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Here are the best restaurants in Chinatown right now
The best restaurants in Chinatown
When in search of the best East and Southeast Asian cuisine, look no further than Chinatown London. The Soho enclave is bursting with authentic restaurants, and alongside them, new and exciting concepts that push boundaries are emerging. Whether you seek classic dim sum, or a twist on a beloved dish, it’s right here in Chinatown. Get your chopsticks ready for the tastiest noodles, dumplings, curries, sushi and barbecue in London town.
This spot has been earning rave reviews for its unique and innovative cooking techniques, including using sous vide (vacuum-sealed cooking) and binchotan (grilling over Japanese white charcoal). Don’t miss the short ribs or Malaysian curry crab, and save room for their ABC shaved ice desserts, big enough to share.
This authentic Korean barbecue restaurant is so good, the who’s who in the K-Pop world have come to dine (including Blackpink). A variety of premium cuts of meat are available to sizzle at the table, and you’ll also want to try their comfort dishes such as tteokbokki, kimchi jeon, and bibimbap.
Sushi Joy is exactly as its name suggests: a pick-n-mix of quality sushi with a dash of creativity. And it’s all at an affordable price point. There’s a wide variety of classic items to select for your box, such as nigiri, maki rolls and inari, and many of these are reimagined. We recommend the seaweed salad inari and the tempura prawn taco.
An elegant and contemporary Chinese restaurant, China Modern serves regional dishes from across China and Hong Kong. The open kitchen on the ground floor is where skilled dumpling chefs create some of London’s finest parcels, including xiao long bao, wasabi prawn, and cloud ear fungus (much tastier than it sounds!). As for the most photogenic; it has to be their social-media sensations, the char siu ‘piggy’ buns.
Transporting guests to the canteens of Bangkok, Speedboat Bar is a night out in Chinatown, open till late and serving a variety of creative cocktails in addition to Thai street food specialities. There are aromatic curries, stir fries, drunken noodles and seafood salads, and of course, it wouldn’t be a Thai goodbye without some mango pudding.
Rasa Sayang’s been a Chinatown fixture for decades, and once you sip your first spoonful of laksa, you’ll understand why. The restaurant is dedicated to the hawker scenes in Malaysia and Singapore, with satay skewers, nasi goreng, and chilli crab popular items on the menu. Desserts are refreshing and will nicely fan things down no matter what level of spice you opt for, or you can always substitute with an iconic Singapore Sling cocktail instead.
Join the queue at Kung Fu Noodle, the local favourite when it comes to hand-pulled noodles. The restaurant specialises in dishes from China’s Gansu province in the North West, including hot, cold and soup noodle varieties. If it’s your first time, you have to try the Lanzhou beef noodle soup, which features hand-stretched noodles in broth, topped with sliced beef, radish and chilli oil.
Acclaimed Michelin-starred chef Jeff Tan puts a spin on Vietnamese street eats at Chinatown’s Viet Food. Here, he takes the much-loved staples and combines them in new and unexpected ways. Think: chilli grilled sirloin salad, five spice soft shell crab, and crispy coconut calamari. Of course, there is plenty of pho to boot, all cooked in 16-hour bone broth for the richest of flavours.
A family-run restaurant since the 80s, Plum Valley is an upscale Cantonese affair with slick dark interiors and a karaoke booth for your post-dinner entertainment. Feast on dim sum made fresh daily, a variety of stir fry dishes, and the signature Peking duck, all of which can be paired with a bottle from the extensive wine menu.
Not much has changed at this cosy little Japanese restaurant since it opened over 25 years ago. It’s still the place to come for the home comforts of Japan, like the katsu curry rice, a bento box, or a big bowl of udon with fried chicken. The sushi is also excellent too, and just like in Japan, tipping is not allowed.
