One thing I still struggle with in Britain — even after years of living abroad — is eating out with children.
Not because there are no good restaurants. London is full of wonderful places to eat, from neighbourhood gems to Michelin-starred dining.
But when you are simply trying to have a relaxed lunch with two children after a morning out, the experience can feel surprisingly hit-or-miss.
Sometimes the food is fine. Sometimes expensive. Sometimes forgettable.
The meals that leave everyone genuinely happy are rarer than I expected.
For our family, though, one cuisine almost always works:
Dim sum.
We loved it long before moving to London. Back in Seoul, we would occasionally seek out dim sum restaurants for xiao long bao, har gow, siu mai, and cheung fun.
Especially cheung fun — one of those foods our family somehow collectively became obsessed with.
Oddly, we struggled to find good versions in Korea. Even restaurants we liked rarely served them.
In London, however, dim sum feels different.
Perhaps because of the city’s large Chinese and Hong Kong communities, the average quality of Chinese food is simply higher than what we were used to.
Our Go-To Central London Routine: Museums and Dim Sum
Without fully meaning to, our family developed a very predictable Central London routine:
Museum in the morning, dim sum for lunch.
Sometimes we wander through the National Gallery. Sometimes the National Portrait Gallery.
No ambitious itinerary. No pressure.
Just slow museum wandering followed by lunch in Chinatown.
London’s Chinatown is not as overwhelming in scale as the ones in New York City or San Francisco.
But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in convenience.
Right in the middle of Soho, it is packed into just a few lively streets filled with restaurants, bakeries, bubble tea shops, and Chinese supermarkets.
The problem?
There are almost too many dim sum restaurants.
If you are new to Chinatown in London, choosing one can feel oddly stressful — especially on weekends when queues start forming before lunch.
Why We Kept Returning to Royal China
For a long time, we drifted between places.
Then we settled into a habit.
Our reliable choice became Royal China, slightly removed from Chinatown and tucked away near Baker Street.
The food is consistently good, but what we liked most was the atmosphere.
Compared with many busy dim sum restaurants, it feels calmer and quieter — easier with children, easier to talk, easier to linger.
Then a few months ago, while eating with a Hong Kong friend’s family near Greenwich, I casually mentioned how much we liked Royal China.
Her response was immediate:
“Royal China is nice, but expensive. For dim sum, we usually go to Golden Phoenix in Chinatown.”
That recommendation stayed with me.
Trying Golden Phoenix After a Hong Kong Friend’s Recommendation
So yesterday, after a spontaneous Central London outing with the children, we finally tried it.
The funny thing?
The moment we sat down upstairs, I realised we had actually been there before.
Years ago, on an impossibly crowded weekend.
At the time it had felt loud, rushed, and chaotic enough to blur into memory.
This visit — a weekday lunch — felt completely different.
No queue. Fast service. Relaxed atmosphere.
And decent food.
Royal China vs Golden Phoenix: Which Would I Choose?
Our ordering system at dim sum restaurants is almost embarrassingly predictable.
Everyone gets their own cheung fun with their preferred filling — beef for me, prawn for my eldest, pork for my younger child.
Then we share xiao long bao, shrimp dumplings, siu mai, and whatever else sounds good that day, plus perhaps noodles, rice, or a meat dish.
Enough food to make everyone happy.
At Royal China, this kind of lunch usually costs the three of us around £75–80.
At Golden Phoenix, the bill came to about £65.
At first glance, menu prices looked almost identical.
But on closer inspection, most dishes at Royal China were just slightly more expensive — perhaps 70p to £1 extra here and there.
And because dim sum is never just one plate, those tiny differences quietly add up.
My Hong Kong friend, it turns out, was right.
So which one would I choose?
If I want a quieter, slower lunch with children, probably Royal China on Baker Street.
If we are already in Central London after a museum visit and simply want an easy, satisfying dim sum lunch, Chinatown wins.
Golden Phoenix was genuinely solid — but Chinatown still has far too many restaurants left unexplored.
I suspect our family’s search for the perfect cheung fun in London is far from over.
