Chuen Cheng Ku

I've never been to this restaurant outside of Dim Sum hours: indeed, that's exactly why we go there, for the most reasonably priced and best Dim Sum we've found in London. If you don't know what Dim Sum is (think Chinese Tapas) then you might find it all a little bewildering at first, as other reviewers have said, but if you're clued up then I can't recommend anywhere else more than Chuen Cheng Ku. Even for novices it's fairly easy: you'll be seated, order some drinks, then wait for the trolleys to pass by your table. The staff will tell you what each dish is and what's in them so just experiment and pick what looks and sounds nice. You can have a tasty, filling, and relatively inexpensive lunch this way, but if you're expecting sweet & sour chicken, pork balls, special fried rice and all that sort of thing then you've come to the wrong place frankly - that isn't the point of Chuen Cheng Ku at all.

I've never experienced poor or rude service. Be aware that at peak times (e.g. early afternoon on weekends) you may experience queues at the entrance - it's a popular place.
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Alex
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I have been coming to this restaurant for years and years, it is by far the best dim sum restaurant in the West End that I have been to.

The trolley service makes it an ideal place to stop for a quick lunch. After being shown to our table and having our drinks orders taken (I would always recommend the green tea) we were immediately approached by the first trolley. This trolleys have a variety of dim sum, mostly of the steamed dumpling variety. There is also the option to get soup noodle, or fried fish cakes or turnip cakes, or seasonal greens in oyster sauce. My favourite is always the char siu bao, honey roasted pork buns. As with all dim sum, the main ingredients are pork or prawn.

Throughout the meal my tea was constantly refilled and the waiters and waitresses are very helpful.

I would not recommend ordering rice with the food as the dimsum arrives so quickly that by the time the rice arrives most of the food has already disappeared!

The dishes are very reasonably priced - there are different price catagories. It is difficult to keep tab of how much you are spending, but for a good and filling lunch it is only roughly £10 a head, not too bad really!
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Randomly chose yo eat here because we fancied some chinese. Our entrance was unwelcoming. Our waitress was moody and we were imediatly fround up on for ordering water. Our drinks were slammed on the table as she passed by without acknowleding us. She then took ages to come back to take our food order.

Our food came out seconds after we ordered which made me question if it was cooked fresh. The duck was mostly fat and the chicken was soft and tastless. Both meals were cold. The noodles were ok but we never recieved our prawn crackers we ordered.

We were never offered any more drinks and never asked if our food was satisfying.

They claim they are air conditioned but was the heat was uncomfortable.

Our bill came and they had charged us for the prawn crackers and included a service charge. Ill happily tip if the service was acceptable, but asking for a tip after the service and food was so bad is bloody rude.

DO NOT EAT HERE
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, March 01, 2009

We had a works do here last night and I felt I had to say something...

We were seated at 6pm, then waited for 30 mins for our drinks order to come, then waited 1 hour more for some food to come - which as part of a set menu - was a bizarre 'soup' - god knows what they put in it.

another half an hour goes by and some VERY average chicken, beef, and pork dishes appear. But on the up side the rice was good - to be fair. And I expect its a very cheap place to eat....you have been warned
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Luke Rhinehart
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 5
Friday, January 30, 2009

We have been eating at this restaurant for over 10 years and I think it's great. We have always found the service to be very good and a particular strength for us is that, without exception, they make our children welcome. They fix the chopsticks so that our children can operate them, take spilt drinks in their stride and provided ' chicken chop suey' for a 6 year old going through a picky stage. It has a menu that is both accessible to our children and attractive to us. We haven't tried the Dim Sum because we have dietary limitations so I am talking about the main menu, but I wouldn't have any problem in asking how it works if I wanted to and they would tell me.

I am on this site, however, because I took some adult friends to this restaurant a year ago and they have asked me to rebook.
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Ruth Seager
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Saturday, September 27, 2008

I have been going to this restaurant for at least 30 years, mostly for Dim Sum, and find some of the comments frankly bizarre. Lunchtime is for Dim sum and the quality is excellent. Should you want Chow Mein or something else like it you may have a problem with the quality during the hugely busy lunch period.

