Joy King Lau

The dim sum at lunchtime was pretty good and came quite quickly. Service was great and fast. Pretty decent prices for the food quality they charged for.
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Caitlin
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 10
Sunday, November 06, 2011

This restaurant's food is amazing. I am from Canada and was recommended by my relatives to try the food here. I met the manager Stanley, what a friendly man. They showed exceptional customer service, providing a wonderful eating experience. I recommend this restaurant to everyone.
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Alice
10 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Sunday, August 21, 2011

Unfortunately after reading some good reviews about this restaurant we decided to visit. We were sat at a table on the first floor, which apparently doubled up as the washing up area. Tables were being moved around while we were eating and it was extremely noisy from the washing up next to us. Most of the staff were rude and they tried to over charge us by not giving a breakdown of the bill. Worst of all the food was poor quality and over priced.
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1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, January 24, 2011

This is a great restaurant if you know what to order. I have always found that being friendly and nice to the staff just like most places you will get the best service ever. ( PS my son is studying in university to join the hospitality industry and at one internship serving at a 5 star hotel restaurant he told me how kind some of his customers were and how mean some were ). I take my mum who is chinese there ever year for her birthday and go often with my friends.

You must order the starters crispy duck in wraps or try any of the soups and i love to have deep fried squid also. Mains ask for Roasted crispy belly pork ( try it with sugar chinese style), the roast duck, sizzingly beef and if you feel adventurous go for the oysters with ginger, lemon chicken and have the fried chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce and make sure you ask for the special chinese greens no where else tastes like this. I could go on and on- ask about pork and hamchoy. I only came on site to order my mum the pork and duck as an Xmas gift ( dont laugh its true our family give lots of original gifts wrapped up ) and somehow saw this and said I must say my peace.
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Mrs Julie Khan
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, December 23, 2010

This restaurant was the 'ye faithful' everytime i wanted to eat a delicious value chinese food. I recently visited this for a spot of dim sum and the quality/standard of food for dim sum as sadly dropped. Not much to say but that it was was not up to standard and am now looking elsewhere instead. I can't say anything about the evening meals as its awhile since I ate there for dinner. Hopefully not as bad as the dim sum.
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Carina
8 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, September 30, 2010

went here for crispy duck and noodles by a recommendation from a friend.

satisfactory, even though the food was not that great up to her recommendation
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Sunny - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Thursday, April 15, 2010

I have been introduced to this restaurant by a relative. It is centrally located not far away from Leicester Square, near the old Swiss Centre -- for those still remember there was a Swiss Centre at one point. The food is totally Cantonese, just like what you get from Hong Kong. Amazing value, the portion is very generous when compare to novel cuisine. Plenty of choices in the menu. There is also a menu in Chinese where it is not translated into English. I would say this is the more authentic one that one should go for. If you are a non-Chinese speaker, grab a Chinese mate and go with you. Dim sum is great as well. Most of time I only spend £10 per head on dim sum when I go with friends, as you can ordered a wide varieties of food to share. With dinner, well, I would suggest the Beijing Duck, it is yummy ........ It work out to be £15 - £20 per head and you get really good food. I also love the service, the staff are so friendly and they are really good in recognise regular customer. Once you been there a couple of times, they recognise you and is like walking into your auntie's kitchen. Amazing. Give it a try.
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Grace HO - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Thursday, January 28, 2010

This is, perhaps, one of the best value-for-money Chinese restaurants in London. It's not the easiest eateries to find (being tucked away behind Lisle Street) but it's well worth a visit if you enjoy traditional Hakka food at its best.

The restaurant occupies several floors, so there is rarely any need to book in advance in the evening. That said, lunch times can be a little busy, so a quick phone call before you arrive won't hurt.

Joy King Lau's dim-sum menu is easily one of the most extensive in Chinatown. Their steamed barbecue pork buns (char siu bao) are some of the best I have tasted in London. And their Singapore fried noodles are delightfully fragrant.

I have to disagree with some of the comments about the surly waiters. I have never found them to be brusque - if anything, they are sometimes a little over-attentive!

In the main, the portions are very generous so don't be tempted to order more than you need. If you do over order though, don't be embarrassed to doggy-bag any leftovers.
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Dragon - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Thursday, December 31, 2009

Been going to JKL since I can remember and I have to say the food here is great. Tried other restaurants in the area and in my opinion they can't compete with same dishes. Even when I'm eating in Hong Kong the dishes just don't taste as nice, especially the dim-sum. They do serve traditional food made in the proper way, ie not your local take-away, which in fact is not authentic chinese food might I add (my dad's a chinese chef so we eat in lots of different places). The names of the dishes don't do the food justice so do't be afraid to try something that doesn't sound or look very appetising - Chinese food never look as nice as they taste I find.

Now on to the service which I have to say is not the best, but bear in mind that customers come for great food that is cheap so money is made by high turnover of seatings (just like primark!). So service NEEDS to be fast hence why waiters aren't as attentive as say in a western restaurant. I need to add that this is traditional servicing of chinese food especially the times when dim-sum is served because of lots of small dishes. They work hard but I agree with some that some could be more polite.

As they say on their website it is about an authentic experience and the name of the restaurant means (roughly) enjoying the company of others around food, so don't let the service put you off and just enjoy the food and the people you're with.
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K Wong
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

In my 5 days in London, we found this to be the best restaurant, value for money, not too packed, away from the Chinatown crowd. Service was good (if you compare to Wong Kei), efficient and friendly. Maybe because we were Chinese from Singapore and had no problem to communicate in Cantonese and Chinese with them. we had 2 dinners there as well as a lunch Dim Sum.

Try the dim sum available from Lunch to 4.59pm. My family visited on a Sunday and the place was overflowing with customers, which is a good sign of good food in any city. You must try the Char Siew buns (my wife's favourite item and very demanding!), Siew Mai, turnip cakes and excellent Egg tarts.
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SH Chang
7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 8
Monday, November 02, 2009