Londoners send visitors to Chinatown and then eat Chinese food somewhere else. That is not snobbery about Chinatown, which is a genuine and useful place to eat. It is that the rooms doing the most interesting Chinese cooking in this city are in Victoria, Mayfair and Soho proper, and almost nobody looking for them starts there.
All three below also have a cheaper way in that they do not advertise loudly.
A. Wong is back in Pimlico. Its dining room at 70 Wilton Road closed for refurbishment on 18 August 2026 and the restaurant ran a residency at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair while it was shut. As at 13 October 2026 its own site lists the Pimlico address and the normal hours again, with no residency notice, so the address and hours below are the ones to use.
A. Wong
- Address
- 70 Wilton Road, Pimlico, SW1V 1DE
- Nearest
- Victoria, a minute on foot
- Hours
- Tuesday 5.30pm to 10.30pm. Wednesday to Saturday 12pm to 2.30pm and 5.30pm to 10.30pm. Closed Sunday and Monday
- Booking
- 020 7828 8931
- Standing
- Two Michelin stars, in the restaurant's own words. Andrew Wong opened it with his wife Nathalie in 2012
How to get in
A minute from Victoria’s underground, rail and bus stations, which makes it the easiest serious restaurant in London to build a train home around. Lunch runs Wednesday to Saturday only and the room is closed Sunday and Monday, so the week is narrower than the two stars suggest. The Pimlico dining room closed for refurbishment on 18 August 2026 and the restaurant now gives 8 October 2026 as the day it returns, after a residency at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair running to 3 October.
Andrew Wong describes himself as a chef, anthropologist and cultural observer, and the menu reads like it: dishes drawn from years of research into ancient recipes and techniques, built to cover the range of China’s fourteen international borders rather than one regional tradition.
In his own words, “It’s not about recreating the classics, it’s our exploration into craft, cuisine and table culture.”
The “A” is for his parents, Albert and Annie. He runs it with his wife Nathalie.
Kai Mayfair
- Address
- 65 South Audley Street, W1K 2QU
- Nearest
- Bond Street or Green Park
- Hours
- Lunch 12pm to 2.30pm, dinner 6pm to 10.30pm. Afternoon tea 3pm to 4.30pm, Wednesday to Sunday
- Booking
- 020 7493 8988
- Standing
- Open since 1978. Fifteen years Michelin starred, and in Harden's Top 100 Restaurants in the UK for 2026
How to get in
The whole a la carte menu is served at lunch only prices, which is a better deal than a set menu because nothing is taken off the list. If you want the expensive dishes, come at midday and order them.
They call it liberated Nanyang cooking: respectful of traditional flavours and craft, and not bound by them. There is also a Chinese Whispers afternoon tea, which is a genuinely different proposition from the hotel version.
Yauatcha Soho
- Address
- Broadwick Street, Soho
- Nearest
- Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus
- Price
- Lunch set menu 23.50 pounds, Monday to Friday 11am to 5pm
- Standing
- Cantonese dim sum teahouse. A second site, Yauatcha City, and Hakkasan Mayfair in the same group
How to get in
Three separate ways in, all cheaper than the carte. The lunch set at 23.50 includes dim sum, a main, a pudding and a drink. Happy hour runs Monday to Friday 4pm to 7pm with two for one cocktails at 14 pounds and dim sum at 11. And the theatre menu, at 35.50, runs Sunday to Friday, 4pm to 7pm and again from 9pm. A discretionary 13.5 per cent service charge goes on every bill.
The theatre menu is the one to know about, because it solves a problem most West End restaurants do not: it runs after the show as well as before it. Our pre theatre guide explains why eating afterwards in London is usually a mistake, and this is one of the few rooms that makes it work.
Tattu London
- Address
- The Now Building Rooftop, Denmark Street, WC2H 0LA
- Nearest
- Tottenham Court Road
- Hours
- Monday to Sunday, 12pm till late. Lunch set menu Sunday to Friday 12pm to 4.45pm, Saturday 12pm to 3.45pm
- Price
- London lunch set menu £29.50 for two courses and £34.50 for three. The group page quotes £27.50 as a starting price, and prices vary by location
How to get in
Modern Chinese and Japanese on a rooftop at the Outernet, open seven days with no afternoon break, which almost nothing else on this page manages.
