Yum Cha (dim sum) – London, England (8.5/10)
May 14th, 2009 by admin
Background:
As part of my goal to update last year’s post Where To Eat Dim Sum In London, I’ve created a shortlist of dim sum restaurants to revisit as well as to visit for the first time. Over the last six weeks, I’ve managed to eat at Golden Palace and Peninsula and return to one of my old favourites Yauatcha (review published next week). tasty treats! recommended Yum Cha in Camden Town, so I decided to meet Chris from Cheese and Biscuits there for dim sum one Friday.
First impressions:
Despite having the benefit of Google Maps on my iPhone, the restaurant wasn’t that easy to find. The front of the restaurant was occupied by tired tourists having a drink, but there were only a few other diners apart from us. The interior is basic and wouldn’t win any design awards, but we were there for one reason alone – the food. Apart from dim sum, Yum Cha (which literally means ‘drink tea’ or what the Cantonese refer to as ‘going for dim sum’) also serves rice and noodle ‘one meal’ dishes. Both dim sum and these ‘one meal’ dishes are available for lunch and dinner.
We ordered the following: (each item cost £2.40 apart from the cheung fun, which was £3.00)
- prawn cheung fun – another classic to test the quality of a restaurant’s dim sum. Three rolls (thin and translucent, just the way I like it) arrived filled with large, crunchy prawns.
- har gau – ordering classic prawn dumplings can be a good test of the quality of dim sum in any restaurant. These were a little on the small side, but the skins were thin, translucent and non-sticky. Delicious
- beef tripe – Chris had this all to himself, as I don’t like tripe. He approved (I’m assuming, as he left the dish empty!)
- pan-fried turnip cake – this was the absolute star of the meal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or eaten such a perfect example of pan-fried turnip cake anywhere in all my years of eating dim sum, and would fight through Camden’s tourist crowds just to eat this again
- Chiu Chow dumpling with peanuts – Chris chose these dumplings, which were twice the size of the har gau. The skins were soft and a little glutinous, while the filling was a mixture of meat and peanuts, as far as I could tell. I’ve not had these before, so it was nice to try something different
- baked char siu puffs – these looked slightly over-baked on the outside and the pastry wasn’t as flaky as I like it, but the filling was good
- Shanghai dumplings (xiao long bao) – Chris hadn’t tried these before, so after a quick lesson (How To Eat Xiao Long Bao), we tucked in. I have to say, these were among the best I’ve had in a long while, whether in London, Hong Kong or Beijing (Taipei still ranks highest for me). The skins were perfect, not too thin, not too thick and didn’t tear, while the filling contained just the right amount of soup
- mini egg tarts – I was relieved to see that these were made with flaky and not shortcrust pastry, as I really dislike the latter. Chris was kind enough to let me have two!
The verdict:
Despite Yum Cha being located in an area of town that I rarely visit these days, I would definitely return for more dim sum, particularly the sensational pan-fried turnip cake and the xiao long bao. I really didn’t expect much when I arrived at the restaurant, which goes to show how first impressions can be so wrong. Based on this initial visit, Yum Cha ranks amongst my top three dim sum destinations - Pearl Liang and Yauatcha being the other two – and it will be most certainly be added to my Where To Eat Dim Sum In London post. I’m glad I made the effort to visit and highly recommend it to dim sum fans!
Yum Cha offers 25% off dim sum during lunch from Monday to Friday, as well as Monday and Tuesday evenings. It’s an ongoing promotion, but do call the restaurant if you want to confirm this before visiting.
Lunch for two cost £21 with service charge and after the 25% discount.
The set of Yum Cha photos can be viewed here.
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:
Yum Cha
28 Chalk Farm Road
London NW1 8AG
Tel: 020 7482 2228
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
Hooray for two more fans of Yum Cha! Your review was spot on, especially regarding the décor. Guess all the effort goes on in the kitchen! Took my mother here when she was in town several months ago and she also said that the turnip cake trumped anything she had eaten in HK (and I agree; most places skimp on the radish and use too much rice flour while YC is generous with the former!). Were your egg tarts fresh from the oven? Was lucky enough to get them like that once and it was the most wonderful thing… I also despise shortcrust eggtarts. They’re for the lazy bakers!
Sounds like a visit is due for the xiao long bao alone ! Generous serving of 4 per steamer too !
BTW – where was the banner photo taken ?
Oh hello, Dim Sum craving! I love xiao long bao, the ones at Leong’s Legends were great. Nice to know of a new dim sum place in a different part of town too.
Wow, another great post on dim sum in London, I feel I need to make a return trip as it is becoming increasingly apparent I missed a lot in my time there.
Its almost like a Xiao Long Bao revival is taking place. A few restaurants in San Francisco are getting reviewed for this revered dumpling. In fact typing in XLB and SF got me nearly 70,000 hits.
I certainly could have used your primer before I had my first dumpling, but I have since perfected, or should say improved my approach.
Yay, thanks for this!
Charmaine – I’m sure you knew I would love it at Yum Cha! I can’t remember to be honest whether the egg tarts were fresh from the oven or not (warm doesn’t mean they came from the oven in my book!). But I can’t wait to fight through the Camden crowds and return for more, and try some other dishes…
Sung – look forward to hearing your thoughts on Yum Cha! The banner photo was taken on the way to Cat Street in Hong Kong. The spices were so pungent I was coughing for ages after and I only paused to take that one photo.
