Good soup dumplings, but not totally exceptional. Prawn toast was super yummy though! Quick service but lacks atmosphere as so many places in Chinatown do. Always positive to see a lot of Chinese people at the tables around us! read more

Ok I admit I am completely biased. I started coming here twenty years when it was called Dumpling Inn. I would often come here 2-3 times in a week's visit to London. I could do that now except my wife isn't a fanatic like I am. This is my favorite restaurant on earth. Not for the atmosphere, which is fun (being Chinatown) but nothing special. Not for the service, which can be erratic when it gets busy (which it always does around 1 pm). It's for the memories and the absolutely fabulous dumplings. Xiao long bao are the best. read more

Ordered stir fried noodles, soup dumplings..yummy and Gailan. All great! The restaurant is a great place to have a great meal, fast and friendly service and if you want to enjoy your meal away from the craziness outside. We're tourist and tried other locations and it was either old and shabby or very rude wait staff. Thx for a great experience! read more

Dim sum platter was average. Service was absolutely horrific seeing that they charged us over 10% service charge. The waiter was extremely dis interested and laughed when we tried to order side sauce, I asked for water that never came. Our meat dish came cold that had to be reheated. Extremely disappointed and will not be coming back here again. If you're looking for good dim sum, go a few doors down to Beijing dumplings. It's amazing! read more

Awesome dumplings and so close to the ones I love so much at home. Get the pork xiao long bao (soup dumplings); they will actually blow your mind. read more

Sooooo good! We ordered the soup dumpling (made with fresh roe crab) tasty but not the best dim sum I've had. The crystal prawns are what keeps me comming back, they are so HUGE, the fillings are so tasty, huge prawns in each one and very well flavored. The only criticism is that they're pretty pricy compared to the other dim sum restaurants in China town- I would say about 20% more expensive, but the crystal prawns are more than worth it. read more

Love this place! The Xiao Long Bao is like a party in my mouth- highly reccomended! Very friendly and smiley service, food arrives quickly. The menu is also really big so there is an option for everyone. I have never paid more than 15£ and always eaten like a Queen. Definitely my favourite chinese place, would reccomend to anyone. Quick tip; go for lunch instead of Dinner as it gets really busy. They also offer a special Dim Sum menum during lunchtime. read more

I love my Chinese food, but Despite the staff being friendly, they dont speak much English! I was less than impressed with the food. The sauce on the food, especially on the peking spare ribs was very sugary, and personally found the dumplings tastless! There are many great chinese places in london and unfortuanely this place doesnt live up the rest! The price doesnt warrent the qulity of the food either! read more

Currently writing this review from the restaurnt. We came in here 4 days ago for the first time at about 11pm. Service was slightly absent, especially for a chinese reataurant but the quality of the food more than made up for it. These could be the best xiao long bao i have ever tried (definately better than shanghai) comaparble to hong kong quality. The other food was good too. Highly recommended. We drove over 60 miles for this treat. read more

Having read through other reviews I'm really surprised at the level of disappointment of people who have eaten here! I have been here several times in the past couple months for lunch and each time the food has been great having said that we only normally order from the dim sum menu which is served before 5pm. As it seems that most are disappointed in the evening menu I would suggest instead of giving this restaurant a complete miss to just come here for lunch instead and as a group of 4+ so you can order lots of different dishes to share and get a taste of lots of dim sum. Definitely try the soup dumplings and the turnip cake it's awesome! read more

I regularly dine out in soho and decided to choose 'Dumpling's Legend'. Oh what a mistake: food was initially served cold, king prawn pumpkin was foul, dimsum included a wash of hot water when bitten into, sevice was appauling and waitresses were very rude slamming food onto a table when serving. I really would advise for you to avoid this awful dining experience, it really is a waste of money and very disappointing to say the least!!!! read more

