Beijing Dumpling

Let me start by saying I have tried Xiao long bao dumplings all over the world and had to try some while in London. I went to this cute dumpling house with a party of 4 in the mid afternoon. The service was quick and the décor was cute. We ordered the fried pork dumplings (not amazing… A bit greasy and overpriced for the tiny 3 piece order), the chicken curry (decent curry, large portion, lacking flavor), the fried seaweed (eh not my thing), and the spicy xlb (good texture, good amount of soup, lacking some flavor… could have benefited from some ginger). Overall the food was decent, but nothing special.

Ordered the Dan Dan Mein (noodles) mostly because I’m craving a hot soup on this cold, wet London summer evening. The non-​spicy chicken and pork xia long bau (dumplings)was sold out by 6:30 pm so I took the spicy pork XLB. I know I’m comparing to the venerable Din Tai Fung… But the dumplings are basically dry with just a hint of soup in them. The noodles are pretty good with the sauce showing less peanut flavor that I’m used to– but still tasty. Portion sizes are good. I just don’t understand why a basic signature dish should be sold out so early on a Tuesday night– they must make all the dumplings at one time early in the day and not continuously like busier restaurants like DTF. If they had kept a full menu by 6:30 PM when I showed up, I might have given four stars for the quality of the food.

The dumplings were fresh and authentic. I lived in China for a while and the Xiao Long Bao was my favorite dish there. I was thrilled to find an excellent version at Beijing Dumpling. The crispy duck was also fabulous. Everything we ate was delicious so we found ourselves eating here three times during our stay in London. We were never disappointed in the food. As we found with most London restaurants, the service was only okay. One time in particular our main dishes came 15 to 20 minutes after we’d finished our starters. I believe the waitress didn’t even put the order in until she’d seen us finish our starters. She kept coming back to check our progress. Finally, my husband covered up what was left of the starters so she’d put the order in.

I hit this place at least once each time when I am in London. It is not famous like Din Tai Fung nor is it fancy but their dumplings are comforting when I am in a land of fish and chips. Plus, I like watching the lady in the window make them all from scratch which you can do from the outside if you are too cheap to go in and purchase any. Their wait staff is friendly and always invite me to sit at an open table while awaiting my take away order (exactly 9 minutes will elapse to steam some dumplings to go). Having done this before, I find that when I am traveling solo on business, taking an order of steamed zhao long bao to go back to my hotel serves my jet lag and confused body well when I wake up at 2am hungry. Even cold, they are delicious. Be sure to get some black vinegar and chili to go and they are perfect as a midnight snack… kind of like the cheap and portable version of cold pizza when I was in college but better! The location of this place is easy since it is about 1 block up the street from the Leicester Square underground stop. I have tried other soup dumplings around Chinatown but this place keeps bringing me back because of its consistent quality and taste. Like most thrifty Chinese, they won’t charge your card for anything under $ 10 GBP so come prepared and bring cash unless you are placing a large order.

Really good the Dumplings, I am not an expert but they were really tasty. The other dish (Fried rice noodles) was tasty and in good quantity. The restaurant is small and your table can be too close to the next but with space between something that others don’t have. The price was good, so overall I would recommend try it.
P. S. Iny next visit I have to try chiken wings, they look delicious in the table next to mine.

I am disappointed with the dumplings here, they were sized like the Hershey chocolate, selling these to people who don’t know better. Shame on you!!!

Very mediocre as I am comparing with authentic similar food in Shanghai and New York Chinatown. Only the hand pulled noodle has a little redeeming value but even the sauce is not tasty. The Xiao lung bao is very substandard and the King seafood dumpling is not worth the money at all.

Just got home from a fantastic meal! I can not stress enough how amazing and tasty the food was and so reasonably priced also! (One tip tho make sure you book ahead as there was a line going right outside the place!)

Dumplings were OK. Chicken was OK

Love the food! The service is not good and the restaurant seems quite «sticky» overall. Anyways, I love the food and I am always happy to be back

Best Dumpling ever! If you are going to eat there be ready for a tasty home made dumplings… the best ones are the pork and crab ones as the taste is perfect and light.
They also have different dishes like starters, rice/​noodles and the hot pot if you fancy a typical Chinese lunch or dinner.
The place itself is minimal and clean and the staff isn’t the best but who cares. we are coming to eat not to have a chat about life!
Highly recommended :)
PS: the price is quite cheap and the portions are big!

Hmm… my cousin told me that I need to come to this place to try them out since my beau and I like dumplings. Came here for lunch and the place was empty. There were 2 employees in the window making dumplings.
Ordered xiao long bao, hot and sour soup, and a cup of fresh soya bean drink. The soya bean drink was probably the best thing we ordered. I don’t know if its because we have been spoiled in California and had better
XLB — I don’t even know if we should consider this XLB considering there was no juice in each one at all. The dough was sticky and pretty thick. I have to say its one of the worst ones we had.
Hot and Sour soup –hmmm… this is different. Its very dark… like soy sauce dark. I could taste that they put alot of soy sauce and vinegar in there. Didn’t taste like any of the ones I have before.
This place didn’t meet expectation considering all the good reviews I’ve read on Unilocal.Maybe we just went on an off day.

