On our radar: Best Chinese restaurants across London’s West End

Soho brings a more contemporary edge to Chinese dining in the West End. Around Broadwick Street and Berwick Street, the choice moves from polished dim sum rooms to lively gastropubs, making this an easy area to explore before a theatre night or an evening around central Soho.

For more ideas nearby, our guide to the best restaurants in the West End covers a wider mix of cuisines and dining styles.

1. Yauatcha Soho

• Address: 15-17 Broadwick Street, London W1F 0DL
  Opening hours: Monday-Wednesday & Sunday: 11:00 AM-12:00 AM; Thursday-Saturday: 11:00 AM-12:30 AM
  Price range: £30-£70+ per person; weekday lunch set from £23.50 and pre-theatre menu from £35.50
  Highlighted dishes: Venison puffs, scallop shui mai, crispy aromatic duck salad and handmade French-style patisserie, including macarons and chocolate desserts

Yauatcha is a Soho staple that brings Cantonese dim sum together with the precision of European-style patisserie. Its dim sum comes in with flaky venison puffs, delivering a rich, sweet-savoury bite, while scallop shui mai keeps things lighter with plump seafood and fine wrappers.
Descend into its moodily lit basement and the experience feels like a stylish late-night lounge, with delicate dumplings arriving alongside cocktails and tea.

 

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2. The Duck and Rice

• Address: 90 Berwick Street, London W1F 0QB
  Opening hours:
  Tuesday-Saturday: 12:00 PM-11:00 PM; Sunday-Monday: 12:00 PM-10:00 PM
  Price range: £30-£60 per person; weekday Duck Express lunch from £15
  Highlighted dishes: Cantonese house roast duck and crispy duck fried rice

The Duck and Rice takes an unusual idea and makes it feel completely at home in Soho: a British pub atmosphere built around comfort-led Chinese cooking. You can enjoy a drink at the lively downstairs bar or settle into the quieter upper floor for its signature roast duck, known for its glossy crispy skin and juicy meat.

Just south of Shaftesbury Avenue, the streets become unmistakably Chinatown. Wardour Street marks its western edge, while Coventry Street and Cranbourn Street sit towards Leicester Square, with Gerrard Street, Lisle Street and the surrounding lanes forming one of the West End’s busiest dining clusters.

4. Chengdu Chengdu

• Address: 4 Leicester Street, London WC2H 7BL
  Opening hours: Monday-Sunday: 12:00 PM-11:00 PM
  Price range: £26.80-£29.80 for the all-you-can-eat Sichuan hot pot set menu
  Highlighted dishes: Clay pot silken tofu with snowflake beef, vermicelli prawns, mapo tofu and build-your-own mala xiangguo

Chengdu Chengdu is for diners who want to experience the unique tingling sensation of Sichuan peppercorns. The menu highlights the signature mala combination of chilli heat and Sichuan peppercorns, while fermented sauces and clay-pot cooking bring deeper savoury flavours to the dishes.

The restaurant is best enjoyed with a group, allowing you to share Sichuan favourites such as mapo tofu, tender beef dishes, seafood options and hotpot. The compact dining room, wooden tables and lively atmosphere create the feeling of a busy neighbourhood eatery in southwestern China.

 

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5. Bun House Chinatown

• Address: 26-27 Lisle Street, London WC2H 7BA
  Opening hours: Monday: 12:00 PM-9:00 PM; Tuesday-Thursday: 12:00 PM-10:00 PM; Friday-Saturday: 12:00 PM-10:30 PM; Sunday: 12:00 PM-9:30 PM
  Price range: £10-£20 per person; buns are typically available in bundles such as three for £11
  Highlighted dishes: Pig bun with BBQ pork belly, cumin lamb bun and salted egg yolk custard bun

Bun House is small, fast-moving and full of character, with bamboo steamers and a retro Hong Kong-inspired interior setting the scene before the food even arrives.

The restaurant’s soft white buns are the highlight, with each one marked to show the filling inside. The char siu bao, a Cantonese-style BBQ pork bun, combines fluffy steamed dough with a sweet and savoury filling. Besides, the liúshā bao is a popular Hong Kong-style salted egg yolk custard bun, known for its rich, flowing centre, that you can also find.

Move west towards Regent Street, Piccadilly and Bond Street and the dining style becomes more occasion-led. Mayfair’s Chinese restaurants tend towards longer meals, elaborate interiors and menus that combine traditional techniques with premium ingredients.

This part of the West End is especially useful for celebrations. If you are planning a festive meal later in the year, our guide to Christmas and New Year’s Eve restaurants in London offers more places to consider.

