Harbour City

I came here as part of a group tour and had to eat here twice. Once for dinner and once for dim sum and it was definitely just an average restaurant. Food was served family style and banquet style. I almost gave it a 2 star rating but service was prompt and courteous. We never ran low on tea although they didn’t refill our water.
The first night was dinner that started off with a deep fried fish dish that had soggy rather than crunchy coating. Next was supposed to be Peking duck but it looked like it was cooked twice instead of served freshly cut. The chicken and vegetables was tasty. And the eggplant with tofu stir fry was very good. Then we had sautéed vegetables prepared well and lastly some sweet and sour ribs. The ribs were chewy but sauce was flavorful.
The next day we were served rice porridge or congee which was done well, but the fried rice was very dry and tasteless. They also served a chow mien dish with bean sprouts but there wasn’t enough to try so I didn’t get to taste it. Next we served Lo Bok Go or turnip cakes, they were just okay. I’ve had much better and crisper in Chicago. The next dish was Cheong Fun or long rice noodles stuffed with beef or pork and these were done very well. We also had a bland garlic steamed rib dish that was very fatty and then steamed pork Sui Mai and shrimp dumplings (har gow) that looked to be store bought rather than made on the premises. The steamed pork buns or char Sui bow were average.
Having been here twice I would not come back. Even though these were pre-​arranged meals they were so disappointing I couldn’t imagine how much better they could be if I ordered off the menu.

Bustling eatery in the heart of Chinatown, ideal for groups. Just order several dishes and spin the lazy Susan! Everything very fresh and authentic but beware of hot chiles!

This was my second visit here — we went for dim sum this time. Very fresh ingredients, great service, and they worked with my food allergy well. Highly recommend this spot!

DON’T LET THE INTERIOR FOOL YOU, THIS PLACE IS NOT WORTH GOING TO. MOVE ALONG.
Pros: Jasmine Tea (but can you really go wrong?), one of the waitresses was kind
Cons: Where do I start?
1. The staff literally harassed me about what I wanted to drink. They were breathing down my neck and I kept asking for more time and they would just circle us. It was very uncomfortable.
2. The food:
For starters we got Sweet and Sour Soup. It tasted like Buffalo Tenders and the meat looked very mysterious. Also, it was extremely over salted. Needless to say we only had a couple bites.
Then, I got noodles with bean sprouts. I decided to go vegetarian with my dish just because some of the things on the menu threw me off. My noodles were way too oversalted, and were pretty hard. It was not horrible… but I have had better in an American Food Court.
Finally my friend got a chicken dish with rice. Some of the pieces of chicken in her dish looked gray. She only had a couple bites before she told me she couldn’t stomach any more.
We did have a milk bun dim sum as well. This was fine. Nothing spectacular, but it was ok.
3. The service:
My friend and I got seperate things so we wanted to split the bill. That was not possible. The bill came out but it wasn’t a bill. it was a piece of paper saying the total which seemed 10 pound over what we had both got. When we asked for it listed out he acted like he didn’t understand. The only reason we could have thought of it being that much more is if they kept charging us for the tea pot that they kept refilling (without us asking). Infact, the tea pot never got a chance to be empty, so that would NOT be fair. So it was very very sketchy and we had a feeling they were ripping me off. But we were at a point of such disgust that we just wanted to leave. BUT IT GETS BETTER! We paid the exact amount and the waiter has the guts to reach his hand into my friends coin purse and take out some money for a tip. I was mortified. My friend said Excuse me really loud and that she had paid the right amount and to give her the coins back and he pretended he was confused and walked away. I was in complete disbelief.
I had actually considered giving this place 2 stars because their dim sum wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had (but not nearly the best). But the service combined with the false check totally threw me off.
I am also very happy I did not get any of the sketchy meat that they serve here. I stuck to vegetarian and still don’t feel good.
Please do your wallets and your stomach a favor and AVOID THIS PLACE.

Posh decoration but highly affordable — something to show off on a date? Yum! Loved by me and many of my friends.
Great place for dim sum, lunch and dinner.
4 floors so plenty of room for wedding banquets and parties. My dad’s had his 60^th birthday there and my brother his birthday — took 2 floors each!
Conclusion: Best affordable dim sum in London!

Picture a 72 year old caucasian woman and her woman friend wandering through Chinatown trying to pick put a restaurant for their visiting Yankee relatives. We wanted to trust their opinion… we gave them the benefit of the doubt, looking into the clean well lit dining room we thought might be meant to deceive from mediocrity. The food was bland or too salty and it seemed like half the menu was deep fried. One thing we ordered that was extremely disappointing to me was the shredded pork with preserved vegetable. It is generally one of my favorite dishes, I love the salty crunchy preserved cabbage. Harbor city’s version had nearly zero preserved vegetable instead being loaded with greasy bean sprouts and a few slices of bell pepper. This was not Chinese food.

