World Foodie Guide

[UPDATE - October 2009: I've returned to Leong's Legend for dim sum and it's turning into a reliable Chinatown dim sum spot for me. Apart from more xiao long bao (such good value and very soupy), I again ordered the Taiwan mini kebab with pork. It's very filling and most delicious. The pork belly rice is also highly recommended after you've had the dim sum dishes. It costs under £5.00 and for that, you get some gigantic hunks of pork belly with a sweetish sauce, and rice on the side. The classic Cantonese dishes - cheung fun, har gau etc are not as good in comparison. ]

*****************************

Background:

After I had dinner at Taiwanese restaurant Leong’s Legend a few months ago, I thought I’d never return. The three dishes I had weren’t bad at all, although they weren’t spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, but the rude manager annoyed me intensely. However, seeing as my Where To Eat Dim Sum In London post needed updating, I decided to give their dim sum a try, so feeling a little skeptical, I dragged along two dim sum veterans to help me out.

It was practically empty at just after 12.30, which was a relief, and even when we left an hour or so later, it still wasn’t that busy (perhaps not surprising given that it was mid-week). Although I kept an eye out for him, the rude manager was nowhere to be seen. In his place were calm and polite staff who served us efficiently and didn’t pull faces when I ordered tap water for three.

Menu:

The dim sum menu is small compared to other restaurants, but then this isn’t a Cantonese restaurant. There were a few classics like har gau, cheung fun, pan-fried turnip paste and char siu bao, but I was more intrigued about the non-Cantonese dishes. And of course on the menu were xiao long bao or Shanghai soup dumplings, pork as well as crab ones, for which Leong’s Legend have developed a good reputation. Having eaten xiao long bao most recently at Yum Cha (which were excellent), I was keen to see how these compared to those as well as the ones I’ve had in Taipei (the best ever so far). Xiao long bao aren’t technically classic dim sum fare, but more and more restaurants are now serving them as part of their dim sum menu.

What we ordered:

• fried dough stick cheung fun (£2.20) – my mother always orders this when we have dim sum. Both this and the roast pork cheung fun arrived in special cheung fun dishes, with the sweetened soy sauce in the sauce section rather than poured over the cheung fun, as is traditional. Because of this, the fried dough stick stayed nice and crispy. It was also perfectly fried and yet not oily-tasting. This is certainly one of the better versions I’ve had in London

• roast pork cheung fun (£2.80) – the cheung fun rolls, as with the fried dough stick cheung fun, were beautifully thin and translucent. The roast pork filling, cut into very thin slices (sometimes the meat is so chunky, it’s not very nice) was substantial

• pork xiao long bao (£5.00) – eight (very lucky!) xiao long bao arrived in a covered basket, with the dipping sauce of vinegar with ginger slivers. The skins were slightly thicker and not quite as silky as the ones at Yum Cha, and they weren’t quite as juicy. However, they were still very, very good and I look forward to returning just to have these and the crab xiao long bao!

• grilled minced pork buns (£2.50) – these sounded nicer than they actually were, in my opinion (top photo). They arrived piping hot, and the bun was light and fluffy, but the filling lacked flavour and was a little underwhelming, given their appearance

• roast duck & chestnut puff (£2.20) – a disappointing dish. The puff part was perfect, but I can’t for the life of me remember what the filling tasted like

• Taiwan mini kebab with pork (£2.60) – a stunner of a dish, although when it arrived, we had to ask for a knife to cut it into three. It’s the size of a smallish burger, with a gigantic slab of melting pork belly inside. The bread resembles the jiamo at Ba Shan, but is fluffier

• Beijing pork & chive dumpling (£3.20) – these are just boiled jiaozi (very popular in Beijing), served with a vinegar-based dipping sauce, when I was expecting steamed dumplings. These were rather ordinary, particularly when compared to the superb Ba Shan jiaozi

• wontons in spicy sauce (£2.80) – as I’d just made these Sichuan / Chengdu wontons (also known as chao shou in Sichuan) at home, I wanted to see what the spicy sauce tasted like. It was quite fiery (I know it’s all relative so you’ll have to try it for yourself!), and stronger than the Ba Shan version

The verdict:

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of dim sum at Leong’s Legend, to the extent that I’ve added it to my shortlist of dim sum recommendations. So far it’s the only Chinatown-based dim sum restaurant on the list and could very well turn into a regular haunt for me. I’ll have to return to try some of the other dim sum options, but based on what I tried, on my next visit, I would certainly re-order the xiao long bao, mini kebab and cheung fun. After a few more visits, I’ll be able to pin down exactly what to order and what to avoid, then I’ll update this post…

Click here to see the dim sum set of Leong’s Legend photos.

10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average

All the London restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide

Contact details:
Leong’s Legend
4 Macclesfield Street
London W1D 6AX
Tel: 020 7287 0288

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Tags: Chinese, dim sum, dining out, dumplings, food, restaurant review, restaurants, Taiwan, Taiwanese, traveleating, xiao long bao