylishly fitted-out” yearling “is a happy surprise on the edge of Chinatown”, and has been smashing it since day one. “The beautiful interior gives a real air of opulence akin to 1930s, Art Deco-style, Taiwanese tea parlours in days gone by” (complete with Mahjong table); and the “excellent (Taiwanese) food, is very different to other restaurants serving ‘Chinese’ food” (“not every dish is a bullseye, but most are delicious and all interesting”). Top Menu Tip: shou pa chicken (“the chickeniest chicken ever”).
Summary
Backed by JKS Restaurants and the brains behind the hugely successful Bao chain; an elegant, wood-panelled, two-floor café serving traditional Taiwanese cooking and teas. Xu (named for co-founder and chef Erchen Chang’s late grandfather) opened in Chinatown in early summer 2017 (too late for survey feedback).
For 31 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
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Restaurant details
Prices
| Availability | 2 courses | 3 courses |  |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lunch | £19.50 |  |
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| Pretheatre | £19.50 | |
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Traditional European menu
| Starter | Main | Veggies | Pudding |
|---|---|---|---|
| £9.50 | £21.00 | £7.00 | £7.00 |
| Drinks |
|
|---|---|
| Wine per bottle | £28.00 |
| Filter Coffee | £3.00 |
| Extras |
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|---|---|
| Service | 12.50% |
30 Rupert St, London, W1D 6DL
Opening hours
| Monday | 12 pm‑3 pm, 5 pm‑11 pm |
| Tuesday | 12 pm‑3 pm, 5 pm‑11 pm |
| Wednesday | 12 pm‑3 pm, 5 pm‑11 pm |
| Thursday | 12 pm‑3 pm, 5 pm‑11 pm |
| Friday | 12 pm‑11 pm |
| Saturday | 12 pm‑11 pm |
| Sunday | 12 pm‑10 pm |
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