Don't ever go there if you are vegetarian or allergic to something. I never had meat in my life until I was forced eating it there. I have ordered vegetable dumplings set, and after eating a whole dumpling I realised there was meat in it. I complained to the waiter, who did not understand the gravity of what happened. Therefore I went to speak to the restaurant manager, who apologized. Still I find it an unacceptable error. I felt sick to my stomach because of the meat I've had, and left. read more

Poor service and a long wait between courses. The hot & sour soup was inedible and the main dishes were sent back because they were cold by the time they arrived. Very disappointing and I would not recommend this restaurant. read more

Not many vegetarian options and service could use some work in being personable. I felt rushed and not helped. I ordered just the soup and vegetarian dumplings, everything was just so so. read more

I thought the dumplings were small, doughy, and the sauce was too "soy". I can get far better in my NYC suburb. These just weren't subtle enough, and the texture just not perfect. That said, the roast meat platter was above average and the Chinese broccoli a nice counterpoint. Prices a little high compared to NY (even with tax, tip, and a favorable exchange rate thrown in). Service "ok". read more

For an American in London this was amazing. We loved the dumplings. Can't get these back home in ohio. Soup dumpling was fun. The bbq meat is very good. Crispy duck is a little dry. read more

Food is passable. Staff cleaned and set our table for the next patrons before our change for paying our meal had arrived. I finally had to ask for our change. They brought some change but I had to remind them what I had given them. They tried to act like they didn't know what I was talking. read more

Love this place - so many kinds of Xiao Lao Bao! It's definitely on the fairly pricey side for this kind of food. I haven't had anything here other than dumplings, but I have been to Leong's Legend (which has the same owners) and the food is good there. The place can be quite busy on weekends - so be prepared to wait. read more

For photos and more:http://hungryinlondon.com/2011/02/dumpling-legend-chinatown/ In celebration of the Chinese New Year I met Mr. Noodles and some other friends at Dumpling Legend in Chinatown. This evening turned out to be not only a feast of some delicious and some not so great food, but was also hugely educational as I learned a lot from Mr. Noodles about Chinese culture, food and restaurants. Dumpling Legend which is located in the heart of Chinatown has opened some time last year and specialises, as the name promises, in dumplings. To experience the extensive dim sum menu, you have to come before 5 pm (dim sum are traditionally eaten for breakfast and lunch). I refer you to this mouth-watering review by Greedy Diva for more information about eating dim sum at Dumpling Legend. The restaurant is extremely brightly lit. This is good for taking pictures but not that flattering for teint and wrinkles (not that I have any of course!), so I would not necessarily recommend it for the first or second date to be honest. The menu depicts a happy Chinese dumpling with a little crown. Without wanting to be mean, if I had a restaurant I would not entrust my marketing campaign to the people who created this cheerful ball reminiscent of an onion As Mr. Noodles and I are both working hard in our non-blogging related day jobs to be able to afford eating out all the time, we only managed to meet up in the evening and therefore had to choose from the evening menu with a limited dim sum selection. Mr. Noodles pointed out that Dumpling Legend does not appear to specialise in a speficic Chinese cuisine, as the dishes on the menu stemmed from Canton, Sichuan, Malaysia and Taiwan. Mr. Noodles chose the dishes. He ordered a very interesting mix of starters and mains, however, we got them served all at the same time. I didn't like this at all. Firstly, you expect dishes to be served one after the other when they are stated as 'starter' and 'main' in the menu (otherwise why bother doing this?) and secondly, we really had to rush to eat everything while it was still hot/warm. The meal therefore started with a huge minus for Dumpling Legend In summary, the dishes were a rather mixed bag of delicious, OK and not very good. The supposed starters: I rather enjoyed the Cucumber in Chilli Oil (£4) which is a typical Sichuan dish. The fresh and cold cucumber and the hotness of the sauce provided an interesting contrast. The Sweet Potato Fried with Salted Egg Yolk (£4.50) did not taste very Chinese in my opinion and was strangely addictive. Somehow reminded me of the zucca fritta at Zucca. Very successful were the Sichuan-style Spicy Won-ton (£4.50). The delicious savoury filling was wrapped into light won ton skin and came with plenty of mouth-tingling chili sauce. We did fight a little over those A real Chinese specialty are the Pork Crab Meat Siu Loung Bao (£6.50). When I ate Siu Long Baos for the first time at Leong's Legend I burnt my mouth terribly as this type of dim sum contains not only solid fillings but also hot soup. The version at Dumpling Legends did not look very pretty but tasted heavenly. Mr. Noodles taught me how to eat them and I want to share this knowledge with you to save you from injury. You grab one of the dumplings with your chopsticks and bite into it holding it over one of the big Chinese spoons. Then you can enjoy the dumpling and afterward savour the soup collected in the spoon. A real disappointment were the Steamed Prawn Dumplings (£6). Again they did not look very appealing but in this case this also applied to the taste. The skin was too thick and the filling tasteless. Stay away from these! The dishes we had wanted as mains:I have never eaten Taiwanese Three-cup Chicken (with soy sauce, sesame oil & rice wine) (£9.50) so I did not have much comparison but for Mr Noodles this was the most disappointing part of the meal. According to him, this dish, if done well, is extraordinarily delicious. This one clearly wasn't. The chicken was kind of slimy, the sauce tasted only of soy sauce and I could not pick up any sesame oil. Overall this dish lacked any redeeming qualities. You wouldn't think that something as delicious as the Seabass Fillet Steamed with Soy Sauce (£17.50) can come from the same kitchen as the unsuccessful 3 Cup Chicken: Wonderfully tender sea bass with Chinese spring onions and ginger in a light and tasty soy broth was my favourite dish of the evening. I had a similarly delectable Chinese sea bass at Goldfish City close to Bank. The other two mains clearly did not rock my boat. The Stir-fried Choi-sum with Garlic (£7.80) was not too bad but did not leave any lasting impression. Celebrating the Chinese New Year you have to eat noodles as noodles represent longevity. Also when you go out with Mr Noodles you have to eat noodles, but I think you would have guessed that much :) . The Fried Wide Rice Noodles with Beef (£7.50) were boring and insipid. I mixed them with the chili sauce coming with read more

