Royal China Club

I think this is one of the worst Chinese restaurant I’ve been to. To start with the service, the staff were very rude and kept collecting plates off the table whilst I was still eating and haven’t finished. The attitude was very much «eat and leave». I wouldn’t of minded the service so much if the food was excellent. We ordered the following four mains:
— Szechuan chicken: was dry deep fried chicken just smothered over dry chillies and no sauce.
— roast duck: the skin wasn’t crispy although the meat was tender.
–peppercorn veal: The texture and colour of the meat was so strange that we weren’t sure if it was veal or pork! There was a very sticky glaze all over it that smelt a lot like fish which made it inedible.
— king prawns in ginger & spring onion: This was the only dish that we could eat I usually don’t even like prawns but the prawns were huge and sauce was very nice. Although the waitress took away the bowl which meant I couldn’t even smother the sauce on other dishes.
Overall it was a very disappointing experience and I really wanted to enjoy it but I couldn’t. If your stuck in Baker Street and fancy a Chinese go to the place across the street or Phoenix palace much better restaurants and value for money!

Very appetising (also pricey) Cantonese food. Worth waiting for more than half and hour on Sunday though.

A friend recommended this place to us based on her experience. She highly recommended the food. It’s true; the food was great. Ambience was nice as well. Service was average at best. It’s not that they were not attentive, it’s the fact that they have an indifferent attitude. They never smiled while attending to us. The four stars is definitely based on the food alone. Would’ve been five if the service was just as great as their food. What a shame.

The best dim sum in London, some of the best I’ve had in the world. The rest of the selection is also quite high, a bit expensive but it’s worth the price.

Food is seriously overpriced and disappointing. Was looking forward to this as being the highest end of the royal China group. Problem was that the chefs tried to make it high end an westernised, however have failed with flavour and presentation. Everything just tastes weird and wrong. They should stick to traditional Chinese cooking and leave this to the Hakkasan guys.

There are 2 Royal China restaurants near Baker Street. The Royal China Club is more refined and expensive whereas the other Royal China is your normal type of Royal China so be careful that you walk into the one you of your choice.
Just looking at the sheer size and quality of the lobsters that are proudly presented in large tanks that greet you as you enter the restaurant, should give you an idea of what you’re walking into. Another indicator of a restaurant’s effort to be unique is when they have a welcome message at the front of their menu. Frankly I find it refreshing to see a Chinese restaurant put in this effort, as the Chinese culture is known to adore and pay attention to food but not always the presentation and environment in which it is served.
Thankfully all the traditional favourite dishes such as cheung fun and buns are still on the menu, at the same time interspersed with other exciting choices. The service was good, the dim sum was good and the décor was good; in fact I have no qualms with Royal China Club at all and would recommend it as a place to have dim sum, yet at the same time nothing in particular stands out in my mind from my visit as being especially impressive or exceptional. I suspect however, that having dinner here could potentially be amazing. This is a great stop for Chinese food in any case.

First, the food here is some of the best Chinese food I’ve had since arriving to London. However, tea is £4.8 and a refill of tea is £2.4. This to me seems a bit ridiculous for something that is normally complimentary…

We went as a group for lunch and were taken to a table laid out and ready. There were loads of waitresses and waiters. We got a mix of dumplings and noodles and soups etc. The noodles they recommended were delicious and they gave us a perfect sense of how much to order etc so I would trust the staff with picking a few things for you.
The food arrived quick enough and the dumplings etc were a definite highlight for me. The rice noodles were also divine so definitely have a go at that. The hot and spicy soup was mouth watering though a little spicy.

Not to be confused with the Royal China down the road that specialises in dim sum, this sister restaurant specialises in bigger plates of Chinese and Cantonese food for lunch and dinner. Flavours are fresh, light and delicate — a million miles from what the average person can stir fry at home. They even have live lobster for various dishes such as the superb lobster on crispy noodles. Go to the Royal China for superb dim sum, come to the Royal China Club for a brilliant evening banquet.

Very nice dim sum restaurant. The price is a little higher than other dim sum places in town. But the quality is very good, taste comparable to those in China, taste of original!

As a San Francisco native who is used to excellent Chinese food, this restaurant most closely resembled the quality in food and taste in the dim sum dishes. Everything was delicious but especially the shanghai soupy dumplings. Not particularly fancy or trendy — just good food and quick service.

