Yi-Ban

"Big round tables covered with hands pawing for another scallion pancake, and luminous chilli beef staining the pristine white tablecloth is a go-to birthday scene for many people. But in Docklands, Yi-Ban sets itself apart from other Cantonese restaurants with the spectacle of planes taking off and landing in the background. You’ll just need to ensure a safe journey for the juicy pork dumpling travelling from the table to your mouth." - jake missing, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, heidi lauth beasley

"While things oscillate between decent and delicious at Yi-Ban, the USP of this big Cantonese restaurant in Docklands is never in question. It’s smack bang opposite London City Airport, so not only will you enjoy lurid, crunching crispy chilli beef, but you’ll also get to see a few Airbus A318s take off and land while you’re at it. Safe steamed bets like crystal dumplings and pork buns are the way to go, and the dim sum is generally very nice." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing

"12pm - 4:30pm Yi-Ban is a vast, white tablecloth dining room that serves moreish and excellent-value dim sum in a completely unique setting. At this big Docklands restaurant, you’ll also see a Boeing 787 taking off from City Airport mid-gnaw of crispy chilli beef. While things vary between decent and delicious—safe bets like steamed crystal dumplings and pork buns are the way to go—the view is never in doubt. The combination of whirring jet engines, XO sauce-slathered cheung fun, and lazy susans is a good one." - jake missing, heidi lauth beasley, rianne shlebak

"Yi-Ban is a vast, white tablecloth dining room that serves moreish and excellent-value Cantonese food in a completely unique setting. At this big Docklands restaurant, you’ll see a Boeing 787 taking off from City Airport mid-gnaw of crispy chilli beef. While things vary a little—classics like steamed crystal dumplings, pork buns, and sweet and sour are the way to go—the view is never in doubt. The combination of whirring jet engines, XO sauce-slathered cheung fun, and lazy susans is a good one." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing, rianne shlebak, daisy meager

"Airport meals exist in their own sad little category, don’t they? They’re inhaled and gobbled and the definition of food as fuel. The bar is low and, at least in the UK, a Pret jambon-beurre and a misjudged pint feels like the best you can hope for. Unless, of course, you go to Yi-Ban. The Cantonese restaurant is smack bang opposite London City Airport—a vast, classic, white tablecloth dining room that serves moreish and excellent value dim sum in a completely unique and Airbus A318-heavy setting. Given that it’s open from midday until around 10pm all week (Thursdays aside), Yi-Ban wants to be as available for anyone and everyone as possible. A midweek lunchtime will see a few work-related groups and the odd lone dumpling-cum-plane spotting enthusiast. Of course, the real pros will enjoy their lurid, addictive crispy chilli beef before wandering across Connaught Bridge to catch a flight to sunnier climes. But otherwise it’s the buzz of groups of family and friends on the weekend when the restaurant is at its busiest. And, despite its location being in the kind of area Phil Mitchell would send someone to sleep with the fishes, the whole thing works. The combination of whirring jet engines, XO sauce-slathered cheung fun, and lazy susans is a good one. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Like most Cantonese restaurants, Yi-Ban’s vast dim sum menu is only available in the daytime. There are thickly wrapped xiaolongbao, delicately stuffed crab meat dumplings, and lots more to choose from. It’s delicious without being exceptional, but each dish is under £5 and given you’re sitting in a massive, conference-ready dining room opposite a runway, it’s hard to leave Yi-Ban anything other than completely and utterly content. Excited, even. The careful fork-and-spoon shredding of a crispy aromatic duck is often the spectacle at a big table feast, which is very much what Yi-Ban should be used for. But here you get to marvel at something at a higher altitude as well. Only unlike actual airport restaurants, Yi-Ban isn’t stuck in that weird liminal space. It’s a restaurant you should be making a trip to en masse all year-round. Food Rundown photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Dim Sum Yi-Ban’s daytime dim sum menu is as deep as it is delicious. Ensuring you have a selection of cheung fun—steamed and filled with sweet roasted pork or crispy deep-fried pastry batter—is completely essential. Other dumplings, like scallops wrapped in a transparent crystal wrapper, or pork and crab siu mai, are reliable crowd-pleasers. Chilli oil on the side is a must, of course. In the realm of the beige and the deep-fried, sweet roast pork-filled pastries and any variety of golden, fried prawn hit the spot just as you’d expect them to. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Shredded Chilli Beef There is nothing natural about the day-glo orange colour of this crispy chilli beef and there is no bad word we can say about it. Unlike some takes on this Cantonese classic, there’s a pleasing chew to these strips of crunchy sweet beef and the fluorescent sauce is as moreish as you’d hope it would be. Crispy Aromatic Duck We’re hard pressed to think of three words that combine better than crispy, aromatic, and duck. Yi-Ban’s is as you’d hope: steaming hot with tender meat and deep-brown crispy skin with a few melt-in-your-mouth pieces of fat for the lucky ones." - Jake Missing