Tao Tao Ju

Above average Soho Chinese food — at above average prices.
THIS IS NOT (!) A PLACE FOR DIM SUM. There are plenty of other, better places around that offer fresh Dim Sum (like Wan Chai Corner on Gerrard or, if you fancy the freshest dumplings in town, Beijing Dumpling, which is also on Lisle). Tao Tao Yu specializes in higher quality mains!
Tao Tao Yu is an easy-​to-​overlook Chinese restaurant on Lisle Street, which runs parallel to Gerrard Street (the main tourist restaurant area, with gates on either end). As a general rule of thumb, you will find the Chinese establishments on Lisle a bit more stylish than the ones on Gerrard. Not necessarily better.
The upmarket «Tao Tao Ju» is certainly no exception. The menu is pricier than usual, but when you enter the restaurant, you will immediately know, at least partly, why this is so. The décor is more stylish, the atmosphere more laid back, almost quiet (whereas the normal Soho Chinese restaurant is usually extremely busy and loud). A shade of things to come as far as the food is concerned: The dishes are more elaborately prepared and more prettily arranged on the plates. They’re also smaller. Expect to choose two mains to leave «satisfied.» ;)
The food quality here ranges from good to excellent. If you’re willing to the spend the extra money, you won’t be disappointed. Also, this is one of the few establishments in the area where, as a non-​Asian couple or group, you might actually want to linger!
I had three contrasting dishes on my visit to the restaurant (and others on two following visits), including very well prepared scallops, beef and pork.

We left our meal on the table and went home to have sandwiches.
The service was rather snippy as well. We were bait and switched by the woman who said there was dim sum. There wasn’t. The vegetables tasted can.

Great value for money! Very good food! Loved the Malaysian Ho-​Fun! The atmosphere could be better though…

I loved this place! They accommodated 8 of us no problem at all. The service was unbelievably quick and the food was gorgeous. My only complaint really was the fact that we ordered 3 egg fried rice and the portion was enough for 2 at most. But the place is great. we were taken to a back room which had a beautiful chandelier and a really quiet, chilled vibe.

I wasn’t a fan of this place. Sure it’s one of the only places that do Dim Sum after 5pm in Chinatown, but for what it’s worth if you aren’t going to do it right, well then it’s not really worth bothering.
Décor wise, it was quite impressive. We were led past the front of the restaurant into the back which really looked quite grand. The starters were perhaps the best part. The cucumber and pak choi spicy starter was really good and set the tone for a good evening. Unfortunately the dim sum and other dishes did not follow in the same vein.
I make no apologies by ordering the same dim sum items from every place I go to. You have the fried Yam cake with pork, shumai (pork dumplings), and Har Gau (Shrimp/​Prawn dumplings) The Yam cake was cold and tasteless. The rest was okay. Nothing special. Portion wise everything was really big, which was a positive. We ordered fried kway teow. Not good at all. Along with the fried yam cake which were both distinctly under fried. If you’ve had either dish done right, you need a wok on a high heat to created the seared grilled effect. This was not achieved .
Staff were pleasant enough and even offered us free Mango Pudding and Tortoise Jelly which were very good. However I felt it was an apology for another group that were in the restaurant and creating an absolute racket across their 3 giant tables. In this respect, atmosphere was very poor. If you’re going to invite a group that large, then there need to be some ground rules. But there was just no assertiveness by any of the staff.
On the whole, if you want dim sum in the evening, you don’t have a wide choice. Tao Tao Ju has a good range of dim sum, unfortunately most are hit or miss. The mango pudding and tortoise jelly are zoo nice though. Have no reservations about recommending that for dessert if you stop by.

Western looking décor inside, food average… dissapointed with roast meats & pork belly with taro, soggy dim sum (har gau, chive dumplings, siu mai) so far off the mark. Lovely staff… nothing more to say.

Cheapskates on the ready! Since it’s a pretty new dimsum place in C-​town, they’re offering 20% off the bill which, was pretty damn good value. However, there are some minor problems they need to watch.
After weaving through some tiny looking monkeys (Oh, I can’t call them that? They’re called children now? Really?) in south ken to return some books to the library, which was a feat and a half because they just block the way of busy busy people like myself. My aunt and mother had decided to meet me at this new dimsum joint because of their offer. They had ordered, fried sesame cheong fun, bbq buns, siumai, dumplings in soup, more dumplings, obligatory egg tarts and some funny looking XLB.
I want to tackle the XLB first, I judge places by the quality of their XLB. I know the bar is HIGH as in no where really gets it right in London. These were baby XLB, or maybe they shrunk, I don’t know but TTJ, STEP IT UP. Similarly with the bbq buns, they were fluffy but why so mini, it was gone in 2 seconds, then nearly spat out because i don’t have concept of hot and cold, but overall the taste was good.
Everything else was distinctly average, and I’m really disappointed, Chinatown has yet to produce stellar dimsum, and that’s sad for a place called chinatown…
The only good thing was the restaurant itself was super stylish, and deceptively big on the inside. (Although if you’re super tall, you might have to bend a bit, its a bit like a hobbit’s abode AND for a total of 10 dishes approx, we paid a discounted total of £25.