MY LOVE OF DIM SUM transports me to where it started. Not just my love of dim sum. Chinese food, Chinese Cantonese food in London. Cantonese classics like yum cha. Giles Coren once said “I love Chinese food above all things”. You know, as he does. Before going on to say: “Indeed, if I lived in China, I would never leave. Even if I was allowed to.”

Date of visit 15 January 2026.

Off to Gerrard street I go, or rather just off it. Joy King Lau on Leicester Street, in the District of Soho of London is buzzing before The Lunar Year. The lady queuing in front of me repeats this information into her phone. Three unimpressed teenagers beside her look down at their rain-soaked trainers. It’s about 12 steps in front of a bustling See Woo where I overhear West London mummies chide their children. It’s in that non-whispering Waitrose tone that they emphasise those packet noodles are full of sodium which is bad. MSG is hidden in the noodles. Stay well clear. Although, obviously, they don’t use those three cautionary “words of wisdom”.

What does MSG taste like?

Mono Sodium Glutamate Umami flavour hits a dish with deep savoury notes. Like parmesan cheese, sprinkled atop a pasta, a caesar salad. It enhances the other flavours, encourages them to rely on salt less. Think of a nutty roquefort, walnuts; all foods naturally high in glutamate. Naturally occurring glutamate in tomatoes too are a taste of what the flavour enhancer, MSG adds to season many foods we consume today.

Any way, Chinese New Year is upon us: See Woo tills are rolling up those paper receipts as fast as Germans scan foodstuffs at Lidl daily

Dim Sum Review of Har Gow at Joy King Lau – Chinatown London

I hope you have some snacks to hand. Perhaps a cheeky instant noodle so we can see, together. what I mentioning about the dumpling folds. This Har Gow doesn’t entice at first glance: fewer dumpling folds, less visual access to the prawn filling. Aromas are there, as well as the steam we want to see.

The King prawn dumplings throw me off. There’s an adhesive slick of prawn mayo flavouring. It’s as though the filling were a pink striped fish ball disguised in the shape of a prawn – a bit odd . The bite of whole or chopped prawn is there: they’re not even chopped up, in fact, which is the style sometimes. Perhaps the thicker wrapper with fewer pleats lends itself to the gummy texture overriding the dumpling chew. It offers an eating experience with underlying pure prawn query.

First to arrive was another dish, however. There’s a gap of around 20mins or so between when I receive it and all the other four orders I place.

Dim Sum Menu at Joy King Lau

Amusement comes over me as I pick up the pen, apply it to the paper dim sum ordering menu; participation is the sense it gives me. Are us diners taking part in an exam, unbeknownst to us? Will our servers determine the doctorate holders in this here, establishment? Who demonstrates sagacity in the discernibly noble, yet humble, practice of picking dim sum to yum cha?

I stare at their faces when they pick up the paper to see if there’s any tell-tell sign – if they try not to laugh, for example – that I ordered the wrong thing. Or a nod that says I passed or I am worthy to receive my dumplings and other hot (in steam baskets) or cold morsels.

Phoenix Claws in China Town London – Dim Sum review

Phoenix claws or chicken feet in black bean sauce arrive with all of my multiple-choices. All at once. Each claw in split into half for ease of eating, as is expected. They’re have a similar flavour – as well as that bite to the bone mechanism of consumption – to the chicken wing. Texturally, they are more comparable to a braised pig trotter. The chicken feet envelope the sweet, savoury umami notes that the (most likely jarred) black bean sauce brings to the dish. These were good, very good indeed. A generous portion too, at £5.50.

How to Eat Chicken feet

As you would with a wing, get messy. With your clean hands suck, savour, spit the little bones out. They’re a textural sensation full of fatty unctuousness, that pairs well with a beer. A smacked cucumber salad with chilli also does the job. It’s not considered rude to handle, or rather tackle the chicken feet this way. Apart from it being practical to pick them up, there’s the sensory satisfaction.

Pop a peppery slice of fresh green chilli into your mouth. Get some of the black vinegar into the mix too. Follow it up with crunchy, cooling cucumber. It’s a winning combination that sees you delve right through your bamboo basket of chicken feet.

Cheung Fun in China Town London Review

Cheung fun or rice rolls, as they known across the pond, are a typical Hong Kong street food that is also commonly eaten in China – specifically in the Guangdong providence of China. The thin batter of rice and starch flour is steamed to remain silky, thin, malleable. Eaten alone with a peanut (and hoisin), peanut and sesame or spicy sauce.

As a dim sum dish it can be filled with shrimp, Monk’s vegetables, beef, pork or a savoury Chinese donut, called a youtiao. You tiao is a deep fried stick of dough that can be purchased from most bakeries in Chinatown, London. You dip it in congee, may find it as an accompaniment to Vietnamese Pho, savour it with your fresh soy milk breakfast. These are only a few – of many – ways to try a Chinese doughnut.

Crunchy in the middle, steaming hot, thin elastic batter with a gorgeous light aroma of spring onion. This is the best dough stick cheung fun I have ever had. The subtle symphony of sweet and salty reminded me why silence speaks louder than words.

Steamed Buns with Melting Custard

The steamed buns here were as stale and stodgy as they were pale. There was no custard – in fact it was more of a half crystallised salted egg yolk situation – which I love. However, I don’t enjoy eating it out of a cakey excuse for what is misnomered as a steamed bun.

Why don’t more people order this at dim sum?

Monk’s vegetables dumpling at £5.20 (excluding service charge) cheapens this Cantonese dim sum stunner of an order. Jam packed with fungus, lotus and other root vegetables. Delectable with my ratio of dumpling dipping sauce – available on the bar counter at Joy King Lau, or on request at restaurants with a dim sum menu. This was ordered in December 2025, just before Christmas but I’m including it in my review as it is deserving of inclusion.

Joy King Lau China Town London Review

Here’s my overall review, based on my two visits. I’d return for my favourites. I’d also like to try the soft shell crab. For dim sum in this tourist-friendly zone of London, where a theatre awaits at every corner – this is decent. Read decent as tasty.

Food – 6.8/10

Value for money 8.5/10

Vibes 7.5/10

Service – 6/10