London Jade Garden

Best Taiwanese dim-​sum in London according to the Taiwanese part of my family. Very busy on weekends but worth waiting in line for.

Rude miserable waiters we had. I thought it was just one bad one but two. There was no pleasantness and he pointed us to our seats. Order was taken swiftly and dim sum was served and tasted okay. Then the bill was tapped on the table and swiftly the credit card machine push right to your face without a word. Try saying xx amount for the bill would help. At the point I lost my patience and COMPLAINED to the manager his staff was rude and no way I will pay the service charge or come back again. This place was expensive so you expect better service. To be fair the younger waiters was better but my goodness the older (mainland) males needs some training in manners.

I maybe I am missing something, it maybe that I did not have dim sum or my expectations were to high. After spending the day at the National Gallery, I was starving and wanted some really good Chinese food, so I decided to try Jade Garden.
I was disappointed the food was ok and slightly over priced; I always look for that mmm… factor, I did not get that at Jade Garden. But, maybe I will return to try the dim sum. I am always open to second chances.

Fantastic authentic cuisine! Dumplings are amazing as well as the hot and sour soup. Feasted on a dinner for four which left us with a hefty size takeaway. Absolutely delicious! Definitely will visit again.

Prawn dumplings were large and yet beautifully seasoned and perfectly steamed. The food delivery spaced out such that our small table for two never got too crowded. Good surprise in Chinatown.

I loved it here!
In the mist of busy Soho Chinatown.
The best dimsum in town.
Very asian — I ordered in Mandarin yo!
We were seated right away during one of its busier hours.
They are quick with service (I was pleased).
You circled what you want on the menu — there are pictures.
Turnip Cake — loved.
Taiwanese noodles
Congee
Taro Croquette
Viet Spring Rolls
Fried Glut Rice
pork buns
traingle pork siu
I’m missing a few more but this was by far the best dimsum in London.
50 altogether.

Dim Sum!!! ALL OF THE DIM SUM. So I quite like dim sum (in case you hadn’t noticed) and was excited to return to an old favourite in my dim sum world to catch up with some friends. We would have Dim Sum and Dim Sum more. Get it… Oh never mind.
This place opens at 12pm and if you get there soon after you don’t need a reservation. Want a table from half 12? Then book. This place filled quick. Always a good sign when a restaurant fills with people that are native to the cuisine it serves, you feel like you know is going to be authentic. I went with a couple of Chinese friends and I do feel that makes a difference, especially when one can take control of the menu and order for us all. Now I know my way around dim sum so popped in a few ‘helpful’ suggestions — well I thought they were anyway.
Décor is not standard and service is cold, but for a weekend lunchtime rush that’s almost what I expect from this kind of restaurant, they’re turning over some serious tables here! Paper table cloths suggests the same, it’s not a fine dining establishment.
We ordered a variety of usuals and some new dishes — sticky pork buns, king prawn parcels, chicken sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves were all firm favourites. Har gau were more than welcomed and all washed down with delicious green tea that quenched our thirst for more of those little parcels of heaven, mmmmm. Couple of new dishes tried by me — a savoury porridge was actually a great way to start the meal, peppered with mushrooms and pork pieces it was a touch slimy but really set the tummy on the rumble. Shark fin soup was a slightly different story, mainly tasted of miso and not a lot else really.
All this for £50 between four (about 8 ‘parcel’ dishes, porridge, soup and noodles), such a lunchtime treat!

