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Leong's Legends
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© Ed Marshall
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By Charmaine Mok
There’s something conspiratorial about the whole thing. Just when you thought the Chinatown dining scene was torpid, two outstanding restaurants – first Baozi Inn, and now Leong’s Legends, both boasting relatively unknown regional cooking – burst on to the scene with the stealth and cunning of bandits. Which, if you think about it, is a fitting metaphor for the title of this Taiwanese newcomer.
The name refers to the popular classical Chinese novel ‘The Water Margin’, which revolves around the rebel Song Jiang and his 107 comrades (sometimes referred to as ‘Liang’s legends’) who rise up against a corrupt government during the Song dynasty, while taking refuge on Mount Liang (aka Leong).
Appropriately, the decor seems to pay homage to the ancient street-side teahouses popular with both heroes and vagabonds in such stories, often glamorised in modern Chinese dramas as drinking dens where coups were planned and plots imagined. Wooden screens create intimacy throughout the room, and fellow diners seemed to melt into the shadows; only a single low-lying lamp floats above each table, perhaps serving to highlight the most important aspect of the whole shebang – the food.
The menu is impressive, but for those expecting an exclusively Taiwanese menu, take heed: there are plenty of dishes drawn in from outside the island, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A dish in the style of wind shelter bay crab is a mighty delectable, spicy, garlic-heavy dish with its origins in the fishing boats moored in the typhoon shelters of Hong Kong, while pork slices with minced garlic and chilli (suan ni bai rou) is a cold appetiser from Sichuan province. A lot is also lost in translation. Fairly bog-standard 'stir-fried chicken with rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil' is a famous Taiwanese dish esoterically called ‘three cups’ chicken (san bei ji), because the recipe calls for one cup of each condiment for its distinctive taste. A clay pot of tender chicken pieces came bathed in a rich dark caramel-coloured sauce, spiked with chillies and, surprisingly, a liquorice aroma from star anise.
However, fried oysters wrapped with egg, a staple street food famously found in the bustling night markets of Taipei but few places in London, is a moist omelette filled with succulent, briney baby oysters and pungent but tender stalks of garland chrysanthemum; here, the dish was competently cooked and true to the original. Likewise, a basket of steaming xiao long bao (soup-filled dumplings) were, flavour-wise, one of the best we’ve had in the capital. It was only let down by craftsmanship – instead of neat little pleats (and, if you believe the connoisseurs, a true dumpling master manages exactly 18 of them in each), the tops of the dumplings were stodgy and looked liked melted versions of a more perfect specimen, and the skins lacked the elasticity to prevent unfortunate splits. Still, the filling was perfectly seasoned, and the savoury, steaming-hot broth hit the palate with a flavour that the Chinese refer to simply and literally as ‘fresh, sweet’.
We found the service slow and dippy, the manager was brusque and the service charge was somewhat ambiguously described as ‘SC’ – and, to add insult to injury, on one visit our waitress asked if we’d ‘like to add a gratuity’ (on top of the ‘SC’, that is). But we found the food on our visits exciting – and, most importantly, different from anything else out there. It’s about time there was a rebellion.Time Out Issue 1981: August 7 -13
See also
- London's best cheap eats
Time Out reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals. Of course, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or independence of user reviews.
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Your hard pushed to find a decent diner in Chinatown (bar HK Diner) and Time Out's review of Baozi Inn still makes my blood boil. However, Leong's Legends was a pleasent surprise and I always like a varied and interesting menu. That's what I got with Leong's Legends.
I decided to order Dim Sum, Fried chilli beef, steamed meat ball with egg along with fish fried rice and squid! It was hot, tasty and on time.
I've been to Taiwan many times as my wife is from there and cooks some great dishes too. Like all Taiwanese she is obsessed with food. So to see this place in London was a nice surprise.
I didn't hold out much hope it would be as good and of course it wasn't but the dishes are good, solid and tasty.
Nice style inside.
Xiao long bao were nice, skins a little thick but then you can never get better than Din Tai Fung. I also had 3 cup squid which was good. Daughter had a pork kebab - my wife makes those better. My wife said the beef noodles were ok, but no spice.
Overall a good effort but plenty of room for improvement.
If you have never tried Taiwanese food, give it a go. It will give you a taste for it.
