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    Kowloon

    2.8 (60 reviews)
    InexpensiveChinese, Bakeries, Buffets
    Closed 10:00 am - 11:00 pm

    Kowloon Photos

    KOWLOON ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Classy
    Very loud
    Good for groups

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    Reviews With Photos

    Ambrose C.

    As a non-European visitor to London, one of the most frustrating things about visiting this amazing city is finding an decent and inexpensive place to eat while on a tight budget. Fortunately, London's Chinatown seems to be the neighbourhood my family and I turned to whenever we did not want to spend more than £7 on a dish. I came to this Chinese bakery recently with my friend and we got a few snacks. We got some Daan Taat (egg tarts), Gai Mei Bau (Cocktail bun), and some Coconut tarts. Each piece was around 90 pence, which is fairly inexpensive for an expensive city like London. The Daan Taat was pretty good, tasted almost exactly the same as some of the best Daan Taat in Boston's Chinatown. The Gai Mei Bau was also pretty good and a couple pieces could make a filling breakfast. Inside was fairly sweet and the bun itself was soft and chewy. It tasted almost exactly the same as some of the best Gai Mei Bau in New York's Chinatown. As for the Coconut tarts, they were also pretty tasty, and I enjoyed the sweet coconut flavour. I also came back for a second visit to get a Cha Siu Bau (Roasted Pork Bun). It was probably the most expensive version I had to pay for it (about £1.70), but this is London. However, it was fairly big compared to the versions I had back in Boston and about the same size as the ones I had in Toronto and New York City. The bun was pretty tasty, soft and chewy on the outside, and meaty and flavourful on the inside of the bun. Overall, this is a pretty good place to get some inexpensive Chinese bakery staples in London's Chinatown, and I would probably come back again if I do not want to spend more than £4 on breakfast or lunch.

    Qype User (Timina…)

    Kowloon Bakery is an institution, and the frenzy of the queues of people - Chinese and other - trying to order some pork buns and sweet lotus cakes are proof of it. They make all manner of pastries, sweet and savoury. Slide in the front door, try to keep your place in the group of customers yelling out orders and pointing at the shelves, and you'll leave with some exceptionally tasty treats. They've recently renovated and expanded the bakery.

    Jed C.

