Beyond Chinatown: A Regional Map for Eating Chinese Food in London

Chinese food in London is not one cuisine, and it has not been confined to one postcode for a long time. The best way to eat well is to think in regions: Cantonese, Sichuan, Hunanese, Dongbei, and the London districts where each tends to turn up. This guide takes that approach, and it is candid about something most round-ups skip. Restaurant listings go stale quickly, and Chinese restaurants are no exception.

So rather than a ranked list of names, this is a map of where to look, what has recently changed, and how to check a place before you travel across town for it.

Start with what has changed in Chinatown

Soho and Chinatown remain the obvious starting point, and they are also where the churn is most visible. Newer openings sit alongside long-standing names, and some of the long-standing names are leaving.

Café TPT, on Wardour Street, has been open for almost two decades and has announced it is closing. Time Out reported the closure, and AOL carried the same story. If it is on a list you are reading, check the date of the list.

Elsewhere in the centre, Park Chinois in Mayfair closed ahead of a refurbishment and relaunch. It has teased a new chapter but, according to Restaurant Online and The Caterer, has not given a reopening date. That is a good illustration of why a restaurant appearing in a guide is not proof that you can book it.

The lesson for Chinatown is simple. Treat any list older than a year with suspicion, and treat any restaurant that appears only on review sites with a long gap since the last review as unconfirmed until you have seen a current menu or spoken to someone on the phone.

Reading the regions

Cantonese

Cantonese cooking is the tradition most Londoners associate with Chinatown, and it covers dim sum, roast meats and banquet dishes. One 2023 guide from Resy made a point worth remembering: some of London's best Cantonese cooking has moved out of the centre, into suburban shopping centres and north London. If you only eat Cantonese food on Gerrard Street, you may be missing the places where local families actually book tables.

A practical way to use that idea is to pick a district you rarely visit, search for current Cantonese listings there, and go at a weekend lunchtime when dim sum service is typically busiest. Check opening hours first, because dim sum is not served all day everywhere.

Sichuan

Sichuan cooking has a long presence in and around Chinatown, and several restaurants there describe themselves in those terms. One of them calls itself Chinatown's first and original Sichuan restaurant. The difficulty is that review pages for some of the better known names have not been refreshed for years, so the information you find online may be out of date.

Before you commit, look for a recent review from a named publication, then look for the restaurant's own site or social account to confirm that it is trading. A ranking on a review aggregator tells you what people have rated, not that a kitchen is open on the night you want.

Hunanese

Hunanese cooking is harder to find than Sichuan, and it is easy to be misled by a name. There is a restaurant called Hunan at 51 Pimlico Road, SW1W 8NE, which both Tripadvisor and The Infatuation describe as a restaurant with no menu. You are fed rather than choosing. That is a distinctive way to eat, but it is worth knowing that the name does not guarantee strictly Hunanese cooking, so go for the format and the experience rather than for a regional lesson.

The Infatuation review is several years old, so confirm the details, including prices and booking arrangements, directly with the restaurant. Prices change, so check before you go.

Dongbei

Dongbei, or north-eastern, cooking is the least visible of the four in London and the hardest to pin down from the outside. A handful of places are described in reviews and on social media as serving Dongbei dishes, including some in west London and others in the east. Several of those descriptions are old, and some come from a single review.

If Dongbei is what you want, treat it as a quest rather than a booking. Look for a recent photo of the menu, read the most recent reviews rather than the top ones, and be ready to find that a place has changed hands or closed.

Stratford and Edgware Road

Two districts come up often in conversations about Chinese food outside the centre. Stratford is one, and the shopping centre at Westfield Stratford City is mentioned on review platforms as home to Cantonese options. Edgware Road is the other, though it is easy to confuse with the suburb of Edgware, which is a different part of London entirely and returns different results when you search.

This is where the regional approach pays off, and also where it requires care. Both districts are worth exploring on foot, but there is not yet enough confirmed detail here to recommend individual restaurants responsibly. Search by the postcode rather than the road name, and check the venue's address on its own site before setting off.

A short checklist before you go

• Check the date. A list or review that is more than a year old may describe a restaurant that has since closed or changed.
• Find the restaurant's own site or account. It should show hours, address and a menu.
• Look for two independent sources. A publication review plus the venue's own page is a good standard.
• Confirm prices. Menus and set meals change, so check before you go.
• Ring ahead for small places. A takeaway with a few tables may not take bookings, and late hours vary.

The short version

Chinese food in London is best approached by region and by district, with a willingness to travel beyond the obvious streets. Chinatown still matters, but it is changing, and several well known names have closed or are closing. The sensible response is to treat every listing, including this one, as a starting point and to verify before you book.