This review is for the dimsum only, not for their cooked dishes. I was told their dinner is not as good.
They have dimsum from early morning to 5pm, which is pretty typical for the restaurants around chinatown. The service is really fast and and the price point is good as well. We had:
— prawn dumplings (there’s only two in a dish)
— siu mai
— prawn and chive dumplings
— black bean spared ribs
— black bean chicken feet
— custard bun
— lotus wrapped chicken and rice
— steamed chicken and mushroom rice
— rice rolls with shrimp and tofu skin
— spicy duck tongue (cold dish)
— pig tripe
we might have had more — i can’t really remember. The dimsum prices range from the high 2s to the 5s. I was a bit disappointed with the prawn and chive dumplings because it’s not as good as super star china garden, nor was there lotus wrapped rice as good, which i just had a few days ago, but their chicken feet was phenomenal! They added a bit of satay in their recipe, which brings out a whole different flavour.
Overall, i think the selection and price is pretty top notch for chinatown, and the flavour is pretty good. I prefer the flavours at super star, but the prices are much higher there with significantly smaller selections.

We came here on New Year’s Eve for a late dinner, it was hard finding a place in this area on a day like this without booking a table. Luckily we found this place and it wasn’t even that busy in here. The location is good, close to Leicester Square and Chinatown and the train station is not far away.
The interior in here is like it is in a lot of Chinese restaurants, nothing too unique, but it’s nice, cozy and elegant. The service was fast, prompt and to the point. We went straight on for main course and had a chicken dish and king prawn dish. The food wasn’t bad at all, but felt a bit generic, a bit like something you’ve had so many times before at Chinese restaurants. It was tasty but felt a bit too oily and salty at the same time.
The prices are good considering the location and I was happy with the portion size as well. Two main courses with three orders of egg fried rice and two beers and a soda came up to about 40 GBP including tip, considering the location that’s not too bad. The bill was completely illegibly scribbled down, but the waitress was kind enough to print out a new receipt and go over it together with us.
Would I come here again? Well, I had a nice meal here and didn’t get ruined and the service was allright, but the food was just a bit too generic to be exciting for me.

Somehow despite very very mediocre dimsum (cold BBQ pork pastries for example), they manage to make some of the best egg tarts I’ve had in London.
Unsurprisingly, service isn’t great and the queues are huge during the weekends despite the subpar quality of food. The cheung fan (rice rolls) are okay too.
(My two star rating is mostly for the egg tarts!)

The memory of the beef and oyster sauce makes this one of the first places I think of when thinking of restaurants in Chinatown!
Yummy!
Also, they were the first place I can remember which used to give you slices of oranges after your meal! Woo!

After a gas failure lead to a last minute change of evening meal plans, my mother, boyfriend and I decided a Chinese was the next best option. Chris has been to Soho far more often than either my mother or me, and suggested the Jade Garden as a place for decent food. So we duly trooped in and were seated at a slighlty cramped table (set for four but only just comfortable for three).
A brief perusal of the menu, and then we settled for a set menu. We started with prawn crackers (which I’ve never been a huge fan of, so I can’t really comment on them) and peking duck pancakes. The latter was lovely a decent amount of duck, with not too much skin compared to meat (I’m not a big fan of skin), nice hoisin sauce and good, thin, non-​sticky pancakes a bonus, given how easy it is to find yourself tackling a lump of pancakes that are impossible to separate. These were followed by crispy beef more Chris’s think than mine, but the vegetable were nice chicken and black bean sauce, which was very tasty, and szechuan prawns. The prawns themselves were lovely but the sauce a little disappointing more heat and sweet than actual flavour.
The service was friendly, and the complimentary jasmine tea was, as always, yummy. So all in all, a good experience. Not the nicest Chinese I’ve every had, but not the worst either. And a decent price, given the amount we had too, coming in at around £15 per person.

Dim sums are not bad but the service is poor.

Been there today with friends who recommended it for dim sum. A pot of tea is complementary and gets filled up continuously so we did not get any drinks. We are happy with the choice of the dishes and the taste is delicious at a very reasonable price. We left with a full stomach at roughly 10 pounds per person including service charge which was already added to the bill.
This place is very popular, as a result they are focused on throughput, i.e. to serve as many people as possible. When we asked for a plate of porridge after our first order of dim sum (we got several dishes at once) the waitress got a bit grumpy telling us this is the last order. They quickly cleared the table after that and I had to react quickly not to leave my wallet on the paper table cloth while paying by card else they it would have gotten binned.
Great dim sum, cheap, but not for a longer stay.

best egg tarts for dim sum. other food was default dim sum (so not bad but not AMAZING). if you’re waiting for someone, don’t order in line. your food will come out as soon as you’re seated. nothing worse than cold dim sum.

