Jia

Situated near South Kensington tube station, Jia opened in 2011. It has quite sparse, modern décor and a fairly small dining room. At lunch it had a lengthy and moderately priced dim sum menu. There was a wine list ranging in price from £15.50 to £75 with selections such as St Clair Sauvignon Blanc at £28 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £13, Domaine de la Solitude Chateauneuf du Pape at £52 compared to its retail price of about £25, and Marchesi de Frescobaldi Castelgiocondo Brunello di Montelcino at £75 for a wine that will set you back around £43 in a shop. The mark-ups seem reasonable but it is hard to be sure without knowing the vintages, which are not listed. I don’t care greatly about cheaper bottles in climates that have little variation e.g. a basic Australian Chardonnay probably has limited variation from year to year, but if a restaurant expects diners to buy wines at over £50 a bottle then they should have the decency to note the vintage.

The classic har gau prawn dumplings (£3.50) had a thin, delicate dumpling and well cooked prawn (14/20). Scallop dumpling (£3.50) had spinach pastry encasing prawns and scallop, the filling good, the dumpling not quite as delicate as the har gau (13/20). Green chive dumpling (£3.30) had a filling of king prawns and Chinese chives and was the best of the lot, with a light and thin dumpling and a really well balanced filling, the chives enhancing the seafood (15/20).

Scallop cheung fun (£4.60) was a world away from the soggy mess that this dish can sometimes appear as, the coating here avoiding greasiness and the scallops and vegetable filling good (14/20). Char sui pork buns (£3.10) had reasonably fluffy dumplings and slightly sweet pork filling (13/20). Gai lan with garlic (£9.80) had fairly tender Chinese broccoli that had been steamed lightly with garlic, a simple but enjoyable dish (14/20).

The service was functional, with one friendly waitress and one rather curt one. The bill came to £20 a head including service and with jasmine tea to drink, which seemed to me a bargain given the high quality of the dim sum.