Royal China, 13 Queensway, Bayswater

I have never been to Royal China but I was always tempted because of the adverts they place on TVB. To be honest I would have liked to go to Royal China Club but that would be unlikely with my thrifty dad. Anyway it was quite interesting going to Royal China as I've never been to that area so I was amazed to see that there were quite a few Chinese restaurants around. I did like the entrance area but I didn't understand why there needed to be a walkway to get into the dining hall and the front desk. The place was quite nice, I liked the décor though I think it needs a bit of refurbishment and I enjoyed the fact that the restaurant wasn't too loud but maintained a hum of noise. I was quite surprised not to find a dim sum tick sheet, instead two menus and a specialities menu were given to us. However I do like it when I can see food on the menu but for dim sum that's not really necessary for me. We ordered the usual, Vietnamese spring rolls, Xiao Mai, Siu Long Bao, Prawn Cheung Fun and Crab E-fu Noodles. I am slightly disappointed with the food to be honest, I expected a higher standard compared to the normal Chinatown fare but it wasn't really any better, at least the price wasn't too far above Chinatown prices at £26.80 if I remember correctly.

The Vietnamese spring rolls were ok, though a bit too oily when they came out. The filling was quite nice though, still juicy. The Xiao Mai was pretty average, there were a few chewy bits in the Xiao Mai and the meat looked a bit weird. The Siu Long Bao was average also. The skin, the toughest to get right, was too thick but the filling was ok, a nice tenderness to the meat. The prawn cheung fun wasn't good, whilst the prawns were very large the main part of the dish, for me, is the Cheung Fun which was dry and a bit rough on the tongue for cheung fun. Finally the Crab e-fu noodles were a bit too soggy and tasted too strongly of amoy sauce and msg. Overall food at Royal China wasn't any better than the average Chinatown restaurant, the décor was quite nice and the service decent but I don't think I'll be coming back here considering it's a slight trek compared to Chinatown.