6. Hakkasan Mayfair

• Address: 17 Bruton Street, London W1J 6QB
  Opening hours: Sunday-Wednesday: 12:00 PM-12:30 AM; Thursday-Saturday: 12:00 PM-1:00 AM
  Price range: £100+ per person for dinner; lunch menus from around £29-£45
  Highlighted dishes: Signature Peking duck, stir-fried ribeye beef with Merlot, supreme dim sum platters and honey-glazed Chilean sea bass

Hakkasan Mayfair combines modern Cantonese cooking with the theatrical atmosphere of a late-night Mayfair dining room. You can find some iconic dishes like the Peking duck with caviar options to buttery sea bass glazed with honey and soy. Even richer dishes are handled with restraint, such as ribeye paired with a deeper Merlot sauce that balances sweetness with savoury depth.

The dark wood screens, blue-toned lighting and a weekend DJ give the restaurant a glamorous edge, offering you a luxury dining experience.

 

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7. Kai Mayfair

Address: 65 South Audley Street, London W1K 2QU
Opening hours: Monday-Tuesday: 12:00 PM-2:30 PM & 6:00 PM-10:00 PM; Wednesday-Sunday: 12:00 PM-2:30 PM, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM & 6:00 PM-10:00 PM
Price range: £100+ per person; afternoon tea around £52
Highlighted dishes: Wasabi prawns, 18-hour slow-cooked pork belly, lobster noodles and the Chinese Whispers Afternoon Tea

Kai’s balanced Nanyang-influenced flavours may be suitable if you prefer a more refined approach to Chinese cuisine without aggressive spice. The Wasabi Prawns (Jie Mo Xia), a dish inspired by Guangdong-style seafood flavours, pair crispy prawns with a creamy wasabi sauce, creating a balance between gentle heat and sweetness. The Hong Shao Rou, a classic Chinese braised pork belly dish, is slow-cooked until tender and finished with a glossy savoury-sweet glaze that beautifully melts in your mouth.

After tasting your way through Chinese cuisine, these nearby Asian food gems add even more variety to the plan, with Japanese, Korean and Thai flavours to explore next. All three restaurants sit within an easy walk of the West End, making them simple additions to a wider food day around Fitzrovia Quarter.

8. SHŌRI Donburi-ya Fitzrovia

• Address: 39 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 7PF
  Opening hours: Monday-Friday: 11:00 AM-4:00 PM; closed Saturday-Sunday
  Price range: £10-£20 per person; bento lunch specials around £12.50
  Highlighted dishes: Slow-simmered gyūdon, unagi don, chicken karaage and A5 Wagyu bowls

SHŌRI brings the feel of a compact Tokyo lunch spot, pairing Japanese comfort food with a relaxed vinyl-bar aesthetic. The menu focuses on donburi, a traditional Japanese rice bowl dish where steamed rice is topped with ingredients such as meat, seafood, eggs or vegetables. One of its signature choices is gyūdon, a classic beef donburi made with thinly sliced beef slowly simmered in a sweet and savoury sauce before being served over rice.

9. K-POP

• Address: 47 Margaret Street, London W1W 8SB
  Opening hours: Monday-Saturday: 12:00 PM-10:00 PM; Sunday: 12:00 PM-6:00 PM
  Price range: £10-£20 per person
  Highlighted dishes: So bulgogi, kimchi fried rice, Korean fried chicken bento boxes and ramyun chicken katsu

If you are a fan of K-pop music and culture, K-POP is the must-try Korean restaurant. Compared with the numbing heat of Sichuan flavours, Korean cuisine brings a different style of spice, balancing bold flavours with the sweetness of sesame-rich bulgogi, the sharp tang of fermented kimchi fried rice and the sticky glaze of Korean fried chicken.
The atmosphere is casual and energetic, with Korean music playing throughout the restaurant and comforting dishes taking centre stage. It is a great choice when you want familiar Korean favourites in a relaxed setting after exploring the West End.

For more Korean dining spots nearby, our guide to the best Korean restaurants around Oxford Circus continues the food journey through the neighbourhood with more authentic Korean flavours.

 

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10. Khao So-i

Address: 9-10 Market Place, London W1W 8AQ
Opening hours: Monday-Friday: 12:00 PM-3:30 PM & 5:00 PM-10:30 PM; Saturday: 12:00 PM-10:30 PM; Sunday: 12:00 PM-4:00 PM
Price range: £20-£60 per person; premium toppings such as Wagyu steak or lobster tail increase the price
Highlighted dishes: Signature khao soi soup with flat egg noodles and a 32-spice broth, dry stir-fried khao soi and Chiang Mai sai ua herbal sausage

Khao So-i takes a much narrower approach than a typical Thai restaurant, concentrating on the Northern Thai noodle dish that gives the restaurant its name. The signature bowl combines house-pressed coconut milk with a 32-spice curry paste for a broth that is aromatic, creamy, with soft egg noodles beneath the broth and crisp noodles beautifully piled on top.

 

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