I must admit to feelings of inexperience when picking out a place to eat dim sum in London. Reading reviews, it seems that opinions are strongly held on quality and authenticity within this rather tasty sub-genre of Chinese cuisine.
Not being sure to know an authentic dim sum dish from a chichi western imitation, we called on the assistance of Jill, who hails from the dim sum capital Hong Kong via pleasant Oxfordshire. (We’d already decided our dim sum meal should represent Hong Kong; we’re eyeing a Szechuan spot for China proper.) Jill is vehement in her dislike for chains like Ping Pong, which I’ll admit to having enjoyed in the past; so she suggested an oft-neglected dim sum restaurant in Chinatown serving the real deal.
The standard restaurant food at Golden Pagoda is, all told, as mediocre as any of the other outlets dishing up westernised Cantonese food on Gerrard street. That’s not why we visited, though. At weekend lunchtimes, a dedicated dim sum chef (Wai Sui Yu, from the acclaimed Dragon and Castle south of the river) takes over, and things take a turn for the better.
I did come with an idea of what to expect—my first dim sum experience in Toronto’s Chinatown centre was, I imagine, pretty authentic. Trollies full of small unidentified dishes were wheeled around the large room and devoured by eager Chinese pensioners, leaving the non-Cantonese-speaking amongst us to take a “lucky dip” approach to the day’s lunch menu. I tried many things, some delicious (dumplings, buns), some not to my taste (rubbery pickled slices of chicken feet) and some completely unidentified.
While Golden Pagoda doesn’t serve from trolleys, we were still glad to have some help in deciphering the Chinese order card, on which one ticks off quantities of dishes desired. Having a big table meant we got to sample a great variety of dishes, which is the best way to go about it, although leaves me struggling to describe all we ate.
Lots of Cantonese favourites were present, including many varieties of dumpling. (Har gau with their pleated wrappers; siu mai which are open-topped and orange-tinged; siu lung bau, extraordinary feats of engineering which burst with a filling of hot soup; the translucent fun gor.) And of course, some great steamed buns with char sui (bbq pork) and chicken.
Cheung fun are another Cantonese classic, with meat and seafood fillings wrapped in soft rice noodle sheets and slathered in soy. They’re slippery customers when armed with chopsticks, but proved very popular.
Yummy squid came both deep-fried and raw with a vinegary salad; lo bak goh (steamed turnip cake) and a similar steamed seafood cake proved a little gelatinous for some of us, although served well at soaking up soy. Lo mai gai (lotus leaf rice), while comforting, was not the best I’ve had.
The surprise for me was the chicken feet (fung zao), which I’ll admit to approaching with scepticism. This batch, served whole, boiled until tender, heavily seasoned and barbecued, were a much more agreeable proposition than the rubbery kind I’d tried in vinegar.
When it comes to desert, I missed out on my favourites, deep fried sesame buns. But we did try fried custard buns (near enough!), and a Hong Kong speciality, egg custard tarts. (These look very similar to the Portuguese pastel da nata, and probably arrived via the nearby Portuguese colony Macau.) Jill’s favourite was another Hong Kong dish, mango pudding, which rather resembles a blancmange.
How was the food then? Experienced hands certainly thought highly of it; for my part, I found it an altogether different experience to the fancier-looking dim sum chains. Perhaps a little less variety and subtlety when it came to flavours and fillings, but more wholesome and satisfying, and the feeling that liberties weren’t being taken with a reliable tradition. Good hangover food, in fact, making it an excellent choice for Sunday lunch, and great value at around £10 a head.
In summary
Golden Pagoda
15a Gerrard St, Chinatown, W1D 6JD
020 7434 2888
