Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine London

Chinese New Year special

Soy braised pork belly stew with abalone and fat choy

Chinese New Year is when many Chinese restaurants would come up with a special menu, dishes associated with blessing and wisdom that would give diners a feel-good factor. Imperial Treasure's Chinese New Year has gone big, with 14 new dishes making up its Chinese New Year special, as well as a tasting menu that contains most of the new dishes. I always enjoy Imperial Treasure dim sum and its traditional approach to Cantonese cuisine, so I was really excited to try out its selection of new dishes to embrace the Chinese New Year vibe.

Yauatcha City

 Dim sum feasting

Yauctcha is part of the Hakkasan empire, perhaps the most successful high-end Chinese restaurant group outside of Asia. The last time I visited was more than 5 years ago, and since then many things have changed, with the group has been sold to an American hospitality group, and it now has a new group executive chef Andrew Yeo. The menu has also changed a bit so I was interested if Yauatcha (the casual fine dining concept of the group that focuses on dim sum) has benefited from the change of ownership. 

New Fortune Cookie

Old-school Chinese dining den 

Stir fry lobster and noodles in ginger and spring onions

New Fortune Cookie, the old-school Cantonese restaurant in Queensway has to be the best value-for-money Chinese restaurant in the whole of London. I have eaten there a few times over the year and I can say the quality of the cooking is well above many other Chinese restaurants in London, and the price of this place is insane, with most dishes costing around the £12 mark. The menu is large, so you won't be bored with it as I still have so many dishes I really would love to try. For my 4th visit, I rounded up a group of friends for a traditional Chinese feast to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Mandarin Kitchen

Chinese seafood feasting overdrive

Steamed brown crab

Mandarin Kitchen, the infamous Chinese restaurant in Queensway is best known for its seafood dishes, especially its lobster noodles, which now has a cult status, with people traveling from far, especially for that dish. I personally have eaten there about 5 times now and not once I could avoid not ordering the lobster noodles. Besides seafood, the restaurant served a range of dishes that you would find in a typical Chinese restaurant, from egg fried rice, and crispy duck to black bean chicken. But I would suggest coming here for seafood as it is what makes this place special.

Noble Palace

 Chinese private menu dining den

Steamed king crab legs with udon and chicken oil

Noble Palace, the under-the-radar fine-dining Chinese restaurant in St James is doing something rather unique. While on the front of the website is all about tasting menus from 6, 8 to 10 courses. It has a hidden offering 'no menu concept which allows diners to pre-order what they like in advance, meaning you can request a Chinese bespoke menu as you wish and the restaurant would offer you a quote to cater to your request. This means you can always try something new whenever you visit. below is captured a recent visit to a specially created 8-course tasting menu. Interestingly enough it was my 8th visit too.