Wong Kei

I lived in London in the late 1980s and often ate at Wong Kei. Last year I took my wife and two young children there and was delighted to find the place had not changed! Even the prices were only slightly higher ( perhaps 20 per cent, over 20 years! ). If you expect service with a smile, go elsewhere. If you want reasonable food, in large quantities, and only have a fiver, this is the place.
Comment on this reader review

David James
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, May 10, 2008

I would like to put the record straight, this place isn't a restaurant with waiters who take their time to explain the dishes etc. Decor is dated and the food is served in plastic bowls/plates. This place is your Chinese equivalent of a "greasy spoon" basic, cheap, quick and easy. Go here if you are after a good quick, cheap feed. My favourites are won ton noodle soup £2.80, roast pork with white rice £4.00. If you manage to eat both, then you must be starving!! :-) PS Cash only!!
Comment on this reader review

viper
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Friday, May 02, 2008

Negative points:

1: poor food.

2: not very clean.

3: rude service (don't ask me why but some people think this is part of the whole experience).

Positive points:

1: cheap.

2: large portions.

Conclusion: if you're hungry and not fussy you may want to go to this place for a cheap meal.
Comment on this reader review

Erik C
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Saturday, April 19, 2008

I went to Wong Kei once on a friend's recommendation as I heard it was famed for having terribly rude staff but good food at a reasonable price - indeed the food is reasonably priced but the food isn't that good - the presentation and service is sloppy and who wants to dine in a restaurant where you can't even bear to use the washrooms?
Comment on this reader review

Jens
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 4
Friday, April 18, 2008

I first came to Wong Kei two months ago and have never looked back. The food is the best Chinese food i have tasted in London (Strongly Recommend Crispy Belly Pork on Hot Rice) and the atmosphere is awesome.

You sit on a huge round table with your friends and some others that they squeeze on and are immediately given free Green Tea which is replaced when empty.

People claim the waiters are rude in Wong Kei but i have never been mistreated at the restaurant and must say the waiters work hard and are nothing but quick and efficient.

This is also the only place i know of which you can eat in including Tea for £4 a head and this is in Central London.

Me and my friends regularly visit Wong Kei and are glad we made a habit of it.

I strongly suggest you try it out. For £4 you can't go wrong.
Comment on this reader review

Michael Benjafield
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Saturday, April 12, 2008

My Boyfriend took me to Wong Kei on Saturday and I have to say it was an experience!! My Boyfriend ate in Wong Kei every lunchtime for 6 years when he was a Taylor in Saville Row. He struck up a relationship with all the staff and after not visiting the restaurant for 4 years they recognised him instantly! We had a lovely meal, the food was fast, freash and fantastic!! Some of the waiters were quite rude but i'm told that adds to the charm of the place!! I must admit when I first walked in there it just looked like a greesy spoon cafe but you really dont go there for the surroundings or the service it is purely the food and it ROCKS!!!
Comment on this reader review

Rachel
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 8
Monday, April 07, 2008

I stayed in Yorkshire over Christmas with my daughter, wife and other extended family members. We spent xmas with a very wealthy family. later on well after xmas dinner London came up, discussing all the sights etc (we live in London) suddenly the matriach of the house said "whenever we go to London we ALWAYS go to the Wong Kei, Do you know it?" My wife and I collapsed with laughter. I have been going there since the very early 80's. we spent the next half hour relating hilarious stories of times spent dining there to the other Yorkshire folk who had never even heard of the place. Once put on a table with 7 others. There were 8 different nationalties on the table....8 nationalities from 8 diners. Fights about being told where to sit when I refused to listen to them. long convos with waiters about Arsenal (I ain't a gooner). Watching people attempting to pay with credit/debit cards( Me telling them "they won't accept that" them smugly telling me "oh of course they will" and then being made to leave some possession while they go in search of an atm)

My daughter loves this place ..she has been coming since she was 18 months. The first time she went a chinese dragon came in. She had never seen anything like it before in her short little life...She was terrified and was desperately trying to get away from it. I love telling her that story now.
Comment on this reader review

I love ribs
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Wong-Kei is an excellent introduction to the work-a-day Chinese food.

I note that one comment said that the food is quite bland. Some dishes may not have a pyrotechnic quality on your taste buds and nose, but there is a subtlety there. The WonTon soup is second to none, you will not get a bowl like it anywhere else in London. The dumplings are a divine mixture of minced shrimp and pork, the stock is very delicate and should not be spoilt with soy sauce or chili oil, a little white pepper white pepper will do.

The sweet and sour pork comes with large pineapple chunks and very crisp peppers. A hearty meal.

The barbecued meats come in very generous portions that it is hard to complete the meal.

The braised meats are highly aromatic - they must have been marinating for days. Check out the brisket of beef, either in soup or in rice.

The beef curry comes with thin strips of beef, with a rather low-powered curry sauce, but this is set alight by the raw hot chilis - the contrasts really complement in this dish.

My favourite is salt-chili-pork-chop with rice, the chops are marinated in rice wine and other spices and again are set on flame with raw chilis.

Good value and a good introduction into authentic chinese cooking.

The decor is Chinese oldy-worldy with fabulous chinese imagery abounding throughout the place, my favourite is the water feature that you will find in the basement. It is, however, the sort of place that has seen better days, but that adds to the character, that's the way I like it. I hate eating in those ponsified places which look like up-market home-making showrooms.
Comment on this reader review

Glen
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, March 08, 2008

I have been going to Wong Kei's for 13 years now as it was where my dad used to take me for dinner when he was working in london away from home. so i was there when the service was bad and have been there since it has become more commercialised one might say. its certainly not the place to take someone on your first date or even on any romantic evening as it is not that type of restaurant and i think that is why critics of the restaurant are mistaken, as one cannot judge Wong Kei's by generic restaurant values.

Wong Kei's is not simply a restaurant where one would go for a meal, it is a complete experience. the huge 8 person tables upstairs allow you to sit with and converse with people who you would not ordinarily meet, yet the common appriciation for the food allows you to make these new connections. one would also have to contest people's reviews which slate the food, of course people are allowed their own opinions, but personally i think it is a credit to the food the amount of native chinese people who eat there. clearly if you are going there and ordering sweet and sour chicken then it may not be brilliant but then that is not the chinese speciality and maybe if people opened up their tastebuds a little and tried new things then they would see how authentic the food really is. personally i think if you go to Wong Kei's and order chicken with Cashews then your food repertiore is probably not that extensive anyway. i do not think that people should judge a chinese restaurant on the english food which it provides for ignorant people, it should be judged on the food which is specialises in for those who are actually interested in a different cultures.

this is why Wong Kei's is so special because the true chinese food is authentic, the service is very fast, the food is fresh and although one tends not to spend the whole evening in there, during the time that you are there you have the oppertunity to meet new types of people who will almost certainly enrich your evening and you will leave with more than a full stomach.
Comment on this reader review

Rebecca Rawle
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 03, 2008

I love Wong Kei however have to admit the serice has improved somewhat recently. I visited as a student and have some fantastic times seeing the waiters "play up". Once there was an Evengenical Christain party on our table and asked if we minded saying grace and holding hands before the meal, we obliged and then a waiter shouted "Huh! God come to Wong Kei" ruined the moment and great fun. A second story is when a waiter knocked over a glass of wine on a table who were not moving out quickly enough, an angry complaint pursued to which the witer replied "Oh...Sorryy!!" No mention of refilling the glass! Great times and although the decor and food remain the same which is fantastic, I now am greeted as "sir" by the waiters, maybe it is because I have been a regular for years.....
Comment on this reader review

John Slanger
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, February 28, 2008