Comida china, especialmente dumplings (fritos, en sopa, etc.) Dentro de todo, es barato, y la comida es muy rica. El personal no habla mucho y te dejan el menú con una lapicera para que marques lo que querés comer.
No se asusten por la china que saca la basura y tiene cara de borracha porque ella no hace la comida. I hope…

We came here on the assumptions that they would do a huge selection of dumplings as its in the restaurant name. When we looked at the menu we were surprised to only find a few dumpling dishes. It didn’t put us off that much and we ended up getting one pork dumpling dish, dry beef noodles, garlic chicken and prawn toast. The prawn toast arrived as a starter and we were very underwhelmed. For a £6 starter you would expect something special but it was 4 tiny soggy pieces that you would expect to receive from a bad takeaway. The two mains arrived shortly after and we were very happy again. The noodle dish was incredible and the portion sizes were huge. The dumplings arrived last as they are cooked fresh to order, again this was absolutely amazing. It’s very confusing how some dishes can be so poor but others be great. (Visit — 12/​05/​2015 Dinner)

The name says it all, this place is serving some real oriental dumpling realness. Food usually arrives quite quickly, which I really enjoy. Besides the dumplings, I would highly recommend the spicy aubergines and spicy fried rice mixed seafood.

Table for two — Steamed dumplings, crispy dumplings and some spicy tofu. Steamed dumplings were the clear winner.

I have to augment my initial review with reference to the non-​dumpling dishes. Upon two return visits I also tried the deep-​fried octopus with chili and sea salt, and the hot and sour soup (which contains shrimps, sliced mushrooms and egg yolk) — both were very decent.
But I maintain that the dumplings make this place special. Had them again and again, was never disappointed (additional photos provided).

If you like dumplings — you will love this place!
You can watch them prepare and steam the dumplings at the front of the restaurant. We always order all the steamed dumplings and have never been disappointed. Absolutely great!
The staff might seem a bit rude sometimes, but its usually just because they are in a real hurry, but this place is always busy and you still won´t have to wait long for your orders to arrive — so I´m never bothered by it!
You never have to wait long, even with a queue in front of the restaurant!
We also tried the whole duck, which is delicious, crispy, and just perfect!

Rudest staff I have ever encountered. Tossed the menus on my table and grunted approval of my order. Food was okay.

Hello hot-​pot, where have you been all my life?!
Thanks to Yee Gan for making arrangements for the evening and to Becky for suggesting the hot pot at a dumplings resto.
If you’ve never had a hot pot before its pretty rad and easy and yes you will get filled up. Trust. Its essentially all you can eat meats and veggies for £20 and your food is cooked in a double sided pot with two types of soup atop of a skillet thing in the middle of your table.
There was lamb, and beef, and mushrooms of different types, and meat balls of different types (i don’t know what they are i just ate them. Don’t ask questions. just eat) and beautiful shrimps and noodles and spinach and and and and… so much!
Our technique was to just dump a ton of food in there and then scoop out what you wanted to eat in few minutes and voila you eat the said meats and things with delicious dipping sauces.
nom nom nom

This is a review on BD’s hot pot /​steam boat, not their XLB.
This is only time I’ve had hotpot in London, and it was some time last year so my memory is a bit foggy! for those unfamiliar with hot pot, it’s a communal pot of soup where you cook your food in the soup at your table! You get a range of veggies, Chinese greens and mushrooms, fish and beef balls, tofu, assorted meats, noodles, dumplings, etc and while there are different soups, the common standard is a split pot with spicy Szechuan soup, and a simple stock. Perfect for cold winter days where you feel like you’re just wrapped in a warm blanket the entire evening.
For £22ish/​person, you get unlimited hot pot with 1.5−2 hours of eating time. I think the soup is around £10 for the pot. I think 6 – 7 people per pot is the max to share one pot, with more people you might want 2 pots.
The variety of food is alright. I can’t compare it to any other place (for now), but I think this is decent value for Chinese food.
On the plus side, they have a very good selection of sauces and toppings that you can mix together (satay sauce, chili oil, peanut sauce, garlic, coriander etc). Restaurants *usually* charge for anything other than soy sauce. The sauces and toppings are listed on the menu so be sure to specify what you want. They tried to just give soy, but I’m like no ma’am, I want it all!
Service was ok, but my biggest gripe is that you can take home any wasted food but you will be charged £9/​box. Understood — but we were unfairly being given insane amounts of food when we were being careful to order adequate amounts. I love my veg, I really do. But they gave us a huge mountain of veg/​tofu along with a decent plate of meat, and certain things we didn’t even order. We had a second round and asked for 1 order of a couple of items (1 order is usually 2 – 3 pieces) for the 3 of us to share. They brought over what seemed like 4 orders of everything. Massive plate of meat. 15 dumplings. 8 pieces of tofu. A big pile of squid. Surely this isn’t 1 order. But I think we were being stuffed to the max in hopes we’d not finish and have to pay for the excess in the end.
Not a good way to do business. I would go back bc I like the food and variety in sauces. But if they try to give me excessive food, I’m gonna have something to say about that.