Went here for lunch. Foods alright. Nothing special but be prepared for the worst service. No one took our order. Then they forgot half out order. No concern was showed. What should have taken 30 mins took almost 90. read more

Service was hurried and unfriendly. Our waitress was literally throwing dishes on our table as she ran by. The dumplings were good. Other dishes were sub par. Kung pao chicken had an uninspiring tomato base, a little chicken and way too many red chilies. Does anyone actually eat those? Our Shrimp with crispy noodles was covered with an unpalatable mucosy sauce. Not sure if this is a good representation of London Chinese food. I hope not. We are spoiled by the extraordinary Chinese cuisine we have in the SF Bay Area. read more

Siu Loong Bau was good, had the pork and the vegetarian. Stick with these if there, the cantonese related options we had were not good at all, fukushima sized har gau were terrible. the Ja Jiang Mien was mediocre at best, veggies were overcooked, come on, veggies?? Huge disappointment given we liked Leong's Legand in the past, beyond their horrid attitude and service. read more

Good simple with thin dough. Very fresh and tasty. The service was HORRIBLE and the waiters were rude and impatient.

While wandering around China Town on the 4th of July looking for some tasty Chinese food, I chose this place. The place was definitely authentic and i saw them making the dumplings in the restaurant so I thought they would be great, but sadly it was disappointing. I ordered the xiaolongbao, soup dumplings, and they were just so tiny in comparison to what I've usually had. They tasted great, the flavor was there, but it was so small. I also ended up ordering the roast duck and roast pork with some rice. The roast pork was decent, but it wasn't the real roast pork, if you know what I mean, the texture was off and it it just wasn't the same as what I've had. The duck I had was pretty fatty, but the taste was good, albeit a bit greasy. I had high hopes for this place but they fall flat. I've eaten at so msny great Chinese places that this place just didn't compare. The food itself was decent, but it wasnt spectacular or anything to write home about. There are plenty of other places to visit in China Town and I recommend that you do. read more

