Royal China Club

This is part of a small group of restaurants, which has branches in Queensway and another one a short distance down the road in Baker Street. The Club is notionally more upmarket than its sisters, and certainly the menu has a greater proportion of costlier ingredients; there are plenty of dishes featuring turbot, Dover sole, wagyu beef etc, and a well-stocked lobster tank is the first thing that you see as you enter the dining room.

Mixed seafood dim sum included the classic har gau, as well as a trio of other seafood dumplings, including one with scallop. These were good in terms of the cooking, having tender prawns, but the dumpling itself seemed a little heavy compared to the Royal China Queensway (13/20). 

Dover sole in XO sauce was served whole, and filleted at the table. It had pleasant flavour, though the quite strong XO sauce was rather dominant, somewhat overpowering the fish (13/20). Spicy prawns had a slightly sweet but very enjoyable sauce, and the shellfish themselves were carefully cooked and had good texture (14/20). Gai lan was superb, the shoots of Chinese broccoli carefully steamed with garlic, and being beautifully tender (16/20). Egg-fried rice was also good, the grains properly cooked.

The service was much more attentive than at the Queensway Royal China, with a lot more waiting staff on duty, and who topped up our tea faultlessly. The bill, with just tea and a little beer to drink, came to £63 a head. Overall, the food here seemed to me of no higher standard than Royal China Queensway, though with more luxury ingredients on the menu. There was better service but this came with a significantly higher price to match. This is exactly the same impression that I had when I visited a few years ago.

Further reviews: 11th Apr 2023 | 20th Nov 2021