Dim Sum was delightful. I enjoyed the Pork Buns, Prawn Dumplings, & Duck Rolls. The wanton soup had a delicate but flavorful broth. The Scallops with Asparagus was also delicious. Asparagus & Chinese Broccoli was perfectly cooked, lightly crisp but not overdone. A bit expensive but for high quality food.

There’s no push cart, the tea is not free, the dim sum menu is not the most extensive out there. You’d be disappointed if you are looking for an authentic Hong Kong dim sum experience.
However I must admit I like the atmosphere very much. It’s bright, clean, peaceful, the servers are polite, and the utensils are well made. It’s quite pricy for dim (this is one of the more expensive area in London), but most things I’ve tried has been tasty so far.
BBQ pork puff is my favorite, the pastry is flaky but did not fall apart. The only thing that has disappointed me was Xiao long bao (shanghai soup dumplings) as I expected delicious meat juice in the bun but there was none. For non dim sum items, the wasabi shrimp was surprisingly good.
There’s a wide selection of tea as well.
The place is quite spacious, I never had trouble getting seated at lunch time despite the party sizes, but it seems more packed at dinner time.
The service is not only friendly, but also efficient.
Would recommend this place for lunch date, business meeting, friends get together or anytime you want to enjoy dim sum in a less chaotic environment.

Nicely decorated establishment, proximate to other oriental eateries in the Baker Street cluster.
Well known for its Dim Sum, with a number of unusual offerings in addition to the familiar.
But I felt the prices were high, even for London, and some of the fried Dim Sum items were greasier than I’ve come to expect at other establishments.

A large, spacious and upmarket Chinese restaurant known for good service and authentic Chinese cooking. I was taken there for a special birthday meal and chose the Vegetarian Special menu (£30 per person). Service was very good and the food arrived quickly without being rushed. The food itself overall was very good indeed tasty and light, rather than overwhelming, as Chinese food sometimes can be. The only slight surprise was that the Szechuan braised tofu was much milder than I expected, as my experience of Szechuan cuisine is that it is normally quite fiery. Expect to pay upwards of £50 per person for dinner, depending on your choice (choose one of the lobsters swimming away in the tank by the entrance and expect to pay about double that). The choice of Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand, Marlborough Bay) was excellent, too. The only quibble is that they charge 15% for service, which is fine given we had four staff constantly dropping by, but then leave a space to ‘add a service charge’ on the receipt, which I don’t like as a practice. Verdict: very good, pricey, great for special occasions.

