Jenny M.
Yelp
Dim sum in London? Look no further. This place is it. First of all, the dim sum menu (like most Yelpers said) is super friendly - with pictures for each menu item served so you know exactly what you are getting. I'm Chinese but my Chinese is shabby so I always somehow manage to order a wrong dish when faced with a menu with no pictures and just text (even when it's translated into English). The wait was under ten minutes for two people at 2:00pm on a busy Saturday.
We got: shrimp/chive dumplings (good), bbq pork triangular pastries (a must get, there's a reason this menu item takes up one FULL page of their dim sum menu - it is definitely one of the hottest centrefolds I have ever seen), chicken feet w/ black bean sauce (really good), scallop cheung fun (pass, I have had better), fried shrimp dumplings with salad cream (pass, I have had way better), beef chow fun (good), taro croquettes (good), duck tongue (good, if you are into that stuff--my date was), and steamed spare ribs w/ black bean sauce (portions are too small but they are good).
As for the spotty service, we didn't experience any. You get different servers who bring you what you have ordered and some of them are smiling, some of them are not - but who cares? I feel like people who leave bad reviews just because not every server smiled at them when they put the food down is just looking to get their egos stroked. The food is piping hot, fresh and delicious. When you ask for water, it comes fast and when you want an extra plate of chili oil, it comes right away. Tea pot out of hot water? Flip the top up and put it on the edge of your table - it is a Chinese standard way of telling the servers you are in need of a tea refill. Tea is £1.50 pp but it has unlimited refills, and the refills come fast, which is surprising since my date and I were seated in a dark corner - we thought they would forget about us, but that was far from the truth.
I'm a generous tipper but don't like to be ambushed with the mandatory 12.5% service charge when handed the bill. This was the first dim sum place in Chinatown to have that mandatory 12.5% - so I took one star away. Other than that, I recommend this place and would take my parents here if they ever come visit me in London!