Dieser Laden war im Bereich Dim Sum Angebot, einer der günstigsten in der bekannten Chinatown Strasse. Die Cheung Fun waren sehr schmackhaft und der Teig war wunderbar dünn.
Ha gao Füllung war außerordentlich frisch und dank der kompletten Garnelen auch von der Konsistenz sehr angenehm.
Bei den siu mai war ich etwas enttäuscht, die schmeckten für mich, wie die aus der TK, was sie bestimmt nicht waren, daher etwas schade für die Kunst des Dim Sum Meisters.
Cha siu Bao’s waren himmlisch fluffig und die Füllung schön saftig und leicht süß. Vom Laden her, sind sie eher funktionell eingerichtet.
Das Personal ist kurz angebunden, aber bei Fragen aufgeschlossen.
Wir waren während unseres 4 tägigen London Aufenthalts direkt 2 mal dort.
Ich kann den Laden also uneingeschränkt weiterempfehlen

A reasonable, old-​fashioned dim sum place. Priced slightly lower than some of its neighbours, to be honest I’d say there’s very little to choose between them, other than the staff being somewhat more polite. I have to say going to Chinese restaurants en famille, with a hungry and appreciative toddler in tow, does seem to melt the stoniest of waiting staff; it probably also helps to be polite.
The old-​fashioned bit extends to the stodginess of the steamed dim-​sum, and the fact that if you order particular dishes with chicken (e.g. rice with chicken and sausage), the surprisingly boney poultry appears to have been butchered with the blunt edge of a shovel. The prawn cheung fun were wholly unremarkable– the ricey pasta bit seemingly being thicker than normal, which had the advantage of meaning they could be manhandled from platter to bowl without disintegrating into gelatinous shreds, but the sweet/​salty sauce was a mean dribble at the bottom of the platter, and hadn;t made acquaintance with more than one of the dumplings. Scallop dumplings, however, were pretty good, as were the fried squid with sweet-​and-​sour sauce; the latter consisting of indecipherable bits of fishy loveliness. Were they mini-​squid, or just small pieces? Difficult to tel under there light batter, but preferable to the Elizabeth Duke-​stylee calamari hoops you are so often presented with.
The multiple floors mean there’s quite a bit of space, but at busy times (e.g. Sunday lunch/​afternoon), expect to have trouble getting a seat upstairs, of course, you basically don’t have a view, apart from of your fellow diners. Not bad, just not spectacular, and pleasant enough for a return visit.

Great Peking Duck and Beef with Black Bean sauce. Happily come back here for a feed anytime. It’s reasonable and the service is alright too.

My favourite by far of all in chinatown.
The staff are lovely, the food is the freshest
around. I’ve been going for 40 years.
My favourite dim sum is hot & sour soup, paper wrapped
prawns, chicken feet (yes!) in black bean sauce, prawn cheung fun & jasmine tea.
Sit by the window & watch the world go by. Weekends are
best when its family time here.

The «gotta have» dish here is the crispy duck. The waiter debones it at your table, and it’s served with a few vegetables for garnish, and small crepes in which to wrap the duck meat, veggies, and sauce. Sort of like a Cantonese version of fajitas, if you will.
Aside from that, the fare was pretty standard. Not awesome, but much better than the last couple of Chinese places I had tried in England. I was delighted to see the big lazy Susan in the middle of the table. Those are getting more rare these days, but they sure make it easier when you have a gang and want to share a bunch of different dishes (which is the best way to eat Chinese food).
The service was, well, not inefficient, but neither was it speedy. It wasn’t particularly friendly, nor rude either. Just kind of «let me do my job».
The most unusual aspect of the evening for me was the layout. The restaurant stretches up 3 or 4 (or more?) floors, and the food is brought to each level by dumbwaiters (I didn’t ask, but presumably the kitchen is in the basement). I had to go down two floors just to get to the loo. This place is emphatically not wheelchair accessible.

GOOD SIM SUM!
If you’re looking for good ‘Yum Cha’ then this is actually a good place to come. Though, I’d still put Joy King Lau top, and Lido close behind before I’d go here (sometime’s I like a change though).
Now, I always select my three favourite dim sum to judge how good they are:
1. Steamed Prawn Dumplings. Tasted fresh and well cooked, and a generous amount in each. Only 3 portions though (you get 4 in JKL).
2. Char Sui Bau (Steam Roast Pork Bun). Tender meat and right amount of flavour and sauce. As good as it gets in London.
3. Steamed Custard Bun. Oh dear. Lack of sweetness, the yellow centre looked a bit green, and too dry.
I’ve been back several times, and will go again. Only its not easy to access if you have a pushchair (stairs to entrance).

