Imperial Treasure is a glamorous St. James's Chinese restaurant known for its exquisite dim sum and sensational Peking duck, all served in a luxe setting.
"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 Food Rundown video credit: Daisy Meager 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. video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley 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. 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
"If the idea of soup on a roaster of a day isn’t appealing, then you need to think a little more laterally. What are we saying here? We’re saying xiao long bao in the air conditioned safety of Imperial Treasure in St. James’s. This high-end Chinese restaurant is by no means cheap, but escape the midday sun with a few friends for some of London’s best dim sum in a black-clad, cool (in both senses of the word) environment and it’s worth it." - jake missing, sinead cranna, rianne shlebak
"Imperial by name and imperial in price. This sedate St James’s restaurant might be the priciest Christmas party you go to this year, but it’s also got the potential to be the best. Last year the £148 set menu included their signature peking duck, a trio of festive dim sum, king prawn with black truffle, sautéed beef tenderloin with cranberry, and more. Reverential peking duck servings aside, this is easily one of the best dim sum places in London." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna
"12pm - 3pm (until 4pm on weekends) Imperial by name and imperial in price. Four pieces of siu mai will set you back £10.50 at this sedate Mayfair restaurant. Pins dropping and reverential peking duck servings aside, what you’ll notice at Imperial Treasure is how unbelievably good everything tastes. The sesame prawn toast comes in form of a chunky minced prawn head down in a sesame-covered roll, while the golden net prawn cheung fun—filled with youtiao (crisp deep-fried dough) and hunks of meaty prawn—is easily one of the best dim sum plates you can eat in London." - jake missing, heidi lauth beasley, rianne shlebak