Lizzie – you should try it one day. It was very very good…
OysterCulture – thanks! You must come back soon. I still need a lot of practice to eat XLB, but am getting better each time!
Kavey – you’re welcome, hope you enjoy dim sum!
Helen Yuet Ling
Wow looks yummy! I’ll keep this in mind!
wow, the har cheung fun looks absolutely divine! pricing wise is good too!!
Much like everyone else on this page, I’m also in search of definitive dim sum experiences. As a native Sydney-sider there is much in the way of delicious dim sum there, but over the years London has offered some very good rivals. I agree, Pearl Liang is high on the list, as is Hakkasan (which I prefer over Yauatcha, not least for the fiery kick of the Peking dumplings). I’ve enjoyed good food at Phoenix Palace but tend to avoid the Royal China chain given a number of inconsistent meals there. That said, it sounds like it’s time to go to Yum Cha… Thanks for the review.
adel – it’s good quality dim sum and excellent value for money in London. The decor is basic, but it’s worth the trip for the food! Btw, you’ve been incredibly busy on your blog recently. I loved the pizzas post!
misstreat – thanks for your opinions on dim sum places, it’s always good to hear from other dim sum fans. Interesting that you prefer Hakkasan over Yauatcha. I’m due another visit soon, so let’s see! I haven’t been back to Phoenix Palace in years. It used to be my local, but the standards dropped quite dramatically and I stopped going. Hopefully they’ve improved so that I can return. And I don’t go to Royal China anymore these days, though I am due a revisit to the Bayswater branch to give them one last chance! Let me know what you think of Yum Cha…
Helen Yuet Ling
In Australia we call dim sum yum cha. Apparently dim sum is actually what you eat while yum cha is the eating experience so it may be more technically correct to refer to the experience of eating dim sum as yum cha. Whatever you call it – it’s delicious food!
Gourmet Chick – ‘yum cha’ is Cantonese literally translated as ‘to drink tea’, so it’s not just in Australia that drinking tea accompanied by dim sum is called yum cha, but worldwide wherever there is a Cantonese-speaking community. If I’m speaking in Cantonese with family or friends, I’ll say ‘shall we go yum cha’. But it wouldn’t work in Mandarin, then I’d say ‘chi dian xin’ (or ‘eat dim sum’). But speaking or writing in English, I prefer to say ‘go for or have dim sum’.
Helen Yuet Ling
Helen – I’m following your dim sum lead and will visit Yum Cha next, after Lizzie’s Peninsula rec. I do the same acid test with cheung fun and har gao, throw in siu mai as well. Looking for bounce, texture, (non) stickyness and that ‘fresh’ taste. Ditto that on saying yum cha (instant flashes of my dad saying ‘We go yum cha, ok?’ in cantonese) in cantonese and dian xin in mandarin.
Oh and Happy Birthday
kang – I hope you’ll like it. Don’t be put off by the surroundings, just enjoy the food. You’ll have to start your review with your dad’s ‘We go yum cha, ok?’! Thanks for the happy birthday wish again…
Helen Yuet Ling
Just spent this lunchtime trying out Yum Cha and it’s certainly a rising star in the London dim sum / yum cha repertoire. There was a distinct lack of diners in the main area but given the sunny day the outside tables were packed with people having bar drinks. This is a shame given the quality of the food they serve here. I agree the panfried turnip cakes were delicious, nicely golden on the outside with good texture and taste despite the absence of Chinese sausages and dried shrimp. We shared seven dishes in total, from siu mai to prawn cheung fun to a flavoursome war tip (potsticker dumpling) and walked away happy and heavy. All this for £26 for two, which included a Bloody Mary! Yum Cha has definitely made me revise my dim sum list. Thanks for the recommendation.
misstreat – so glad you liked the dim sum (the environment is a bit strange for dim sum though, I have to say). I’m constantly revising my dim sum list, and gaining weight as I do so…
Helen Yuet Ling
Thanks for this recommendation; I tried it out a couple of days ago. Definitely agree that this is good stuff. I wasn’t entirely sure what you meant by crunchy prawns, but when I tried them I saw exactly what you meant! Plenty of soup in the xiao long bao, too. I’ll certainly go back.
Kake – you’re welcome, and I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Helen Yuet Ling
Tried Pearl Liang in Paddington yesterday. The 10 item dim sum lunch for £9.50 was superb, and the mango and grapefruit tapioca to finish off was a delicious unexpected surprise. I had to go to a meeting afterwards and when I arrived everyone in the office was having sandwiches for lunch out of their tupperware containers. I didn’t have the heart to tell them about the dim sum I had just had. Wanted to try Yum Cha today but there was a power cut and the restaurant was closed. Will try again soon.
Kavalier – Pearl Liang is my favourite restaurant for dim sum, although I’ve never ordered the dim sum set lunch before. I love the mango and grapefruit tapioca pudding too!
Didn’t have the chance to try out Yum Cha’s turnip cake. Will definitely do so the next time round. But I absolutely love its egg tarts. The tart literally crumbles in my mouth with creamy custard oozing forth. Mmmm… will return for that alone.
C K