Noble Palace

Chinese luncheon in style

Soup dumpling stuffed with seafood

The hidden gem Noble Palace slowly is becoming one of my top Chinese dining venues in London. It shied away from promoting itself much and remain a low-key restaurant, but the food offering is anything but low-key. The cooking style is Cantonese cuisine in essence, but with a refined vibe using top-quality British ingredients, such as Cornish crab and Scottish scallops. it would cost north of £100 easily for dinner, but lunch is much more manageable with its dim sum menu. Below captured my recent 2 lunch occasions, from my 6th and 7th visit. I sampled a range of dim sum from its a la carte menu, as well as some special lunch items I ordered ahead.

Har gow, shumai, seabass roll and shrimp dumpling

Xiao long bao

Fried shrimp roll, crab taro and pork puff

The shumai is perhaps my no1 dim sum at Noble Palace, the Iberico pork had a great balance of fat and meat ratio, with the mixture of mushrooms taking the richness to another level. The giant soup dumpling is another world beater, filled with scallops and crab meat, cooked inside a chicken broth which has been slowed cooked for 8 hours. The seafood element combined with the chicken flavour extremely well, it was such an umami sensation. The rice roll stuffed with prawns and fried youtiao is another really well-crafted dish, turning the classic rice roll into a sushi-lookalike dim sum item. It had a wonderful mixture of smooth, crispy and chewy texture elements, all worked in harmony.

Chicken and wonton soup

Rice roll with shrimp and salt & pepper squids

Mango sago

Lunch at Noble Palace is indeed a special moment, I really enjoyed all the dim sum items, all well crafted, especially the steam-based dim sum. For now, not many people are aware of the venue due to its hidden location near St James tube station, which itself hasn't got much footfall and hardly anyone lives nearby. I would say this won't last long as more people will discover this hidden gem soon I am sure.

Food 4/5

What I paid: 
£85 per head

Average cost without drinks and services (lunch):
£65


Caxton St, London SW1H 0PY

http://www.noblepalace.co.uk/