Royal China Club — Pics @ The London Foodie
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Located on soulless Baker Street, the Royal China Club (RCC) is one of the many fashionable restaurants that seem to be livening up an otherwise lacklustre street.
Part of the Royal China Group of restaurants, the Royal China Club was opened as the group’s answer to the challenge set by upmarket dim sum eateries like Hakkasan and Yauatcha, with menu prices to match.
Accompanying me on the day were Dr G and Mr Noodles who politely accepted our impromtu invitation to dim sum. The restaurant has an elegant feel with large tanks filled with lobsters and other crustacea dominating its entrance.
As well as the standard dim sum dishes the menu also contained some unusual choices like the delicious Pan fried fillet of duck breast @ £4.60, served in large slices on a hot sizzling plate.
Another unusual but flavoursome dish was the Fillet of sea bass wrap @ £4.60. Beautifully presented, the dish consisted of fillets of sea bass wrapped around crunchy vegetables in a spicy broth.
The Shanghai pork and crab dumplings @ £4.20 were also good, holding a fair amount of concentrated broth in a fine, translucent skin.
One of my favourite dim sum dishes is Prawn and yellow chive dumplings @ £3.90. I was pleased to find RCC’s dumplings to be excellent the morsels were bursting with a generous amount of filling, they tasted fresh and had a delicious herby/​garlicky flavour from the chives.
The Bamboo pith and prawn dumpling (har gow) @ £3.90 were beautifully pleated, and well cooked the skin had a slightly chewy/​sticky texture which is the sign of a well made har gow.
Lobster dumpling with rice wine sauce @ £8 was a let-​down in both execution and flavour. The delicate meat was completely overwhelmed by the other ingredients, and at £8, we all felt it was overpriced.
Onto more familiar grounds, I felt that the Baked char siu pork puff @ £3.60 were as good as I hoped they would be. I love these puffs, and nearly always order them for dim sum. They remind me of Brazilian/​Portuguese Empadinhas (although in our version we use prawn or chicken and sometimes palm hearts). The pastry was deliciously buttery and flaky holding the delectable and sweet char siu pork filling.
One of the most interesting dishes was the Glutinous rice omelette with duck @ £5. Similar to the more ubiquitous glutinous rice in lotus leaf, RCC’s version was novel with a thin outer layer of fried egg, and tasted delicious.
Another traditional dim sum given the RCC revamp was the Sesame paper prawn with mango@ £3.80. The sweet mango worked surprisingly well with the combination of prawns and coriander, giving a real lift to the dish.
Cheung fun is a must-​have in any dim sum meal and so we ordered Veal cheung fun and Dover sole cheung fun both at @ £4.20. Despite the novel presentation, I felt both dishes were rather disappointing in my opinion cheung fun is all about the different textures (and flavour), and I did not feel these types of meat and fish worked well against the silken rice wrappers.
The biggest disappointment however was the Braised E-​fu noodles with soya sauce @ £9.50. The noodles were mushy and sat in an indiscernible brown sauce with little, if any, flavour.
The saving grace to a hit-​and-​miss lunch was our dessert Coconut moss dumplings with black sesame seed @ £3.90. The black filling was gloriously nutty contrasting well with a delicate coconut flavoured wrapper.
To accompany our dim sum dishes we had a pot of Tieguanyin oolong tea (also known as Iron Goddess of Mercy) @ £4.80 which was delicately flowery and very refreshing. The tea pot was regularly topped up with freshly boiled water without us needing to ask for it.
Cost: £81.40 including 12.5% service or £27 per person.
Likes: excellent prawn and chive dumplings and glutinous rice omelette with duck dshes, novel presentation, attentive and polite service.
Dislikes: higher than average prices, some of the dishes were ambitious but did not quite deliver like the lobster dumpling and veal cheung fun.
Verdict: Good quality dim sum restaurant with high aspirations but lacking in consistency. Higher than average prices, excellent service, and elegant setting. Given the high prices and inconsistent cooking, I would rather spend an extra few pounds and go to Hakkasan. Despite this, I would still recommend RCC over the nearby Phoenix Palace where cheaper prices go hand in hand with poor quality dim sum and rude service.

Fine, dignified, delicious food generally spoiled by how pissed we are when we rock up.
The staff are impeccable, the décor is classy (pas de eurotrash/​lacquer overkill here, darling) and plates are all decent sizes.
The whole Marylebone/​Baker Street vibe is a bit too wooden for me though, but if you’re in the area and can bring along a can of your own atmosphere, don’t let the hefty prices distract you. Or the inevitably long queues.

As a HK native with high expectations when it comes to dim sum, I was sooooooo excited to see their dim sum menu which featured familiar favourites with de luxe touches/​interpretations e.g. lobster dumplings, fried rice wrapped in an egg white omlette with abalone sauce.
The food which arrived did not disappoint in taste, texture and freshness. It is the genuine article and I felt like back home again.
The BIG snag was that this is really an «expense account» joint — really rather expensive for what one got in terms of quantity (though quality is delivered). Mr Penguin and I had about 6 items and the bill came to over £45. The fried rice alone was £10.50 and there was only one bowlful of the stuff when it arrived. Shocked. See picture uploaded.
I would come here again but may need to wait for another bonus day … whenever that is! Dim sum is not supposed to be such an expensive affair.

Now there are two types of Royal China Restaurants. There are «Royal China» and «Royal China Club» Restaurants.
Sadly this is a Royal China Club. and this mean you will pay more money and get less food… because this posh Chinese dining… posh Chinese… really? Come one…
My advice is walk one block further down Baker Street and go into «Royal China» and you will leave fuller and less poor.

Well I’d never made it passed the royal china, but you should make those extra steps to the Royal China Club.
Huge water tanks on entry full of lobsters, really big ones, sole and fresh crabs.
It’s lady F’s most favourite dim sum restaurant. it’s simply the best dim sum
Quick service and a very smart little restaurant
Pork puffs — a must