Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 17 and Version 12 of Joy King Lau, WC2H 7BL

Version 17 Version 12
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Chinese restaurant in a small side street just off [[Locale Leicester Square|Leicester Square]].
Chinese restaurant in a small side street just off [[Locale Leicester Square|Leicester Square]]. According to a sign seen in the window in April 2009, dim sum is served noon-5pm Mon-Sat and 11am-5pm Sun.
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<b>Note:</b> According to [https://twitter.com/jennylinford/status/1237733865751543815 a photo of a notice posted on Twitter], as of March 2020 Joy King Lau is temporarily closed until early April.

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* [http://web.archive.org/web/20100115141440/http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/392.html Time Out review]
* [https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/joy-king-lau-london Yelp comments]
* [https://www.chowhound.com/post/2-places-chinatown-london-637805 Chowhound thread]
* [https://www.chowhound.com/post/london-sunday-dim-sum-brunch-joy-king-lau-901758 Another Chowhound thread]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20180808042316/http://www.londonchow.com/2009/12/joy-king-lau-dimsum-review.html London Chow review]
* [http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/392.html Time Out review]
* [http://www.london-eating.co.uk/2966.htm London Eating comments]
* [http://www.qype.co.uk/place/111836 Qype comments]
* [http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/joy-king-lau-restaurant-london Yelp comments]
* [http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/637805 Chowhound thread]
* [
http://www.londonchow.com/2009/12/joy-king-lau-dimsum-review.html London Chow review]
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* [https://myannoyingopinions.com/2017/03/22/joy-king-lau/ My Annoying Opinions review]
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category='Chinese Food,Dim Sum,Featured Article,Restaurants,Step-Free Access,Temporarily Closed'
category='Chinese Food,Dim Sum,Featured Article,Restaurants,Step-Free Access'
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formatted_website_text=' class="external">joykinglau.com'
host='81.187.166.218'
hours_text='Temporarily closed'
formatted_website_text='http://www.joykingla...'
host='81.2.102.215'
hours_text='noon-11:30pm Mon-Sat; 11am-10:30pm Sun'
== Line 38 == == Line 36 ==
node_image='https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1711/24247080190_2c8b109a0c_m_d.jpg'
node_image='https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3391/3498748706_a1c06c82b3_m.jpg'
== Line 41 == == Line 39 ==
node_image_url='https://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/24247080190/'
opening_hours_text='Temporarily closed'
node_image_url='https://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/3498748706/'
opening_hours_text='noon-11:30pm Mon-Sat; 11am-10:30pm Sun'
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summary='Temporarily-closed Chinese restaurant just off Leicester Square.'
summary='Chinese restaurant just off Leicester Square, serving dim sum every lunchtime.'

Chinese restaurant in a small side street just off Leicester Square. According to a sign seen in the window in April 2009, dim sum is served noon-5pm Mon-Sat and 11am-5pm Sun.

The frontage is quite small, but the building goes back a fair distance and there are tables on at least three floors (a lift goes between some if not all of them). Although there's not much natural light inside except for right at the front, the place has been fairly well lit throughout on both our (lunchtime) visits.

Kake, Sarah, and Lex visited for dim sum on a Wednesday lunchtime in April 2009. It was reasonably busy, but there was a table free for us, luckily quite near the front.

Scallop cheung fun (£3) weren't bad; the scallops were good, but the wrappers were a little thick. Scallop dumplings (£2.40) also had a good flavour. Vietnamese spring rolls (£2.20) were nothing special. Fried turnip paste (£2.10) had a good browned crust on it and a decent texture. Spicy tripe (£2.10) wasn't particularly spicy, but it was certainly tasty. We were intrigued enough by the char siu croquettes (£2.10) to give them a try; they turned out to be small pastries rather than actual croquettes, but they were pretty good, served warm with a generous filling of flavourful pork wrapped in a good, properly flaky pastry. (Note: prices given here may not be current — see below.)

Service was efficient; tea was brought to the table the moment we sat down, our teapot was refilled assiduously during our meal, and our food all arrived quickly. Our final bill was around £14/head for more than enough food (14 dishes) plus tea. It wasn't clear whether this included a tip or not, since it wasn't itemised — but adding up the prices afterwards revealed that either they applied a 15% tip without telling us, or the prices in the menu displayed in the window photo of menu were out of date.

Kake later visited alone, on a Thursday afternoon in January 2011. There were plenty of free tables on the ground floor when I arrived around 2:30pm, though there were several other customers throughout my visit. Staff were efficient and not unfriendly, there was again tea on the table as soon as I sat down, and they didn't bat an eyelid at me (non-Chinese) asking for the Chinese-only menu. From this menu, I had the 粉絲南乳羅漢齋煲 (fěn sī nán rǔ luó hàn zhāi bào; £8.80) photo, which translates as "monk's vegetable claypot with glass noodles and red fermented tofu" — there's also a monk's vegetable claypot on the English menu, but I don't know if you'd get the same thing ordering from there. What I did get was pretty good, with the fermented tofu lending a nice background note and plenty of interesting bits and pieces such as black fungus, at least one type of beancurd skin, fried beancurd, daylily buds, gingko nuts, etc. It was way too much for one person, but they happily packed up my leftovers to take home.

Accessibility: No steps to get in, and there's a lift to get you up to the toilets on the first floor. It is a little cramped inside though, with the tables fairly close together.

See also:

Last visited by Kake, January 2011. Opening hours taken from sign in window, April 2009.

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