Let me set the scene: It was Chinese New Year. A group of friends and I had saved our first trip into London’s Chinatown for this special occasion. We trudged through the cold and finally showed up at Harbor City Restaurant with pink, eager, and most importantly, hungry faces. Results: Horrible. ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE.
When we got to the restaurant, we waited at least 25 minutes for a table. The service was cold and impatient, as if the waiters were paying us to eat their food. And unsurprisingly, I wish they could have given us some compensation for the «Cantonese Cuisine» they served us. We ordered very basic dishes: mapo tofu, sautéed water spinach, salt baked chicken, beef hefen and shrimp and cashews. All the dishes were tiny and terribly prepared. We all had trouble keeping the food down. By the end of the meal, I was simply glad not to have food poisoning.
Please, do not eat here unless you want to mortify your digestive system or disgrace the Chinese culture.

I’ve been a few times with big groups for dinner and they are always very accommodating even though we arrive with no reservation. This last trip (July 2010) we got a family meal which came with an obscene amount of food, and it all was good to very good. I can’t even begin to remember it all. I do remember the duck and it was excellent. So was the fried calamari. The service was slow but even so we ate for a solid two hours. It was family meal C if I remember, 23 pounds each, and we ended up taking at least half the dishes home. It was a fun and economical way to try lots of different dishes. I will go back next time I am in London, for sure.

Location: They are situated in Chinatown so easy to get to from Leicester Sq or Picadilly Circus Station.
Atmosphere: There was none, I went there with my boss at around 8ish and it was pretty much dead, there were about 3 people in there. They seem to have an upstairs and downstairs, we sat downstairs towards the back.
Service: The service was ok, when I told him I was vegetarian he didn’t look too pleased and told me I could have a dish with fish in it and then when I told him I didn’t eat fish, well, let’s say he looked like I was going to be eaten alive lol, he got frustrated and said I could have anything and they would take out the meat, well I didn’t believe him and went for a safe option of tofu and vegetables and vegetable spring roles.
Food: The spring roles were surprisingly quite nice, the pineapple juice tasted like it had been poured through old mans socks. The main came quite swiftly after and it was a bit bland, just regular vegetables with tofu in some sort of soy sauce. We didn’t bother staying for dessert, we headed to Haagan Daz instead ;)
Evaluation: Well I gave it one star because I wouldn’t go back. I wanted to try somewhere new and unfortunately picked somewhere that wasn’t fantastic :(There are better restaurants in China town, avoid this one if you are vegetarian the choice isn’t great and what you get wont taste that good either.

Pathetically, I have not gone here for dim sum, which means I have yet another excuse to attend this lovely place. Simple décor and service matches the simple food, but not in a bad way — food is fresh, presented cleanly, and tasty. I had the duck soup, and coming from America I expected it to look like our chicken noodle soup — broth, noodles, and shredded chicken bits. I did not expect a duck simply chopped in pieces, bones, skin, and all, in a light broth. Once my eyes adjusted, it was very very very good, if not slightly difficult to eat demurely. A wonderful place to stop in — make sure you ask for a window by the table for great people watching in Chinatown.

I can understand that all Chinese restaurants have slight variations for popular Chinese dishes. But a variation does not mean that customers want to eat dishes that have been butchered beyond gustatory and visual recognition.
Although I can’t remember what we ordered, we certainly didn’t ask for anything fancy. And each group member was shocked by how alien each dish looked and tasted. Despite our empty stomachs, we had difficulty eating and we all practically wanted to storm out.
Oh, and this is on top of the fact that it took a good 40 minutes between the time we sat down and the time we could eat and a good 20 minutes for the waitress to get our plates when we finished.
I can only hope Harbour City is an anomaly of a Chinese restaurant in a city as diverse as London. Otherwise, I can pretty much say goodbye eating Chinese food here.