Being an unimaginative sort, I’d always gone to the same place in London for dim sum — Chuen Cheng Ku, which is literally next door to the Jade Garden. What I’d loved about Cheun Cheng Ku was the trolley service; whilst the food was fine, there was something extra special about being served in this way. I went to Jade Garden with a large group of friends and was unsure if it would match my old favourite.
My first impression of Jade Garden was therefore disappointment –no trolley service! This, however, was the only real let down of the afternoon. The service was prompt and excellent, the building packed and the food very good.
The pork char siu was crisp yet retained its succulence, the various pork and prawn dumplings all delicate and fresh, whilst the lotus-​wrapped rice had a perfect gluey stickiness. The sliced pigs trotters were a little disappointing: whilst very tender, served cold they tasted and felt exactly like sandwich ham.
The real surprise was the price — a good 20+ dishes between 11 of us, enough to stuff us twice over, came to £9 a head. It looks like the 10 year reign of Chuen Chen Ku is over, and the lessen for me is to be a little more adventurous with my dim sum.

I went before the theater and ordered off the set menu — not only wasn’t it fast (we waited longer than others who came in behind us) — but the crispy beef had no beef — it was basically thin strips of hard fat. We actually asked the owner and he told us that it is a favorite of people. To be fair it looked some Chinese people were getting some better food. But for 40 GBP (about $ 60) for Chinese and 1 beer each — it was the worst meal of an 8 day vacation. I wish I checked Unilocal for other options before I went. I felt like I walked into a real tourist trap — which I usually avoid but was in a hurry for a show. Even worse — they added a 10% gratuity without noting it on the bill — only noted it as we had 2 set menus and 2 beers and it was easy to figure the bill out — we were just given the total and it was 10% higher. Stay away!

Visitor from New York here.
Wow, is this some sort of culinary secret Chinese Londoners are holding on to? It was amazing, I step in and it’s packed and everyone is enjoying themselves in that natural way that only good food brings about. The food aesthetic and overall delicateness reminds me of food as served in China, I wish there was something this good here in New York, I’d go there at least twice a month! Friendly waitstaff too.
THE FOOD:
The X.O. sauce noodles were very flavorful, only slightly too oily, but I would still recommend. From the dim sum menu, the mini custard-​filled buns were exceptional, really off the hook (I reserve such outbursts of hip expressions only for the really really good stuff.)

After the Wan Kai this is my favourite Chinease in London, good value food and not too expensipe. The only problem is you don’t get shouted at.

The London Jade Garden is the one you are looking for if you want to eat very well for cheap. Not that chinese food is usually overpriced in this area but there, the food is of very good quality, very tasty and delicate and the venue is nice. The main room is really big and they can easily fit 10 people around a table. Don’t be fooled by what you can see from outside because it doesn’t seem to be interesting but you change your mind quickly once inside.
They specialised in dim sum, that kind of bites steamed cooked that you enjoyed with soya sauce and chillie sauce. They are quite cheap (around £3 for a plate of those) and there is a lot of choice. Of course you also get a full menu with the usual chinese delicacies.
Jasmin tea is free and drink as much as you can, so you don’t even need anything else.
The only bad point I found in this place is that the service is awful. Waiters and waitresses don’t smile and are not very comprehensive or useful. Although you don’t need the waiter’s blessing to have a good time and eat for cheap so if you don’t care about the service it is the good place to go.
Bookings can be made during the week but not on sundays… get there before 1pm

Trop expéditif
On y mange bien, mais on nous jette dehors à peine on a fini de manger. Les serveurs commencent à ranger la table pour les prochains clients alors qu’on est en train de payer.