Canary Wharf, Chinese, Dim Sum Restaurant Guide

This “always reliable” and “slightly upmarket” Cantonese group “remains the standard that all other dim sum places should be judged against – exemplary is an overused term here but is very much justified”. But a somewhat dark cloud has hung over the operation since its prominent Baker Street branch was stripped of its licence to sell alcohol and fined £360,000 after a series of Home Office raids over six years discovered multiple cases of illegal immigrants working, in one case for 66 hours a week at almost half the minimum wage. As of August 2024, the Fulham Road branch is ‘Temporarily Closed’.

Review: “You can’t go past the xiao long bao” – “soup-filled dumplings hand-made onsite and steamed to order” – say fans of this Taiwanese-based global chain with three London outlets (in Covent Garden, CentrePoint and Selfridges). “All the other dishes are a bit hit and miss”, though, while a well-travelled minority reckon they’re “nothing like the original restaurants in Asia”, with prices – by comparison to e.g. Singapore – that are “off the scale”. But you must go: “cute robots help clear the plates!”