Banstead, Taiwanese Restaurant Guide

2025 Review: “Great value, great flavours” sums up the appeal of this fun Tooting venue, which serves a short menu of filled Taiwanese buns and cocktails, and is named in honour of owner Frank Leung’s father, Joe (who ran a restaurant in Salisbury for 32 years). As of September 2024, it has a Taiwanese cocktail bar, Good Measure, in the basement. See also Mr Bao in Peckham. Top tip – “I loved the beef tataki”.

“Brunch here at weekends is a regular treat if you can bag a table!”, say fans of this Peckham hotspot – a linchpin of the area since 2016. Top Menu Tips – “the mapo beans with hash browns are a must and the ‘bce’ (bacon cheese and egg) bao is heaven with a portion of dumplings, fried chicken and sweet potato fries on the side. Smoked salmon and Cantonese egg baos also tick the boxes”.

Dating from an era (1982) when Asian cuisine was seldom associated with fine dining, the Peng family’s popular Pimlico veteran – benefiting from a recent refurb – continues to plough its idiosyncratic but accomplished course as “one of London’s best Chinese restaurants”. It helps that “the need to decide is taken out of your hands” with their ‘no menu policy’ – having told the team your likes and dislikes “you get what you are given! And this means that you get to try something different that’s always totally delicious” (typically over 12-18 courses, for £119.80 per person). There’s also a “remarkable wine list at very reasonable prices”.

“The eponymous buns grab the headlines, obviously, but the noodles are great too” at these “consistently tasty” Taiwanese street-food spots where it’s easy to enjoy “a pleasing feast – ordering far more than you could eat as the delicious portions are generous and service is charming and efficient”. Founded as a single market stall 14 years ago by Shing Tat Chung, his wife Erchen Chang and sister Wai Ting Chung, it has developed into a highly rated seven-strong chain, with new Singaporean backers replacing the JKS group last summer.

“The eponymous buns grab the headlines, obviously, but the noodles are great too” at these “consistently tasty” Taiwanese street-food spots where it’s easy to enjoy “a pleasing feast – ordering far more than you could eat as the delicious portions are generous and service is charming and efficient”. Founded as a single market stall 14 years ago by Shing Tat Chung, his wife Erchen Chang and sister Wai Ting Chung, it has developed into a highly rated seven-strong chain, with new Singaporean backers replacing the JKS group last summer.

“The eponymous buns grab the headlines, obviously, but the noodles are great too” at these “consistently tasty” Taiwanese street-food spots where it’s easy to enjoy “a pleasing feast – ordering far more than you could eat as the delicious portions are generous and service is charming and efficient”. Founded as a single market stall 14 years ago by Shing Tat Chung, his wife Erchen Chang and sister Wai Ting Chung, it has developed into a highly rated seven-strong chain, with new Singaporean backers replacing the JKS group last summer.

“Soup dumpling heaven!” – say fans, who experience “the joy of dim sum in all its brilliance” at these London outlets of a Taiwan-based international chain that arrived here to great fanfare in 2018 – branch number four opened in Canary Wharf last year. Perhaps inevitably, well-travelled sceptics say they’re relatively “expensive for what they are” (“foodwise they’re the same as Asia”, but “I was shocked by the pricing of here vs Singapore”).

“The eponymous buns grab the headlines, obviously, but the noodles are great too” at these “consistently tasty” Taiwanese street-food spots where it’s easy to enjoy “a pleasing feast – ordering far more than you could eat as the delicious portions are generous and service is charming and efficient”. Founded as a single market stall 14 years ago by Shing Tat Chung, his wife Erchen Chang and sister Wai Ting Chung, it has developed into a highly rated seven-strong chain, with new Singaporean backers replacing the JKS group last summer.