Warlingham, Chinese Restaurant Guide

“Cannot be beaten!” – so says the very dedicated local fan club of Victor Choi’s long-established Cantonese fixture on the high street, known locally as a top option for a celebration.

2023 Review: “Top-class Chinese food, served in canteen-style surroundings” has arrived in Balham with the pandemic-delayed opening of this first solo project from Chi San, former right-hand man to Alan Yau of Yauatcha and Hakkasan fame. The relatively short menu is filled with standard dishes from the Cantonese culinary canon, modernised through the use of high-quality produce, and there’s an interesting selection of beers, wines and teas.

“Reliable, high-quality Chinese fare” is the hallmark of this family-run operation now in its fifth decade, with five outlets in well-heeled parts of the capital. “Not all the food is authentic Chinese cuisine, but it is all immaculately prepared and as fresh as you like”, and comes with a “polite welcome and attentive service”. “A cut above – prices are to match”. Holland Kwok opened the original on Chelsea’s King’s Road in 1979, closely followed by branches in Esher, Mill Hill and Knightsbridge, then Wandsworth Common in 2011. He now runs the company with his son Andrew. Top Tip – “weekday lunch is exceptionally good value”.

Arguably Camberwell’s premiere ‘cheap eat’ – this local fixture has become well known over many years now for its noodles, dumplings and spicy stews from Xinjiang in northwest China, all at prices to gratify the heart of anyone counting the pennies.

This “huge and buzzy Chinese restaurant” near Elephant & Castle is a South London institution, serving “superb” old-school Cantonese grub including “good dim sum at lunchtime”. “Staff are under pressure due to the sheer number of covers, but the excellence of the food makes it worth having patience”. It’s “very popular, so book a table at weekends”.

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.

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”.

This “hidden gem of a Sichuan restaurant in the desert of Westminster” – “better than most in Chinatown” – is “well worth seeking out in an otherwise dull eating area”. There’s a “helpful menu that lists the delicious dishes by spiciness” and the “friendly service is almost immediate, so you can have a chat first over a glass and eat within an hour” – alongside MPs from up the road, who “add to the atmosphere”.

Just off the King’s Road, this Chelsea Malaysian endures on a site that’s prominent if you are local, and out-of-the-way if you are not. It owes its longevity to a menu of “really good Malay/Chinese combinations”.

“A thrilling pure adventure in dining!” has won global renown for Andrew Wong’s record-breaking destination: a relatively humble Pimlico site where he spent time as a child (when it was his parents’ business Kym’s), returning after uni to transform it into the first Asian restaurant outside Asia to win two Michelin stars. It has always inspired adulatory feedback in our annual diners’ poll for the “absolutely sublime culinary journey across China” that he has created. “It is so rare that the actual chef is present every service and it shows through with exquisite dishes from quality ingredients that are consistent every time”. That said, its ratings scaled back a fraction this year. By night, it provides “a mystical 30-course journey”, but some old-timers miss the à la carte and feel that “it’s a shame the fixed menu is the only option as it is simply too much food, no matter how good”. (Although you can still eat dim sum à la carte at lunchtimes). And then there’s also the matter of cost. “The price of £220 per person for a Chinese meal is a bit out there” and while fans feel that “this is the one restaurant in town where you don’t need to query the very high cost”, there is a growing countervailing view which says “everything tastes heavenly, but the portions are small and the bill is enormous” (especially as other elements of the formula “don’t feel like a two Michelin star experience”). The winning verdict still though? – “OK prices are high, but fair play as it was my best meal of the year”.

“Arriving before sunset and watching London as it transforms from day to night is of itself superb and worth the visit”, say fans of this swish Chinese venue (part of Hong Kong’s Aqua group) on the 33rd floor of The Shard (“stunning if an important client is being entertained”, making it a favourite for schmoozy business occasions). Unsurprisingly it’s not a cheap meal, and does inspire the occasional accusation that it is “overpriced and average” – however, a majority of diners consider it “consistent” and “surprisingly good” for somewhere with such a “knockout view”. One hazard, though, can be “the number of other diners taking photos of anything and everything!”

“Really stunning panoramas of course” are a high point of this 35th-floor perch, high up The Shard, which is open all day from early on, and which fans say is “a brilliant breakfast venue”. English-style Afternoon Tea is also a feature, but by night the cuisine turns Asian. Fans say “presentation here is first class and if you get a view it’s worth every penny”. There’s not sufficient feedback, though, for a really wholehearted recommendation as a culinary destination.

“Brilliant, lip-numbing” northern Chinese cooking has put this Soho fixture from Wei Shao firmly on the map, and it serves a flexible menu of skewers, noodles and rice, wok dishes and other dim sum options. Some feel its Borough Market offshoot is “weak” by comparison (“it’s as if the Soho one benefits from the proximity of Chinatown but they don’t expect anyone with any discernment in SE1!”).

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.

2022 Review: Amidst the glossy boutiques of Beauchamp Place, this beautiful, luxuriously decorated Chinese opened at the end of 2019, and – aside from a favourable review by Fay Maschler – has never really had the chance to make waves. It specialises in hot pots, and the menu features much in the way of seafood and wagyu beef to accompany or incorporate. It’s listed (without a star) by Michelin, who typically list only extremely expensive, culinarily ‘safe’ Chinese restaurants: you can view that as either a positive or negative.

“Reliable, high-quality Chinese fare” is the hallmark of this family-run operation now in its fifth decade, with five outlets in well-heeled parts of the capital. “Not all the food is authentic Chinese cuisine, but it is all immaculately prepared and as fresh as you like”, and comes with a “polite welcome and attentive service”. “A cut above – prices are to match”. Holland Kwok opened the original on Chelsea’s King’s Road in 1979, closely followed by branches in Esher, Mill Hill and Knightsbridge, then Wandsworth Common in 2011. He now runs the company with his son Andrew. Top Tip – “weekday lunch is exceptionally good value”.

“Well-executed Chinese and Japanese fare (if at strictly expense account-only prices)” from Singapore-born chef Peter Ho, wins consistent praise this year at this plush dining room. Part of the Four Seasons hotel in the extremely imposing former headquarters of the Port of London Authority (built in 1922), near Tower Hill, this august chamber “very much feels like the high-end hotel restaurant that it is”.

Reliably “fabulous” classic Chinese dining makes this offshoot of a London-based group (founded in Chelsea in 1979 and now with eight branches) a long-time “favourite for a special occasion” in the Surrey ’burbs – even if its appeal is “a little dated” for followers of fashion. Top Tip – “there’s a very good-value set lunch”.

An august, high-ceilinged space in the heart of the West End – originally built as a banking hall and with the acres of marble to match – nowadays hosts this luxurious Chinese venture: the first European outpost of a 20-strong Singapore-based group, with numerous outposts in China itself. For Chinese fine dining and damn the expense, this is a consistently well-rated experience, even if it is often recommended by business-accounters, or through the gritted teeth of those who say it’s “exceptional but overpriced”. Peking Duck is a classic choice, naturally, and must be ordered in advance at £148 (£248 if you add caviar).