I couldn’t write about old school dim sum without actually going for a big blow-​out. The obvious venue was Chinatown home to many old school joints and I decided to check out Harbour City. I hadn’t been to this Gerrard St stalwart in years but my curiosity was aroused by Bellaphon. For this post, I decided to draft in some expert help in the form of Helen aka World Foodie Guide. Sadly, Helen doesn’t blog anymore but her guide on where to eat dim sum in London remains essential reading.
Now you might think Chinatown is the place to go yum cha but those days are long over. Nowadays, London’s best dim sum is found elsewhere, my regular haunt is Phoenix Palace whilst Helen favours Pearl Liang. That said, it’s handy to have somewhere in Chinatown to fall back on for dim sum but would Harbour City be that place ?
First impressions weren’t great. Whilst I didn’t mind the slightly dated interior, I did mind not being asked what tea I wanted. In fact I think they poured it before I even had a chance to take my coat off. We also seemed to have walked in on a staff training session as a Cantonese speaking waitress was training up a Mandarin speaking waiter when taking our order. I’m not sure why they don’t have the ‘tick sheet’ menu common in most dim sum places it would have made life much easier. That said ordering wasn’t too much of an ordeal as the menu was bilingual and from it, we went for a mix of steamed dishes, fried snacks and the rest…
Har gau (prawn dumplings) are usually a good indicator of the quality of a dim sum restaurant. The wrapper should be thin and translucent whilst the prawn filling should be well seasoned, not minced too finely and retain some bounce. The dumplings here just about pass the test, if anything the wrapper was too thin as it broke on contact with the chopsticks.
Cha siu bao is a classic and like most dim sum, you get three in a portion. But Helen and I are old enough to remember the golden age when these steamed bbq pork buns had a more generous filling and were so big that the basket could only fit two buns. Whilst the buns here were larger than the modern average, they were sadly more bao than cha siu. Steamed whelks in curry sauce were quite moreish although like the rest of the steamed dim sum, nothing special.
Moving onto the fried snacks, these were competently executed with none of the stale greasiness that afflicts some dim sum places. We ordered wu gok (yam croquette), grilled bean wafer with minced prawn paste filling (of our order, this was Helen’s fave it was bit like a large spring roll made with a bean curd skin wrapper) and mak yu beng (fried cuttlefish cakes). There wasn’t much wrong with these snacks but I thought they lacked finesse.
In particular, I couldn’t help but compare the mak yu beng to Phoenix Palace’s version which is studded with finely chopped water chestnuts that give it crunch as well as bounce. I realise how ridiculous that last sentence reads and you’re probably thinking ‘what a fussy **’ well you’d be right but that’s what eating dim sum for over 30 years can do to a man.
Cheung fun is a dim sum essential and my favourite is zhaliang in my opinion, this was probably the pick of the bunch as there were signs of delicacy absent from the rest of the order. The fried dough stick wasn’t greasy, the rice noodle wrapper was silky smooth, and the soy was served on the side to prevent the dough stick getting soggy. Its dishes like these that underline the superiority of the old school.
A dim sum session isn’t complete without siu mei and noodles so I killed two birds with one stone by ordering three roasts with fried noodles (sam siu chow mein). There were no complaints about this healthy portion of cha siu, siu yuk, roast duck, and pak choi sat atop crispy fried noodles.
The dim sum is very cheap here with prices starting at £2.10 and the damage was roughly £28 for two including tea and service although the bill was presented in that typically opaque Chinatown way. I did over-​order and I bagged up some of the leftovers to take home so if you ditched the noodles, you could probably get away with spending around £10/​head. Service wasn’t bad by Chinatown standards let’s put it this way, my only real grumble was not being offered a choice of tea.
I can imagine if you were a regular at Harbour City then you’d feel quite at home but unfortunately I’m not and both Helen and I thought it was distinctly average here. Whilst the dim sum was far from bad, I’d be hard pushed to think of anything that would lure me back.
I also realised over the course of this lunch, how much I missed the bells and whistles of high-​end old school places like Phoenix Palace. It wasn’t just about the higher quality food and service, I also missed the small touches like being able to choose your own tea, the little name label on the teapot lid, and most importantly, the water chestnuts in the mak yu beng.
Verdict: If you happen to be

As a big dimsum afficionado as well as a food-​perfectionist, I take a lot of pleasing. But on a hungover Sunday morning, one place stands out as the place to go for those little steamed parcels (and buns, and pies) of happiness. Harbour City. It serves dimsum of all sorts, including shark’s fin, and they are freshly-​made and tasty. They are also priced at Soho level (10 – 15 pounds a head for a group), and not at the Princess Garden or Royal China’s higher bracket. Best of both worlds. The only caution is that the queue to get in on a Sunday can be quite long, but they DO take bookings so it may be worth doing that, espesh if you are a large party.

Harbour City is a grand old lady of London’s Chinatown. It has a reputation for high class dim sum and has garnered many good reviews in its time.
Unfortunately, over the years, the quality of the dim sum has been going downhill. The thickness of the pastry wrapping for the har gows and cheong fun dishes is too thick. Some of the fried items can be soggy. The appearance of the food can be below par.
With new kids on the block, Harbour City mustn’t rest on her laurels and rise to the challenge by returning to old standards.

One of the best places for dim sum in Chinatown. The food is great and the price is reasonable (about £15 per person). This is our usual place for dim sum if we are in town. The best dishes are fried cheong fun; prawn dumplings and steam beancurd rolls! Never miss them whenever I am there.
The interior is typical, like a normal Chinese restaurant; not too contemporary. Clean and neat; with ornamental features on the walls. In general, the setting provides a good match to the food.