The cheaper way in here is the widest on this page. The lunch set menu runs from noon to 4.45pm Sunday to Friday, and to 3.45pm on Saturday, which is nearly five hours rather than the ninety minute window most set menus keep. On the London menu two courses are £29.50 and three are £34.50. The group’s own page quotes two courses from £27.50, but that is a starting price across its restaurants and it says prices vary by location, so the London menu is the one to go by.
It also publishes a theatre menu, which is the point of the address. Denmark Street sits at the top of Charing Cross Road, a few minutes from most West End curtains. What the shows actually cost covers the other half of that evening, and pre theatre dinner covers the kitchens that can turn a table in time.
A second London site is on the way at Canary Wharf, listed on Tattu’s own site as coming soon rather than open. Our Canary Wharf guide covers eating in that estate in the meantime, where the problem is the opposite one: plenty of rooms, almost all of them empty at the weekend.
What about Chinatown
The long answer is on its own page now: the best restaurants in Chinatown covers what the district is genuinely good for, the dim sum cutoffs and the weekend booking rules.
Go, and go for what it is good at. Chinatown is the right answer for roast meats hanging in a window, for late hours, for a bowl of noodles at eleven at night and for eating cheaply in central London, which is a genuinely short list.
It is the wrong answer if what you actually wanted was the cooking that gets written about, because that moved out years ago and did not come back.
How to order well
Lunch, as everywhere in this guide, and more so here. Kai serves its full carte at lunch prices. Yauatcha’s set lunch is £23.50 against an evening carte. The gap is not a lesser menu, it is the same kitchen at a different hour. The set menus page collects where that gap is widest across the city.
Dim sum is a lunch discipline. The teahouses serve it all day now, but the kitchens are built around the middle of the day and it shows.
Do not order for the table by consensus. Chinese menus at this level are built on contrast between dishes rather than on everyone liking everything, and a table that only orders what it recognises gets a worse meal than a table that lets one person order.
Everything here was taken from each restaurant’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Set menu prices change frequently. Confirm before booking.
The restaurants in Chinatown deal with an awkward fact head on: Londoners send visitors there and then eat Chinese food somewhere else.
Chinese restaurants near me in London
The four restaurants on this page sit around the West End and Victoria. A. Wong is a minute from Victoria station, Kai is by Bond Street or Green Park, Yauatcha Soho by Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus, and Tattu London by Tottenham Court Road. For dim sum near me in the middle of town, the Soho entries are the ones within walking distance of each other.
Where to go next
The starred Indian restaurants is the companion to this page, and London’s Michelin starred restaurants puts them in the context of all 85 starred restaurants in London.
The other cuisine guides are built the same way, from what each kitchen publishes about itself. Japanese, where the best known omakase counter has moved to Chelsea and releases two months of tables in one nine o’clock go. Korean. Thai, where the best known room has no telephone number and a three hour walk in queue. Vegan, which now holds a Michelin star.
Malaysian restaurants in London are the sharpest example of the same method: the most recommended one on every other list closed in May 2026, and what decides the rest is their opening hours rather than their cooking.
By neighbourhood, Soho holds Yauatcha and Mayfair holds Kai. The best restaurants in London covers the wider field.
Questions we get asked
What is the best Chinese restaurant in London?
Not in Chinatown, is the honest answer. A. Wong on Wilton Road by Victoria station holds two Michelin stars in its own words, and Kai Mayfair on South Audley Street and Yauatcha in Soho are the other two rooms worth the trip. All three are a walk from the area most visitors are sent to.
Is A. Wong open?
Yes, in Pimlico. The dining room at 70 Wilton Road closed for refurbishment on 18 August 2026 and the restaurant ran a residency at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair meanwhile. As at 13 October 2026 its own site shows the Pimlico address and normal hours, with no residency notice.
Is Chinatown worth going to in London?
For what it is good at, yes: roast meats, late hours, a bowl of noodles at eleven at night, and eating cheaply in central London, which is a short list. It is the wrong answer if what you wanted was the cooking that gets written about, which moved out of the area years ago.
How do you eat at London's best Chinese restaurants for less?
Go at lunch. Kai Mayfair serves its entire a la carte menu at lunch only prices, so nothing is removed from the list. Yauatcha's lunch set menu is 23.50 pounds Monday to Friday between 11am and 5pm and includes dim sum, a main, a pudding and a drink.
Where can you eat Chinese food after the theatre in London?
Yauatcha in Soho runs a theatre menu Sunday to Friday that covers both 4pm to 7pm and again from 9pm, which makes it one of the few West End rooms that solves eating after a show rather than only before one.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 60 in the guide.
Last checked 13 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
