Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 9 and Version 8 of Leong's Legend, W1D 6AX

Small Taiwanese restaurant in Chinatown, offering some rather good dim sum. May actually be called "Leong's Legends"; the name on the frontage is singular but the name on the menu (and the story behind the name) is plural.

The decor is all wood and basketweave and long scary weapons on poles, and the larger tables by the front window are separated off from each other with screens. It's kind of a teahouse ambience, and smarter than your usual scruffy dim sum joint, but more traditional and less overpriced and chainlike than the new dim-sum-and-cocktails places that have been springing up around London. Dim sum is served between 11:30am and 5:30pm, according to a menu seen outside in June 2008.

Kake, Leon, and other Perlmongers visited for a dim sum lunch on a Thursday in July 2008. There was no problem seating the six of us, but from a glance around the restaurant it seemed they might have trouble seating a larger group.

We were very pleased with the food. Nothing was below par. Notably, the soup dumplings (transliterated here as "siu loung bao" rather than the more usual "xiao long bao") had a pleasing quantity of soup; the best we've found so far. Nothing we tried was bland or overly greasy, and the flavours were all distinct. Seabass cheung fun (£2.80) is worth a special mention, as we've not seen it anywhere else, and it worked very well; the fish was cooked just right and there was just the right amount of ginger included. Braised pork belly rice (£4) was also to everyone's liking. Pan-fried turnip paste (£1.90) was saltier than we've had elsewhere, but also more generous with the meat (perhaps even a little too generous). The only thing we didn't like was the Legend's Bun (£2.80). Pleasingly, the tea (£1/person) was fine - one might think that this is obvious, but we've had some pretty awful tea in dim sum places over the past year. We ended up paying just over £10 apiece for ample food plus tea and a couple of soft drinks.

Kake, Ewan, and Alice visited again on a Friday lunchtime in August 2008; arriving at 1pm, we were again led straight to a table. Ewan's vegetarianness was no problem, as the steamed vegetarian dumplings (£3.80 for six) photo, the vegetarian cheung fun (£2.50) photo, the crispy shredded turnip (£2.50 for three) photo, and the deep-fried dough sticks (£1.80 for six) photo were all suitable. We particularly enjoyed the steamed vegetable dumplings, and even the omnivores would happily order them again. Kake and Alice also shared a basket of crab soup dumplings (£6 for eight), which were just as good as on our previous visit.

Our verdicts: Leon has expressed the opinion that this is currently the best dim sum place in London. Kake's verdict is similar; it really is a nice little place, with very fair prices and high quality. Although some reviews mention inconsistency, we've been enough times between us now to conclude that these were simply initial opening hiccups, and things have now settled down.

Accessibility: One step up to get in, quite cramped inside, toilets down a flight of stairs.

See also:

• Dim sum menu as of July 2008: page 1, page 2
• Kake's photoset on Flickr
• Delightful Eggtarts review
• Chowhound thread
• Another Chowhound thread
• Eating Out In The Capital review
• Time Out review
• An American In London review
• Metro Review

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