5 Modern Dim Sum Restaurant in UK

Given our enticing name, many visitors come to this website looking for recommendations on restaurants to go to for dim sum. Although they find much more here, they leave not fully satisfied because their initial goal was unfulfilled. So we have decided to help those lost souls with something that Dim sum.co.uk has never done before – a list of ten restaurants in London for dim sum!

The listings below were decided by our committee of foodies after much discussion. We wanted to make sure we chose restaurants that were authentic and good quality. In the end, the dim sum restaurants we chose for the top ten fell into two types: the traditional dim sum restaurants with typical Chinese restaurant décor and indifferent service but solid, well-priced dim sum and the ‘modern’ ones with award-winning décor, Western service, and Western prices but equally high quality dim sum.


Modern Dim Sum
Until a few years ago, there was no such thing as modern dim sum restaurants in London. Most dim sum places were in Chinatown with the exception of the excellent Royal China chain, which tended to sit in wealthy areas around London.

However, with the arrival of Hakkasan, this all changed. Hakkasan completely revamped the image of dim sum and Chinese restaurants by turning the cuisine on its head. British-born Alan Yau has crafted a masterpiece of a dim sum destination with a restaurant that won a Best Restaurant Design award, earned a Michelin, and packed the hard-to-find basement restaurant with celebs. However, Hakkasan made sure that the real star of the restaurant shined – the food.

Following in Hakkassan’s footsteps came several excellent copy-cats: Shanghai Blues, Ping Pong, Royal China Club, and Yauatcha (sister restaurant to Hakkasan).

Hakkasan
8 Hanway Place, London, W1T 1HF
Tel: 020 7927 7000

With a design award, a Michelin star, and destination site for celebs, this pioneer is still the place to be seen and to eat exquisite dim sum. It’s in the basement of a dodgy alley off of Tottenham Court, but that only adds to its dark, sultry allure.

Yauatcha
15 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 0DL
Tel: 0870 780 8265

With the success of Hakkasan, especially for the lunchtime dim sum offerings, the owner decided to open a second restaurant to focus on dim sum all day, not just for lunch. It opened to instant success with difficult to secure reservations where diners are given 90 minutes to order, eat, and vacate their seats.

Royal China Club
40-42 Baker Street, London W1U 7AJ
Tel: 020 7486 3898

The Royal China chain is every Chinese person’s favourite dim sum restaurant. Their dim sum is the best you can find in London at such reasonable prices. Recently, they have opened the Royal China Club to copy the success of Hakkasan. The décor is tasteful unlike the gaudy Royal China chain. The food is of equal quality but with more innovative flair and expensive ingredients (e.g. lobster, abalone, sharks fin).

Shanghai Blues
193-197 High Holborn, WC1V 7BD
Tel: 020 7404 1668

Shanghai Blues was the first restaurant to copy Hakkassan and we have to agree that the décor and the food is on the same level. However, their Holborn location and lack of celebrity status has limited their success. Regardless, if you want Hakkassan quality dim sum and décor without the pretentious clientele and hard to secure table, this is the place.

Ping Pong
45 Great Marlborough Street, W1F 7JL
(also Westbourne Grove, Marylebone Village, Bond Street, Oxford Circus and Goodge Street - see website for details)
Tel: 020 7851 6969

Ping Pong has generated a lot of buzz for nice modern décor and good quality dim sum at reasonable prices. It is the only restaurant in this category that have similar prices to the ‘traditional dim sum restaurants’. (dim sum.co.uk)


See also : soto


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