Wild Mushroom Salad
Min Jiang

Min Jiang

Royal Garden Hotel 2 - 24 Kensington High Street London, W8 4PT, United Kingdom

Tea • Beer • Wine • Chinese


"Having lived in China, my standards for dim sum are quite high. I was travelling to London for a few days and I was looking for a place to have my fiance try xiao long bao and dim sum (we're French and it's almost impossible to find good dim sum in Paris so I always wait to go back to China or to London to have good dim and well executed xiao long bao. I read the reviews about Min Jiang and thought Min Jiang could be the rare gem I was looking for (a decade ago, I used to go to Hutong to eat dim sum in London, but the quality has decreased unfortunately. Too bad their xiao long bao used to be as good as Shanghai's Nan Jin Xi Lu Din Tai Fung's from the 2000s not Din Tai Fung today . Both my fiance and I were extremely pleased with our experience at Min Jiang, not only was the service very polite, kind and attentive but it's one of the best dim sum experience I've had in a really long time... We ordered several steam dumplings and not only did they look good, they tasted even better. The dough had the perfect consistency for each dumpling, beautifully thin but strong enough to hold the fillings. The fillings were so well executed, the meat in the classic pork xiao long bao was quite thin in texture, the soup was delicious, no overpowering taste of ginger, the crab and pork xiao long bao had less soup (because of the consistency of crab meat I suppose but it was a lovely take on the dumpling and we strongly recommend you try both. We also recommend all the other meat or seafood steamed dumplings (except the Cha Siu Bao, the only disappointment of our lunch , have the prawn dumpling in chili oil, a dreamy explosion of flavours in the mouth... Definitely order the Yangzhou egg fried rice, if you haven't had delicious authentic egg fried rice in a while, you will be over the moon. Last but not least, bless your tastebuds with the scallop with ginger and sprinkles onion... You will never forget the experience. Thank you Min Jiang for this dream of a lunch..."

Nirvana

Nirvana

61 Upper Berkeley Street, London, United Kingdom

Fish • Asian • Kitchen • Chocolate


"This was expected to be a great evening however, failed miserably. We were sat in the back of the restaurant near the fireplace (which was not on) it was cold in this room and we were ignored most of the evening. This was a special occasion for a friends' birthday and fell well below par of what is expected of this acclaimed restaurant especially that which is located in a hotel. We had several waiters/waitresses attend to us and the lack of communication between them was shocking. We were there to enjoy an evening with a nice meal not have to repeat ourselves to the waiting staff. Our drink order was taken about 15 minutes after we sat down and we had to wait a further 20 minutes to receive the same. We placed our order for starters and they were brought out one at a time and by the time the last person in our party received hers the person that got theirs first had finished. We wanted to eat together therefore made a request our mains be served together. When our main course eventually arrived there were items missing from what we had ordered, some dishes were cold and incorrect. We ordered the salmon and were given seabass. When we questioned this the manager insisted that it was salmon and not white fish. After we argued the point he reluctantly admitted we were given the chilean seabass not the Salmon. The dish was replaced as we neared the end of our main course. We were so hungry by this point that we just ate the food. In all honesty the food was nice but the whole experience was disappointing and unacceptable. We sat at our table at 6:30pm and did not leave until 10pm. This was not because were having a great time but due to lack of effective service. Whilst we were offered free drinks and some of the items removed from the bill it certainly did not make up for the ordeal.The staff need to be trained on how to effectively communicate with each other and up the level of service providing the diners with good efficient service."