Restaurants

The sleek dining room contains fish tanks, where enormous lobsters and crabs creep around; the shiny black bar is stocked with an array of impressive wines and beers; and polite servers bustle around in smart black suits. This is all very pleasant, but nothing extraordinary unlike the food. Royal China Club serves some of the best and most interesting dim sum in London, with a forte in shellfish. The xiao long bao were exceptional: extra-large soup dumplings filled with a gingery ball of pork and crab surrounded by broth. Exquisite triangular dumplings with a subtle vegetable medley of mushrooms and cabbage were infused with the pungent flavour of fermented beancurd. Lighter-than-air scallop dumplings had their fillings boosted by fragments of water chestnut, spring onions and coriander. Soups from the dinner menu lobster and spinach soup, brilliantly green and with a thickened, rich broth of unmistakable lobster flavour; and bamboo and coriander sliced fish soup were perfect examples of the intelligent combinations and delicate flavours the kitchen can produce. The wide range of teas is also a highlight. The menu contains too many items accompanied by salad cream (though this is a favourite dip in Hong Kong) but Royal China Club is a treat.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2008