Champor Champor

The restaurant has a distinctive Asian fusion feel to it with its Balinese decor...it has also a very discreet entrance which most of us missed when trying to find the restaurant for the first time!

Foodwise, there is definitely some Malaysian influence but it's has been fusionized to suit London. Presentation is very stylish and service is very attentive.

The most interesting aspect of the restaurant which we found though was the toilets! Everyone who went in had a different experience (i.e. saw different things in the toilet) so we all had a good laugh after that trying to figure out why everyone were talking about different aspects of the toilet!
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Chang
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 3
Sunday, June 29, 2008

I went to this restaurant without high expectations. I've been back a few times since and am always recommending it to friends. The food is fantastic and presented beautifully. The staff are lovely. The restaurant is decorated beautifully-it has enormous character.Definately try some of the drinks from around Asia which you are unliekly to come across anywhere else in England. And if you want a really intimate meal-reserve the table that overlooks the restaurant like a tree-house! Without a doubt, this is my favourite restaurant in London.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 03, 2008

My partner and I went to Champor Champor for a delayed Valentines dinner and were given the Mezzanine table above the restaurant. We agreed that the food was absolutely gorgeous and the service excellent. Our bill was slightly delayed and as a result were given free lychee wine. I have read some of the reviews on this site and am disappointed that some diners are unable to appreciate a restaurant that combines delicious, adventurous food with enthusiastic service. We will definitely be coming again.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Saturday, February 23, 2008

I have to say given respect to all the reviews .

My visits to this amazing hidden gem was mindblowing.

Coming from a similar region to Malaysia I was shaken by the approach of this Restaurant .

Truely amazing especially the mixure of food so called Asian Fusion and the charming service was absolutely great .

I personally do not visit a restauarant cause I am starving but to have a good time with my partner or Friends experiencing the food and the ambience which I certainly did get from Champor Champor.

Dinesh Israel Selvaraj
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Dinesh
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, February 22, 2008

To sum up, the service was ok the food was not very nice and shockingly it was served cold. I would have been delighted if they offered to warm the food up in the microwave because it was that cold. This has to be by far the worst restaurant I have every been to and I dine out frequently.

Our bill (for two) totted up to around £60-70 mark and although this incl 2 cocktails it def wasn't worth it. I wouldn't go back and I surely wouldn't recommend it to my friends or family.
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AJ London
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Sunday, February 17, 2008

If you like restaurants, and you're confident about your tastes, you should definitely try Champor-Champor. I've been twice now, and both times have been interesting and enjoyable.

That's not to say the dishes always work or that the service is exemplary, neither is true, it's just that Champor-Champor does experimental, Malaysian-influenced cuisine in a confident, bold way and that deserves to be experienced by people that genuinely appreciate dining out in this world of bland chains and middle of the road concepts. Check out their menu and you'll see what I mean. Great decor and atmos., too.

Having said this, they need to pay a lot more attention to seemingly little details; on our visit last week the cocktail glass was chipped, both the menu and table cloths had grease spots, the wine came before we'd finished our aperitifs, service was functional but most definitely not with a smile. Sounds picky, but these all add up and shouldn't happen at a place with 'next level' aspirations.

Apart from an extremely irritating policy of having set prices for two or three courses and adding small supplements to most dishes - what's wrong with a la carte? - the menu always makes you ponder, and the cooking shows real skill, with excellent ingredients, particularly with the starters, particularly with the squid soup.

Main courses are the difficult second album for any restaurant and we felt on this visit that the short choice was too experimental; out of 6 choices one was rabbit and one ostrich which is one 'different' thing too many. And one or two things plain didn't work - lamb neck was way to delicate to stand up to the yam mash and sambal, and the soft shell crab suffered from too a too-heavy hand on the satay sauce.

But anytime I dine our I like to take the experience as a whole, and again on this front C-C didn't disappoint. Great atmosphere as ever, and with the real feeling of experiencing something different.
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, January 31, 2008

We don’t normally do our ‘dirty washing’ in public, but we wish to add some comments to the previous review.

We believe that the reviewer’s comments regarding the small portion sizes are grossly exaggerated. She notes that some of the dishes cost £14 – yet these are large portions, which her party did not have, as they only had the smaller plate dishes.

We admit there was a lapse of service, with the one £14 dish which she did order being delivered to another table. We apologised profusely and offered them two of these dishes with our compliments, but all she wanted was discount.

Her bill for the four guests came to £77.60, including a bottle of wine and a beer – which equates to £19.40 per head.

However, because she made such a big scene in full view of other guests in the restaurant, we agreed that we would only charge her £50 – a mere £12.50 per head, which was, frankly, a pittance for what they had had.

She conveniently forgot to mention this detail in her review.

Charles Tyler

Champor-Champor
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Champor-Champor - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Monday, January 07, 2008

I decided to go to Champor Champor for a special occassion and was very disappointed when we turned up to find out that they were trying out a new 'tapas' menu. The food was extremely over priced with a small plate of vegetables costing £6 and some tapas dishes costing £14. I have never been somewhere where they charge so much for such small portions. I was expecting the soft shell crab tempura to taste of crab with a light delicate batter, instead all I could taste was a greasy thick batter. Tapas dishes should be reasonably priced, easy to share and served quickly. Several of the dishes were small bowls of soup (£7 each) which were not possible to share so we ended up buying one soup per person. When we ordered more food it took too long to come and meant that the rest of the food was cold by the time it arrived. The new menu simply doesn't work. What topped off the evening was when some of our food was delivered to the wrong table! I refused to pay the 15% service charge as the staff were rude, delivered our food to the wrong table and did not seem to know much about the food on the menu. I fed my comments back to the owners whose only offer of compensation was to replace for free the food which had been eaten by the other table. had expected an offer of discount on the bill as the food and experience was definately not worth the cost charged, but they refused to offer a discount. The key to a successful restaurant is keeping the customers happy and I left feeling very unhappy. For the food and service prices that this restaurant charges you expect an excellent eating experience. Unfortunately I was disappointed on every single aspect.
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, January 06, 2008

As with all the reviews on these sort of websites, restaurants are good sometimes and not so good at other times.

Luckily we had an excellent experience so hope fully they are reading these reviews and making the necessary adjustments.

We booked quite late on a Saturday afternoon and they were very upfront that they could fit us in early (7-30) but would need the table back by 9-30. The way that they put this to us was very honest and polite and worked fine for us.

We had a quick look at the website which does this restaurant an injustice...so guys, get some better photos on there and make the website as classy as your restaurant! The interior shows that you have great taste and style.

So we turned up and were lucky enough to be given the mezzanine table. Now this must be the most romantic table in London outside of a full river view. Loved it.

The food? Well the portions were larger than they looked (and generally we don't go out any more because we're actually hungry) and meant that we were not able to get onto the imaginative deserts. They looked great though.

The starters and mains that we had were nicely spiced with very interesting flavours. No complains here this time.

The service was discrete and polite with a nice sense of humour.

So a real, positive surprise for us. Not cheap but exceeded our expectations & you can't say more fair than that. Thank you.
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Terry Harrison
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Sunday, March 18, 2007

I have been to this restaurant many times and each time I am delighted by the experience. It is in fact my favourite restaurant and has been since I discovered it about 4 years ago. As I know whatever I choose on the menu will taste beautiful, I am tempted by things I would not normally try and have never been disappointed. A decent lock on the toilets would be good though!
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Joanne Richards
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 05, 2007