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My Chinese culinary journey to dim sum stemmed from childhood in Chinatown. Dim sum in London was “served until 3pm” on Gerrard street. This meant, inconveniently jumping off the tube at Leicester Square for a pork or prawn filled dumpling. Dim sum 點心 all day in London and Greater Britain is prolific now. Har Gow 蝦餃 as part of yum cha on the Hoo Hing cafe menu gives in-store buyers direct access to this trend. Business-wise for the retailers it provides inspiration for product purchase. A once West End Londoner’s treat on a street built between 1677 and 1685 is now a sought after culinary Cantonese tradition.

Date of visit February 11 2026

Hoo Hing in Park Royal being an Asian supermarket sets the scene for Seng Canteen. With at least four commercial branches supplying restaurants with online across the UK, curiosity deepens. You can park for free at Park Royal to purchase Chinese Vinegars, fresh noodles, fresh seafood and condiments. The Hoo Hing cafe (now called Seng Canteen) is located upstairs with a new menu in 2026 as owners have changed hands. It was a solely Cantonese menu up until Covid. Now it offers a menu boasting with Cantonese Dim Sum specialties as well as Malaysian cuisine.

Hoo Hing Menu London

Hoo Hing Park Royal Dim Sum Review

Seng Canteen in Hoo Hing Park Royal offers a menu that includes my favourites of Cantonese style dim sum. I try for the first time steamed chicken feet in black bean sauce.

I love a gelatinous bite of food smothered in umami. Savoury slippery mouth-feel bites of food where I barely have to chew, are full of fat – which means flavour. Texture comes second to custom palate preference with menu offerings chosen at Chinese Dim Sim restaurants outside of China or Hong Kong, in my experience.

A plate of cold jelly fish in Chinese vinegar with the accompanying mustard and cucumber makes my mouth water. Slippery foods like steamed scallops with glass noodles are simple with layers of flavour. Cheung fun that counteract chopsticks create comestible cognitive memorable inconsistencies. Controlled delivery system to mouth by chopstick is the messy ex-girlfriend you didn’t come to dim with. The messy dispatch of of your Cheung Fun, HoFun noodles, Won Ton, beef tendon, tripe or intestine soup is simply more memorable: it is fun to eat, delicious,

Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce at Hoo Hing Review

The chicken feet arrived late to the party on the table. I wanted to get this bit out of the way** Steaming hot chicken feet need a moment to pick up with chopsticks. The sauce is the first thing touching the tongue: bold molasses, vinegar, gingery heat, herbal peppery notes follow. As the generous collagen implied on touch by utensil makes one question how much chew is required, the answer lies in the quantity. Perhaps it was due to temperature, the preparation, or all of the above: I grabbed that sucker after my first polite nibble of the chopsticks. Depositing tiny bones to an empty sauce tray made this experience all the more fun to eat. Ordered as an appetiser adjacent to a cold beer, eaten as you would chicken wings: that’s the level of pleasure I’m only setting the scene for here.

** In full transparency as these reviews are continue to be here, I’ll preface the part I didn’t wish to include, which is that a single strand of human hair was found near the bottom of the pile. It should not happen – not in spite of a single cook or server serving the food, as is the case here, with no service charge.

Chop stick food delivery mechanisms prioritise front teeth bite feel, followed by taste – closest being the palate hit first when you pop the food into your mouth this way. heightened by sweet taste bud sensation.

Dim Sum Review at Hoo Hing Seng Canteen London

Wonton soup here at £9.80 is primal; engulfing even. Peering into the abyss of steam their skirts a buoyed and clear broth, I feel a longing wave for a deep dive into the best wonton ton soup in London.

They are 6 or seven deep sea divers layered in a hefty steaming jacuzzi of a bowl. A meaty body of pork. Now some of these were split into pork and prawn delivering that creamy, rich sweet-tangy flavour that the pink of prawn adds. It’s not a flavour that comes to mind as an addition to pork; in dim sum, however, the blend and steam of the meat and fat – its transition to a spongy light, malleable ball that can suck up just about anything – hugs prawn, marries it, texture and flavour wise.