I have had the best braised crab ever here and the fish wasn't bad either.

I organised a party for 20 for the evening before our wedding and found the management extremely helpful, sorting the table, arranging the menu and everything was absolutely fine. (mind you drinking the Port was a mistake!!).

I can appreciate that someone who has not been to a trolley Dim Sum will find it difficult but treat it as an adventure and you will really enjoy it. My boys have been going since they were babies and love the whole atmosphere as well as the food. (by the way I cannot recommend the curried snails, congee, fish broth with pig bits or some of the puddings but at least I tried them and perhaps they are simply an acquired taste).

Highly recommend this place.
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Raj Soolia
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

It depends what you expect, and how you treat people.

I get to London a couple of times a month, and I always try to get here for lunch, and have done for over 10 years !! If you want a standard "Chinglish" meal, don't bother. But if you want some amazing dim sum, and are prepared to maybe try new things, then this is definitely the place. Second to none.

Prices, as everywhere, have gone up recently, but the dim sum is incredible value for money. If you're in a rush, the trolley service is the original "fast food", but equally they don't mind you taking your time if you're having a leisurely meal with friends.

I have always found the staff to be lovely people - maybe the English isn't great, but come on what do you expect if you go to a Chinese restaurant in China Town. Come on, get with it, enjoy the ambience - after all, their English is better than our Chinese. Staff are always happy to help you learn the Chinese names for the dim sum, and explain what it actually is.

Unreserved recommendation, provided you're prepared to throw yourself in, try new things, and stop being so British !! If you want fluent English, western service, and food that seems familiar - go to Angus for a steak.

I'm going there for lunch tomorrow, and I know I'll come out with a smile on my face :-)
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Malcolm Black
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

i went to this restaurant last night for my birthday. i had been before and enjoyed it and decided to go again. the reviews below nearly put me off but i realized that they all criticized the service and service is not what you go to this place for.

i eat dim sum in chinese restaurants all the time and this is a really good place. it's very good value, (we ate an incredible amount of food - dim sum, duck pancakes, roast duck, char sui pork, etc) and it came to £15 a head. the service is sharp but that's how they do it. the food is tasty and the amount of chinese clientel proves that this is a decent joint.

the lights went out just when we were about to pay and the entire staff came out and presented me with a birthday jelly, candle and everything.

to top it off, Paul Daniels was having his dinner there and he did a special birthday magic trick for me. yes paul.

so if you want to take someone special to the most romantic restaurant in town, don't go here. if you want to go out with some friends and eat loads of great food, do.

and most of all, don't pay any intention to the reviews below
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barny barratt
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I wondered into this place one lunch time to find a bewildering barrage of trolleys serving dim sum. Alas no one would explain what was going on and almost none of the waiters spoke any English. By the end of the meal we had worked out the whacky system, but honestly a 10 second "have you been here before?" ala Nando's would have been welcome. All things considered the service was really terrible and the staff very unwelcoming.

So we end up just grabbing various things (the steamed dumplings being the best of the bunch and the steamed ribs being the worst). All of the dim sum was nice enough, and the ying yang fried rice was OK as well, but none of the food was great.

The lack of prices on the trolleys was a bit disconcerting and the end price of the meal was higher than we would have liked. For the quality of the food and the service I would say they are quite a lot overpriced. But the real killer was the service which was rude and very unwelcoming, I wouldn't go back.
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Businessman
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Friday, March 14, 2008

i have been to chuen cheng ku once and will i go again.... it was for a friends birthday and we got splitted up into 2 tables. the other table ordered a few minutes before my table and my table waited for an hour for our food. by the time our food have arrived, the other table had already finished...! i was not impressed with the food. at a such high prices i expected better. my dish was some what tasteless and it did not fill me up, (maybe it was because they made me wait so long for my food) in the end we decided not to pay the 10% service charge as our food came late and WHAT SERVICE?? so we crossed out the 10% bit (it stated on the bill that if we did not agree with the service charge we can cross it out). after that we left and a member of staff OH-SO-KINDLY said:

'in your free time, DONT come back'

well we WONT! and you shouldnt go there too unless you enjoy verball abuses......!!
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, November 30, 2007