Nii Haw

Decided to try something new, but wish I had just gone to my regular place. Summer rolls were nasty; parts of it were gelatinous goop, other parts were just chewy and horrid and the whole thing was flavourless. The squid salad I had was covered in a nasty acrid dressing. I also got a bag of rice crackers to nibble on and they tasted of absolutely nothing. I found it expensive for what I had, the whole thing costing over £8. Nice staff, free water but you need that to wash the horrible taste out of your mouth!

Pop in this little shop for some dim sum quick lunch today as this is the only one of it’s type around fleet street area.
Staff r nice, but I am disappointed by the quality of dim sum. It is packed in a take away box already and they are not freshly steamed. I tried the 8 pieces mix dim sum and Shanghai dumpling. Very disappointed with the Shanghai dumplings as there are no yummy broth inside the dumplings. So the dim sum are not made freshly by the shop with good ingrients. Better just buy a super market dim sum with cheaper Price.
Their hot food doesn’t look attractive to me, so even the Price is ok, I did not buy any.
If they start serving fresher food, I will come back. otherwise, may skip it.

Disappointing. Service was quick if a little curt, got what I asked for, no fuss.
Dim sum was not great. Those massive catering bags of frozen dumplings you can find in Chinese supermarkets… I suspect that’s all these are. Steamed a little and then bundled into sweaty foil containers and placed under a heat lamp. Mine had all fused together into one starchy lump.
Fillings aren’t scant but aren’t that great either, solid and lumpen all dense and claggy. Perhaps mine were under-​steamed? There is far better than this around, even Ping Pong can run rings around these guys.
Though this wasn’t an actively terrible experience, I won’t hurry back. £5−6 is a high price for such mediocre stuff.

I was not expecting to like Nii Haw because I thought £5.50 for 8 pieces of dim sum was unlikely to make a satisfying lunch, also the service was quite brusque — the lady asked me if I wanted soy or chili sauce with it and seemed angry when I hesitated, then gave me chili sauce after I plumped for soy. However… that was definitely the better choice and although the dim sum might not fill up a very hungry person it worked for me and, more to the point, it tasted good! I’d definitely come back here if in the area and feeling like a little dim sum, might try their sushi too.

This place has been around for a year already? Shocking! How have I not popped in to try them out before? I spotted Patty L’s review for their shrimp dumplings and thought to myself, ‘Self, we need to scope out this dim sum situation, stat!’
This tiny takeaway has a small counter where one gent was rolling and slicing sushi rolls. A counter at the back had some steamed dumplings in a case, a tureen of miso soup, and the till. The staff were speaking Mandarin to one another, which I took to be a good sign that at least they’d have a good idea of what dim sum is meant to be like.
And true enough, the dim sum mix, reasonably priced at £5.50, was a substantial amount of food. Eight assorted starch-​wrapped bundles of dumpling delicacy nestled cozily into the aluminium container. Though not as fresh or posh as the likes of what you’ll find at Royal China, you’re also paying easily half the price. And as Patty noted, the shrimp dumplings in particular were quite true to form, though I was pleased with the shu mai. The veggie dumplings were a bit of a miss for me, but fortunately some soy sauce and chilli oil go a long way toward making anything enjoyable.
The pre-​packaged sushi in the refrigerator unit looked pretty enticing, though I didn’t try it. There are ample other options for Japanese right around Farringdon, so I wouldn’t expect to head to Nii Haw for that kind of cuisine. It’s definitely a welcome treat to know that a-​okay dim sum is just a few minutes’ walk away, rather than a haul all the way down to Chinatown. And ‘not bad’ is ‘pretty good’ as far as that goes in London!

Stumbled into Nii Haw after a few beers en route to picking up food at Chi and had to order a serving of shrimp dumplings, as I had been craving dim sum for quite a while. They were DELICIOUS. The outer part was just the right thickness, soft, translucent and had a nice bite to it (like aldente pasta but better), and the shrimp filling was tasty and succulent. I immediately inhaled them as we walked to Chi and dug ‘em so much, I picked up another order on the way back.