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Jen Cafe

3.3 (77 reviews)
Open 11:00 am - 11:00 pm

Jen Cafe Photos

JEN CAFE ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Moderate noise
Casual
Good for kids

Recommended Reviews - Jen Cafe

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Reviews With Photos - Jen Cafe

Menu
Kevin B.

Jen Cafe is a London Chinatown staple, the green building right on the corner at Newport Place. Unfortunately, my experience here could've been better. The staff were quite rude and brusque. The Beijing dumplings were ok but nothing to write home about. The bubble tea was also pretty blasé. Overall not a place I need to visit again. Also note they only accept cash.

Kel P.

I am not joking when I say my home made dumplings are better! Essentially no matter what you order, Beijing Dumpling, pan fried dumpling, meat veg soup dumpling, no matter what you order, the dumpling filling is basically the same. Pork with a fair bit of salt and msg. The soup is made purely out of msg or chicken powder as well. My dumplings in the soup was also falling apart as well! Price around £6 for 7 pieces. Pretty steep for mediocre dumplings. The place already wasn't comfortable, combined with the rubbish food, and even worst, a ridiculous price tag of £30 for 2 ppl in china town. I cannot possible given anything beyond a 1 star - and I'm being generous! I also asked for the menu a few times to add more things, but they only remembered about 15 mins later. Note - only praise point, their HK milk tea and coffee was quite spot on, but that's it. Go somewhere else if you wanted dumplings!

* Delicious chasiu (bbq pork) and duck with white rice.
Karen C.

There are so many better food selections in Chinatown than this cafe... but I ended up here because not many other stores were open. Their wontons are super super SUPER small and their handmade dumplings were lacking... I was super sad... it was not really notable even though it's supposed to be what they're known for. The best thing on the table, surprisingly, was a cha siu (bbq pork) and braised duck platter with rice. It was delicious with the sweet bbq pork sauce mixed into the rice... a reminder of my childhood palate. I saw the lady making jiajiangmian knife-cut noodles by hand in the window that made me want to try it but didn't (maybe that's the dish to go for there as well).

Larissa R.

Admittedly, I only stopped into Jen Café to get a bubble tea to take away. But the façade DOES say 'Jen Café Tea Specialist'. I'd found the place on Yelp, having read someone else's proclamation that it offered 'the best' bubble tea in London. It was rainy and dreary as I trekked the mile from my place of work during my lunchbreak for a bubble-tea indulgence; I was looking forward to this wonderful drink making my day brighter. The café wasn't busy. I placed my order, and the woman behind the counter invited me to take a seat while they prepared my mango bubble tea. I peered around and found the café's decor to be spartan and a bit tatty. But, hey, it's cheap-and-cheerful Chinatown, right? Ultimately what the score comes down to is this: the bubble tea itself. It was blended with ice, which I wasn't expecting but wouldn't be, all things considered, a deal breaker. Nevertheless, the ice hadn't been completely broken down in the blending process, which resulted in a, well, rather icey consistency - not at all appealing, especially not with the cool, dismal weather going on outside at the time. Would I go back to try another bubble tea in future? Possibly. I DO have a love that some people might call unnatural for drinks with jiggly balls in them. Was the one I got on that day 'A-okay'? No. Its only redeeming factor was the aforementioned jiggly balls, which would, indeed, make anything better; let's be honest here.

Elyzabeth P.

When the sign reads fresh dumplings and there's a guy in the window rolling dumplings. Uhhh you have to stop in! The dumplings are truly fresh!! We had them steamed, fried, pork and vegetarian. All terrific!

three meats with rice
Tally Y.

I'm very picky about eating in Chinatown but Jen Cafe has won me over. We stopped for dinner here on a Tuesday night. Normally I see this place packed whenever I walk by but this time it was practically empty. Nevertheless we were still rushed a bit with the bill as soon as we had finished our meal. After reading Wendy L's review apparently this is normal. But don't let that stop you from coming here as the meal is worth it. I ordered the Honey BBQ pork with rice and a mint milk tea. For the price I was happy with the portion, a lot of meat and a good amount of rice to go with it! The pork was delicious but the rice was dry and crunchy in some areas. My boyfriend had better luck with his rice dish; three delicious meats and well cooked rice. Perhaps mine was just a fluke. Our drinks were very tasty. The tapioca pearls are fantastic! Extremely soft and perfectly sweet, out of all the pearls I've tried in London these are the closet in texture and taste to the ones I had in Taiwan. But we only got a few of them in our milk tea, I would have liked a lot more since they were so delicious! The fact that they have mint as a flavour of milk tea is awesome because I love mint and I love trying "unique" flavour options. Cheap, satisfying, good bubble tea. I can't wait to come back.