I had lunch at Leong's last Sunday and am suprised by the number of really bad reviews here. This might be because i have not tried all the dishes on the menu....we had 8, 4 of which were fantastic and 4 of which were just very good. I'd be really suprised if any of it is as horrible as some people here seem to claim. Also i'm not an expert in chinese cuisine so it might not be truely authentic...frankly i'm not that bothered.
The service we had was fine, not the best ever but then its a fairly reasonably priced resaturant...that said we did go at 2.30 and maybe they're more rushed at peak times which some people seem to complain of.
We paid £35 to eat very good food until we couldn't eat anymore (and i can eat..trust me!) which i thought was extremely good value. I will definitely visit again.
Food may have been nice... I wouldn't know, as they brought the mains out 40 mins before the rice! We asked 4 times where the rice was, very politely, and each time we were told, “soon". And then there was no further feedback. Time passed. More time passed. Eventually the rice arrived but our main dish was already cold. We asked for it to be re-heated. They took it away, without the least apology. We waited. We waited more. Nothing. No feedback, no food. Nothing. I said to the waitress “just charge us for the beer, we’re off!”. They tried to charge for the rice too. I insisted: ” just the beer”. We paid for the beer. We left. We won't be back. Not ever. Nor will anyone I know.
Went here for a meal for my sister's hen night - people were queuing outside so we figured it had to be good! Nice extensive menu, we had deep fried turnip which was surprisingly moreish, chilli king prawns, which were huge and came in a light crispy batter with a very hot chilli dipping sauce, and 'Three Cups Chicken' which was also delicious. Portions were large, service was speedy and we were the only non-asian people in there, which along with the rustic wooden booths and decor gave the place an authentic feel - like dining in the far east on holiday :)
A good price for the meal and attentive service means we will be back!
Went to the Lisle St version.
Was pretty busy, as you'd expect for 8.30 on a Saturday night, but we were seated after a few minutes. Bit cramped but decor and tables were very cosy...and atmosphere was bustling without feeling rowdy.
Service was friendly and prompt, but didn't feel hurried.
We didn't have starters... my belly pork rice was delicious, not dry and a nicerice combo. We also went for the classic chili shredded beef, which was nicely done too.
My wife had a lovely gingery sea bass dish with a separate rice bowl.
A quick meal for: 30 quid for 2 with drinks. Was enough for pre-clubbing sustenance, but will maybe go for some soupy dimsum stuff or noodle dish as well next time... super stuff!!
This is the message for TOMMO, you said
'You pleople giving this place one star better go back to your bacon and egg rolls and bangers and mash!!', well, I am Taiwanese and I gave no star, do I go back to my authentic and really very tasty Taiwanese cusine?? :-)
Being Taiwanese, I found the whole dinning experience was very disappointing. Went to Leong's Legends Continues yesterday late afternoon, on the door, it suggested 2:30-5:30pm they offer 30% discount, we were seated by 5:15pm, I enquired about the discount and was informed it was finished. Fist impression, very unenthusiastic and unfriendly waitresses, strange layout of the seats, we ordered 4 dishes and one never came (Could not believe they didn't notice considering it was very quiet), food was very average, I believe every restaurants in Chinatown could provide decent cooking. I had oyster congee, the oysters were over-cooked, not fresh enough and very dull in taste. The bill was very weird also; they didn't even show the break-down cost, only gave you the total amount on the top so we had no idea whether service charge was included. My partner was very generous and still left 10% tips. I am a most laid-back person in the world so it was not in my nature to complain, but being Taiwanese I feel it’s my responsibility to tell everybody what is really is.
We gave it another go yesterday for lunch but it was just totally disappointing. When it first open, it used to be really good and the best dishes were the steam soup dumplings. The skin used to be just right, not too thick and not thin. But when we tried that again yesterday, it was just way too thick. The best steam soup dumplings are meant to have just thick enough skin to hold the soup and not break when picked up but it is meant to have think soft skin. The skin looked and tasted thick. And then we had this noodle soup but the noodles wasn't even cooked enough so it was hard and indigestable. The seaweed wrap sticky rice with prawn was also hard and dry. Besides the soya bean drink, everything was a total disappointment. We will not go back anymore.
Horrible meal in Leong Legend today, 'lamb fillet' was disgustingly gelatinous mutton fat welded to small bones in a thin, over oily broth. Too many staff not paying attention to the customers.