Picture of Oriental City

Historical version 54 of Oriental City (view current version)

  • Address: 399 Edgware Road

Oriental City was a large South-East Asian mall and community centre in North London, reasonably close to Colindale Station. It closed for redevelopment on 1 June 2008 and is expected to be closed for at least three years.

Below is a partial list of where the Oriental City traders have moved to; please let us know if you know of any others.

Places already confirmed and reviewed on RGL (view them on a map):

Places not yet confirmed:

  • China City (restaurant upstairs) is moving to the Wing Yip at Staples Corner/Cricklewood, according to a comment on dimsum.co.uk. They also have other branches at Leicester Square and at Russell Square
  • Hamazaki Bakery may have moved to 82 Totteridge Lane, N20 8QG, near Totteridge and Whetstone Station, according to Wikipedia.
  • The jewellery shop has moved to 8-10 Princess Arcade, SW1Y 6DS, according to a comment on dimsum.co.uk.
  • The roti stall was relocated as TasteMalaysia, 32 High Road, Willesden Green, NW10 2QD. However, when Kake visited on a Thursday lunchtime in October 2009, the shutters were down and the phone number on one side of the sign had been blanked out, so we don't know whether it's still open. They did a short stint at Java Stop near Waterloo Station, but this was a time-limited promotion and they have now moved on. Kake has contacted them via a couple of email addresses now, but is still waiting to hear back. Their email address is tastemalaysia@yahoo.co.uk and their website is http://www.tastemalaysia.com/ — thanks Su-Lin!
  • Royal Lido, one of the dim sum places in the food court, has reopened as Taste Of China, 172-174 Station Road, Harrow, HA1 2RH according to a comment on dimsum.co.uk.
  • The chef from Shangri-La Hunan Cuisine (restaurant upstairs) has reopened a new place in Golders Green, according to a comment on Chowhound.

Moved outside London:

  • Lemongrass (Malaysian stall) has been renamed to The Malaysian Restaurant and has moved to 100 High Street, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, MK11 1AH. Phone 01908 260 026, fax 01908 260 024, opening hours 10:30am-10:30pm Mon-Sat, 11:30am-10:30pm Sun, from Monday 9 February 2009 — thanks Su-Lin!

Probably not coming back:

  • Utsuwa-No-Yakata (the crockery shop) — according to an email reply from their USA office to Kake, as of October 2008 they have no plans to reopen in the UK

Still unknown:

  • the durian stall
  • Yong Tofu

By August 2008 nothing had happened to the site. Development Securities were due to sell it to Peter Virdee on 30 June 2008. The date was extended to September 2008 and then until November due to lack of money, and Property Week say it is likely to be extended into 2009.

As of July 2009, meemalee draws our attention to Pacific Plaza, a prospective mall/food court project set up by a former Oriental City tenant. We don't know how well (or indeed whether) this project is progressing though.

The info below is retained for people who want to know what Oriental City used to be like.

Food court

The (covered) food court on the ground floor is a proper food court, with stalls arranged around the edges, and chairs and tables in the middle. You can have Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indian, you name it. Select your favourite dishes from as many stalls as you like, and collect them when your number comes up.

Specific recommendations: there are two dim sum places, and the one that's called "Dim Sum House" has a better selection than the other, the "Royal Lido". (Although their "Shanghai style" pork dumplings are not in fact soup dumplings; my quest continues. --Kake)

Highlights

  • The food court, of course!
  • Other food places, including a cafe that does bubble tea, and a sushi bar.
  • The Japanese crockery shop.
  • The Japanese supermarket — all kinds of interesting vegetables, sushi-grade fish, meats, noodles, rice, spices, oils, vinegars, exciting things in packets.
  • The durian shop. Located outside the main building, for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who's ever come within smelling distance of durian.

Getting here

Colindale Station is closest; Burnt Oak Station is also within walking distance, but as it's one stop further out than Colindale it's probably less useful. If you're driving, it's worth knowing that they have a free car park.

See also

Other people's writeups, news reports, etc:

Last visited by Ewan, Sarah and others, 1 June 2008. Food court opening hours verified from notice outside, September 2007.
This is version 54 (as of 2009-10-07 18:27:13). View current version. List all versions.