Dumplings' Legend - Roast Pork and duck - Dim Sum Near Me - London, XGL

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Shrimp wonton soup-ok. Dumplings are kind of like Din Tai Fung, but saltier and not as good. The rest of the dim sum- terrible and salty. I swell up and get a bad headache if I consume too much msg. I swelled up and had a bad headache right after eating here. Just coincidence? I think this place should only be visited by people who are not sensitive to msg, salt, and taste... read more

We went in looking to eat dumplings. After all it's called Dumpling Legend. Average dumplings, terrible rude service. They got annoyed when we asked them to explain what some dishes were and after seating us an taking our initial order, they came back to ask us to order more as they require a minimum spend of £10 per person. All we wanted were dumplings. read more

Dumplings were okay but service poor. I returned the cold rice and the waitress use some excuse that heating more will make it yellow. come on you are talking to another Chinese. No one really wanted to deal with it and kinda looked not bothered. The place might look nice but definitely staff need to be better training. read more

Been here about 4 years ago not long after they opened. Great dim sum and good quality soup dumplings. Not Ding Tai Fun quality but decent for London. Went there few nights ago on a rainy, cold London night trying to decide a new place or going back to this place. It's safe to say that my decision turned out to be the wrong one. Ordered the crab soup dumping. I can tell the dumpling is not freshly made. Given this is 9 pm, I gave they a pass since it still tasted OK. Then the horror begins. Hot and sour soup looked like a bowl of thickened dark vinegar. The string bean with minced pork was way too oily and salty. The only decent dish is the tofu with minced pork. In addition to the bad food, the service was just horrible. I know what to expect from an Asian restaurant, but this is even below par. Don't let the picture of HRH at the entrance fool you. What does a white person know about good Chinese food?? read more

There are so many choices on the main street in Chinatown, that if a restaurant is slightly not up to the rest of the bunch's standards, it is very noticeable. Dumpling Legend is one of the restaurants looking pricey/pretentious on the outside, and when you take a closer look at the menu you'd perhaps gulp and think about how your wallet would suffer if you were to have a filling meal. With all the other competition around, it is difficult to stand out from the crowd. Dumpling Legend has achieved this by a modern, high class looking exterior and eye-popping prices of food. Chinese food is not cheap when it's in a serviced restaurant. Especially Chinese food in Chinatown which is most authentic compared to your local Chinese takeaway. Yet I do not see the reason of visiting Dumpling Legend when you can walk opposite and go in any other Chinese restaurants (which to be fair, look much more authentic). I feel that Dumpling Legend would like to market itself as top end Chinese (fusion) restaurant. But any person who eats out in Chinatown often can tell you that the more 'ghetto' places are perhaps more tasty with reasonable prices. If it is a special occasion that you are celebrating, DL could be a good choice, with a sophisticated decor and everything, and perhaps a less authentic menu (more like fusion). But otherwise I would urge to try out some other Chinese restaurants in that area. read more

Beware. Food was good, but nothing special. Everything else was not. Was told when we entered that only steamed dishes were available even though we saw plenty of fried (wokked) dishes on tables. Thus, menu was limited to about 10% of what was offered (dumplings and soup). Ate there anyway. Received the bill - a hand written bill showing only the total and the real UNTOTALED itemized bill stapled to the back of the hand written bill. Suspicious, so I totaled the itemized bill and came up over 10% short of the handwritten total. Service was poor, so wasn't planning on leaving anything extra. Plus, only 10% of the menu was being offered. When I told the waitress that the total was wrong, she said that was for the service charge. There were only four of us and there was no mention anywhere of this 'service charge'. She had no intention of backing out the charge and instead of pursuing with the boss, I thought I'd just write my 1st Yelp review. There are so many great places to eat in London. Don't waste your time (and money) going to this one. read more