I dive right in to try the ho fun (rice) noodles, which are already ever so slightly over cooked for my liking. This bowl’s contents and I will be getting to know each other for a while, so I know they’ll be soggy before we really get down to business. The broth that introduces us is gentle – the MSG is there to replace the chicken which, left the won ton filling do all the talking. I’m OK with that. I added some white pepper off the cart to the side, which contained an astringent vinegar for the dim sum (not dissimilar to the one at Din Tai Fung).

Har Gow – prawn dim sum dumplings at Seng Canteen London Review

Har Gow or prawn dumpling originated in Xiguan, Guangzhou, China is often described as crystal dumplings, owing to their opaque wrapper that denies the dumpling filling a surprise element. Don’t be deceived, celiacs. This is not a gluten free dim sum option for you, whereas cheung fun (steamed rice rolls) can be as the delicate dumpling wrapper is made from wheat starch and tapioca flour. It’s the texture laden version of a British prawn cocktail with Marie Rose sauce – except here I would go light on ginger infused vinegar or shun the sauce altogether.

The ordering system at Hoo Hing Seng Canteen is by pen off a paper menu, which I rather like. you hand it over to the kitchen where the one cashier/server passes it onto the one cook.

What I look for in a prawn dumpling is a good number of pleats in the wrapper – ideally 12 – as it implies they’ve been wrapped by hand. I look for sheen and the colour before the size of the prawn, as there’s no hiding in a Har Gow wrapper – size is distracting. Frozen prawns are not only larger; they’re less likely to curl or shrink in size visually compared to the traditional filling of freshwater shrimp.

The filling to dumpling ratio worked well in spite of the wrapper being that tiny bit dense at the top – which is forgivable – as prawn flavour was there. My only gripe here is I like I lightly steamed prawn which is barley white with pink striations, rather than orange-pink. I don’t like to chew on my prawns to the point that I could be eating lobster or any crustacean for that matter. The flavour was all there and hit all the heightened notes – of sweet, seaweed, starch – that msg comnbines with cornstarch slurry try to mimic.

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab Review

My favourite part of a crab is eating the head butter. The claw meat is the flakiest version of butter from the sea. Delectably soft short strings of unctuous seafood is what good crab meat is. The roe or head butter takes sucking the head of a prawn to another level.

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab on the menu at Hoo Hing

I wasn’t keen on the fry which was overly starchy, although this was hot to arrive to the table at £16 for the plate. The batter with its seasoning tasted all right, although it was rather heavy handed. The flavour of the crab was lost, unfortunately. Also, it was only crab claws. What do they do with the body of a soft shell crab? Also, why do carrots or, for that matter, more fried batter appear on this dish of fried soft shell crab claws? Baffling.

Xiao Long Bao Soup Dumpling 小籠包 review – West London

If its on the menu at dim sum then its only for ordering to complete the dumpling portion of dim sum triad of Xiao Long Bao, Siu Mai, Har Gow.

If you are intimidated by menus like a dim sum menu can be, order these three if you find them, without a pork and prawn dietary or otherwise restriction. Xiao Long Bao is a pork filled dumpling filled with broth. Siu Mai (pronounced Shu Mai) is a steamed dumpling. The siu mai filling are prawn, pork – these days they add a modern twist on top, occasionally (often some kind of seafood).

There was no soup in the soup dumpling (date of visit December 2025). The dumpling skin was also too thick for my liking. The custard buns (order both December 2025 and February 2026) were standard: fluffy dough, little filling, sweet but not too sweet. The beef was ever so slightly velveted with the peanut topping lacking a roasted peanut flavour. The bell peppers didn’t add much to the dish. The stir fried mixed vegetable dish however, was a lovely mix with little to no filler: worth ordering.

New Menu at Hoo Hing Park Royal Review

Food – 6/10

Value for money 7/10

Vibes 7/10

Service – 5/10