Marylebone, Chinese Restaurant Guide

“Go no further for dum sim” or when “entertaining friends from Hong Kong” – this sleek Marylebone flagship of the Royal China group is the real thing for Cantonese dining. (“Taken by a Malaysian friend – my wife and I were nearly the only Caucasians”). You pay for the privilege, though (“noticed a slight wince at the bill when our hosts were paying”).

This well-known Cantonese group retains a large fan-base praising “still among the best dim sum in London”, presented in “comfortable surroundings” by “amiable (if overselling) service” (although feedback on the evening offering suggests it’s a matter of “fine dining prices for indifferent food”). As damaging, though, are the company’s multiplying legal problems, with diners complaining of “no alcohol licence!” at the Baker Street branch, which was stripped of it in 2024 and fined £360,000 for employing illegal immigrants, and in March 2025 its Royal Gourmet division, which produces wontons, steamed buns and roasted duck at a facility in Park Royal, was fined a total of £113,000 by Uxbridge magistrates after pleading guilty to 11 serious failures in food and hygiene safety – including rodent droppings. Royal Gourmet also paid £332,000 in fines for breaches of the Water Industry Act back in 2019. As one reporter comments: “Oh dear, what went wrong over the last decade! A bit shambolic… , and the quality of food has definitely worsened” in recent times.

“Superior” modern Chinese dishes, including “some unusual dim sum”, are found on the “extensive menu” at this Marylebone outpost of a Shanghai-based group, covering both Cantonese and less familiar Shanghainese cuisine. The modern office-block interior may not be to everybody’s taste, but it does at least reflect the contemporary culinary style.

“Slightly over-the-top decor” proclaims the Chinese credentials of this cavernous, popular old-timer, near Baker Street, with an old-school menu that encompasses most of the Cantonese classics, including dim sum. “Good fun”, “reliable and busy” – the food is sometimes “nothing special”, but overall it’s “great for larger parties”, and is “still quite full of Chinese families at Sunday lunchtimes”.

“Fiercely hot and mouth-numbing noodles” (“effectively street food”) are the promise at this Asian duo, from Liu Qing and Charlene Liu, which showcases the xiaomian noodles of Chongqing, their hometown in southwest China. The original is in Soho’s Kingly Court, although it was its location in a Marylebone pub – The Jackalope – which inspired more reports this year: “the ambience is utterly unrefined”, “the flavours are powerful… to the extent that there is some masochism in eating here. But everyone should try, at least once!”

2024 Review: “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”).