"Shan Shui Social, a Chinese restaurant on Buckingham Palace Road feels surprisingly cool for SW1. Inside, booths are taken by families getting a meet-in-the-middle dinner after work and friends ordering an obscene—but necessary—amount of dim sum. Gorgeous ceramic tea pots line the walls on one side, while old-fashioned telephones line the other. When it comes to ordering, keep in mind that the most delicious things here can be found in a bamboo steamer." - jake missing, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, heidi lauth beasley