Pork and cabbage noodle soup
Judy H.

Cheap and tasty, don't expect good service here. Get in, stuff your face and get out! But oh so good. Have tried several things on their menu and the one thing I would always recommend is the fried dumplings. Pan fried crispy perfection on the outside with a thin dough and meaty filling in the middle. Selection of standard sauces on the table. Hands down best dumplings in London. The roasted meats are not as good as other places in Chinatown so I would skip those. Get the fu xian ball soup though, it's a great accompaniment to the dumplings.

Preserved vegetable ramen
Matt L.

We dined at Baozi Inn a couple nights before and saw Jen Cafe with two workers hand making the dumplings behind the window. We then wanted to try this out. Ordered 1 vegetable steamed dumpling (7 pieces), 1 pork and preserved vegetable soup noodles, 1 BBQ pork ramen, and a vegetable order of bok Choi. Overall we thought this was a good hearty meal that's comfort food for the two of us on our holiday that love Asian food. This is definitely a place for local Asians to dine at as well as some other London locals looking for cheap Chinese food. Would recommend this place for a cheap eat and good alternative if you can't get into Baozi Inn. Note that the restaurant only has 5 or 6 tables so seating is limited!

Evan C.

We only got the fried dumplings, and they were tasty. A little too oily for my liking, but still great. The filling was fresh and dumpling itself was crispy. The restaurants atmosphere would be about a 3/10.

making dumplings in the front window

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7 years ago

Not recommended, dumpling is so small and not hot, seems to be cooked and left for a while.

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Jen Cafe Reviews in Other Languages

Review Highlights - Jen Cafe

g. But I like it and especially when they make the most fresh and delicious Beijing dumplings in Londo

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Crussh

Crussh

3.0(2 reviews)
1.1 miBlackfriars

Remember that time about a decade ago when there was this fresh juice fad wherein everyone ran out…read moreto buy his or her own juicer to make healthy-fresh-juice-omg for him or herself every morning only to find that he or she didn't have the dedication to buy the ingredients and clean said juicer every day, especially when the end result always tasted just a little bit crap? Well, the product you'll get at Crussh is similar to the one you'll remember from the above scenario, except you won't be out the £150 cost of a juicer that you'll never use, and you don't have to clean up the mess. It's still a bit crap, though. And your yuppie, middle-class street cred will take a blow, seeing as though you will not be the proud owner of a completely disused juicing machine.

My colleague has been trekking fairly out of the way to make this a part of his breakfast routine,…read moreand I was curious so I tagged along to check it out. What he is a big fan of is the scrambled egg pot, which are pre-prepared and sitting in a heating rack by the door, along with porridge and what they call "Fit Egg," which is basically a soft cooked egg. You then take it to the counter and order much like you do at Pod, and they add in the desired toppings out of small containers and then you are well on your way out the door. It's very good for the time constrained. The scrambled eggs are wonderfully creamy, and the chorizo and avocado that I selected as toppings were tasty, but the disappointment came with the toastie soldiers that I tried to order. The person preparing it was very confused and there was some back and forth, but basically I had to wait a few extra minutes, and then what came out was a slice of bread that had been sliced into soldiers, but not toasted at all! At least at Pod they give you some nice slices of buttered and toasted bread. He is also a big fan of the smoothies, but for me that is not so much a breakfast and more of a refreshing drink in the summer, like the Jamba Juice we had back in the US. On another trip I got the pesto chicken and cheddar toastie, to see how it compares to the ones I sometimes get at Pret. It was mediocre, but nothing special, and it annoyed me that they didn't cut it in half so I was just served on enormous toastie that kept falling apart. Overall I think this place has potential and I may give it another chance, but so far I do not think it is worth going out of your way for.

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Jen Cafe - chinese - Updated July 2026

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