Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine
Chinese restaurant · St. James's
9 Waterloo Pl, London SW1Y 4BE, United Kingdom
Highlights
Signature Peking duck, dim sum, fine Chinese cuisine, elegant setting
Signature Peking duck, dim sum, fine Chinese cuisine, elegant setting
"Imperial by name and imperial in price. Four pieces of siu mai will set you back £12 at this sedate Mayfair restaurant, but you’re paying for the chance to eat excellent cheung fun in a space that feels like the executive lounge for Dim Sum Airways. It’s all smooth angles, leather grey banquettes, and witnessing reverential displays of tableside duck carving while slurping picture-perfect soup dumplings." - jake missing, heidi lauth beasley, rianne shlebak
"Imperial in name and imperial in price—four pieces of siu mai will set you back in this sedate St. James’s restaurant. Other than all the expert, glistening cheung fun, you’re at Imperial Treasure for the live action show, ‘Reverential Duck’. The signature peking duck needs to be pre-ordered but it’s worth it for the sweet, alluring crunch of the skin, the best-in-class pancakes, and the slack-jaw wonder of watching the duck being carved tableside with the meticulous care of Michelangelo at work." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing, rianne shlebak, daisy meager, sinead cranna
"The first London outpost of this globally renowned group is housed in an imposing former bank, which provides a luxurious backdrop for the traditional, mostly Cantonese cooking. White leather, onyx walls and wood partitions provide some intimacy amongst the opulence, and the extensive selection of dishes offer ample flavour. If you’re after money-is-no-object luxury, look no further than their signature Peking duck with caviar, but you'll still have a great time with the crispy pork belly and honey-glazed char siu pork." - Michelin Inspector
"Imperial Treasure is a glam Chinese restaurant in St. James's that has the feel of a particularly nice airport lounge, with the exorbitant prices and exclusive clientele to match. The daytime dim sum is great, especially the silky cheung fun, but make no mistake, you’re here a show we like to call The Reverential Duck Display. It’s high-brow theatre in four parts—the big tableside duck carving warm-up, meticulous rectangles of crisp skin to dip in sugar, the full hoisin pancake situation, a fried salt and pepper finale—and it’s fantastic. This is one restaurant where the difference between a good meal and a great one is commitment. Go all in on that bird banquet, otherwise you’ll probably have a meal that, like the setting, is shades of beige. That’s not always a bad thing—say, if you have a company card and you’re looking to crunch numbers with a client over crunchy prawn toast. But fun at Imperial Treasure starts and stops with that perfect peking experience. video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli Pause Unmute RESERVE A TABLE WITH RESERVE A TABLE Food Rundown Berkshire Char Siu Pork Cheung Fun The highlight of the dim sum at Imperial Treasure is the cheung fun and this is the best of the cheung fun bunch. We’d like a little more filling, but it is delicately sweet and the rice rolls are thick and sticky. In case you’re interested, the runner-up cheung fun is the near-smoky, woodsy assorted mushroom cheung fun. PlayMute video credit: Daisy Meager Golden Prawn Toast We had these a couple of years ago and they were sesame-encrusted chewy legends. Time has not been kind to them. The outer crisp skin now tastes more like an experiment with an air fryer. One to skip. PlayMute video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Peking Duck Course one: duck skin, plus sugar—simple, a borderline meat dessert, glazed to perfection. Course two: the big boy peking duck show—obscenely succulent meat, hoisin, and the secret star of the show, pancakes that are thicker than average and add a delightful yeastiness to proceedings. Course three: take it or leave it, honestly. The fried crispiness masks the duck’s tender star quality. Commit to course one and two." - Heidi Lauth Beasley
"This new, modern, and elegant dim sum restaurant (no rolling carts) in Matthews is barely two months old, yet is making its name as one of few fine Chinese dining establishments in the city. It reminds one of the white tableclothed dim sum dining rooms in Hong Kong, Vancouver, and London, and the mostly well-dressed clientele would agree. Beat the weekend queues (and slower service) by arriving before 11:30 a.m. But if you have to wait, you can watch the staff folding and rolling the xiao long bao (soup dumplings) in an ante-waiting room. Also on the menu are huge portions of hot and sour or West Lake beef soup, chewy and tender spicy wontons, and an array of regional and mainstream favorites. If you want to make a splash, pre-order a half or whole Beijing roast duck ($39.95/$74.95), which is served tableside." - Shindy Chen
