Old Tree Daiwan Bee

Came for dinner on Saturday night with a friend and together we shared 1 main and 3 small dishes. The 3 small dishes - Taiwanese Salt & Pepper Chicken, Taiwanese Turnip Cake, and Old Tree Taiwanese Sausages - were all pretty nice. Especially the salt and pepper chicken which were super crispy and flavorful. The Taiwanese beef noodles soup, however, was a bit disappointing; there were only 4 small pieces of braised beef which felt overcooked and hard to chew on.

The food was okay but it made my tummy hurt... I didn’t really like the jalapeños/pickles(?) mixed in the rice. The chicken was seasoned nicely. The prices are good for London. You get to walk through a bit of the kitchen to get to the toilet so that was interesting lol.

Wow the food here is just incredible. We usually order delicious dumplings followed by a beef noddle dish and the salt and pepper coated chicken… all delicious!

Ordered two braised pork with rice for the two of us and did not expect the portion to be that small, understand that £8 for a dish is cheap considering in London but it could be better. Also ordered a set of lu wei, which the description said it contains duck tongue, pork ears, pork stomach and intestines, £9.50 a dish but comes out smaller than my palm, with no signs of any duck tongue. Not sure if it’s missed or it just doesn’t come with it. Taste was not bad, just the portion could be bigger. For drinks, we ordered a black sugar milk tea and a lemon red tea. The milk tea actually did not have any taste, a shame for a Taiwanese shop. Lemon red tea was fine, could be less sweet but bearable. Would be a better experience if food quality was higher, do not recommend if you’re looking for a meal that fills your stomach.

I don’t usually leave reviews unless the experience is really bad, but I feel I need to share this. I came here for lunch and there was only one staff member on duty. She had a poker face, didn’t communicate at all, and just put the menu down and walked away. The food itself was okay, standard portions and nothing remarkable. My main issue was the service. Even when I kept saying “thank you” after paying and leaving, she didn’t respond appropriately. On top of that, there’s a 10% service charge, which honestly felt completely unjustified given the lack of service. This visit reminded me why I stopped coming here before, the customer service is consistently poor. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant. Chinatown has plenty of other great Chinese, Malaysian, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean options with much better service.

The food was unexpectedly good, and we wanted to try something different from the typical China-centric chinese fare in Chinatown. Service was attentive, probably too attentive (they were hovering over us, which made it slightly awkward!) as we were a handful of customers at that time. Overall, everyone liked the soupy Taiwanese dishes.

Away from the bustle of Chinatown streets, delicious freshly cooked food. Very polite service. We were trying to find somewhere slightly more relaxed without a queue and stumbled across Old Tree Daiwan Bee. A simple menu with English descriptions and accepts card payment. We'll be back in the future to try something else off the menu, the chilli beef was very spicy (we like spicy!).

Finally got round to trying this place after walking past it so many times and it seems like a cheap and cheery sort of place. We were quite curious as the reviews are quite mixed but I have to say we were pleasantly surprised - everything was very tasty! We had starters of the salt and pepper squid and chicken, and the Belacan (shrimp paste) french beans. Followed by mains of braised pork rice and the Taiwanese beef noodle soup. Both were very delicious and we cleaned it all up. I think if you go in just expecting a simple and no frills, but tasty meal, then give it a go!