    Well I promised my girlfriend I would cook her dinner tonight. However, what with alot of recent excitement in and around my flat, I didn't actually find the time to shop for delicious fresh food for my delicious fresh girlfriend (forgive the crass analogy, just turning phrase for your pleasure!) so after we did some shopping in Chinatown, I said I would take her to an all you can eat buffet. What followed was a dark chapter in my life as a restaurant connoisseur. Chinatown is an exciting place, especially for a first timer like me, but I was insistant on finding myself an all-you-can-eat as opposed to other restaurants where I couldn't eat myself to insensitivity for relatively cheap prices.. I eventually came across this place for £8.50 a meal and I was, as I usually am, easily satisfied. Pulling my girlfriend in, I asked for a table for two and was led to a table for eight and just placed there. Slightly perturbed, I took my seat but was told to in fact sit in a specific two-person bit of this eight-person table. Interesting... So I sat down. I was immediately asked what I would like to drink and I waited to see what my girlfriend wanted - simply because of the unwritten rule I employ when dining with a girl.. always let them order drinks first. I always get tap water (restaurant drink prices are just criminal) so that it doesn't make me look cheap when I order tap water after they order themselves something exciting.. however, at this restaurant, they told me that tap water wasn't an available service.. the menu listed everything from water to fizzy drinks at £1.50 and I thought Christ, that's expensive. I decided (unwisely, as it turned out) to order the same as my girlfriend, Green Tea. It also was £1.50 but had free refills so i thought, awesome! So before I went and got myself some food from the buffet, my tea was on my table but too hot to drink.. Green Tea Temperature : Piping Hot So I went and helped myself to some food. I was looking forward to this bit but I ended up feeling quite disappointed. They had alot of choice for the little commodities like prawn toast, seaweed, prawn crackers etc but as for the main food I am sure other places in the past have offered me at least double the amount that the Kowloon Restaurant does. With three types of staple (thinner noodles, normal noodles and rice) I chose my usual.. normal noodles with lots of meat. I was tucking in with my girlfriend when she, in her beautiful way that means she cannot be horrible about anyone or anything, said 'these noodles are a bit.. special' and laughed. She was right on the money.. an odd, almost soil like taste followed a mouthful of these noodles. I was a bit perturbed but the texture was still like normal and mixed with meat, it was bearable. The salt tally on my body was increasing sharply though so I turned to my drink for refreshment but.. Green Tea Temperature : Piping Hot This situation had become a bit too annoying for my liking and, gasping for appropriate refreshment, I was backed into the corner of getting myself some mineral water. Expensive, I thought, but the perfect accompaniment to this salt festival in my mouth. What I ordered and what they bought me though appeared to be very different things. I expected half a litre of nice cold mineral water. What I got was a warm bottle that had less liquid in it then a can of coke does. It managed to fill a single cup to the brim and that was it. Having drank this (it took me all of 6 seconds to do so) I turned to my girlfriend and asked her where the rest of my god damn water was! She didn't appear to know either.. so through a series of events, I was pretty fuming. In the end though, it did manage to get slightly worse. Green Tea Temperature : Piping Hot Having finished my meal, I reclined my chair with a full belly and was slightly less peeved then before. My girlfriend thanked the waitress in Chinese for her meal and luckily she didn't catch my glowering glance as I let her and the waitress know exactly what I thought of the meal. The waitress, in turn, was disappointed in me for taking some duck meat off the bone from the buffet cart and not managing to consume the bone itself.. for this I was so sorry, I must have left my shark dentures at home! I was charged £2.10 for leaving these bones on my plate and instead of arguing like I wanted too I just left so that I could tell my girlfriend, and anyone within about ten feet of us, what I thought of that restaurant. If you couldn't quite hear me, I was the one with the air turning blue all around me! I am not coming back to this place... I recommend that you don't either. Green Tea Temperature : God knows because I didn't get to drink it!

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    10 years ago

    Awful service! If you don't take cash they literally will kick you out. The place looked dirty.

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    10 years ago

    Gross. Like, really gross. Save your money and get a bubble tea and steamed bun for half the cost.

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    Page 2 of 2

    Kowloon Reviews in Other Languages

    Review Highlights - Kowloon

    It was probably the most expensive version I had to pay for it (about £1.

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    Buffet V

    Buffet V

    2.3(8 reviews)
    0.5 miBloomsbury
    £

    Buffet V is an entirely vegetarian Chinese buffet. I'm a big fan of any vegetarian restaurants, but…read moreI've only come across a few Indian ones aside from the healthy/organic wholefood type, so I think a Chinese all-you-can- eat is a great idea. You can peak through the window at all the dishes to choose from in canteen style heaters and it really does look as good as it looks. All the veg is fresh and the dishes aren't soggy or stodgy like so many other Chinese buffets. Of course it's not posh nosh, but for a lunch where you feel like picking at a dozen different meals then it's worth a try. The spring rolls are lovely and crispy and they do nice spiced aubergine slices in a tangy sauce. You can get veggie 'chicken' and 'duck' dishes, and these are basically just tofu pieces flavored with soya and spices, not meat substitutes like soya or Quorn.

    Out looking for dinner late on a Friday evening, my friend M. and I were enticed by the "£6.50 all…read moreyou can eat" sign in Buffet V's window. Peeking through the glass, we saw a great variety of what looked like yummy dishes, so we hurried inside to get our food on. We were shown to our table quickly, but the waiters and waitresses all looked angry and annoyed at the customers. And, after filling our plates with heaps of food (none of the dishes in the buffet were labeled, so I went for what looked good), we began eating one of the most disgusting meals I've ever had. A good amount of my rice wasn't even cooked, the noodles were pretty much just grease, and the tofu in every dish I tried was watery, tasteless, and gross. M. made some comments about what the meat substitute tasted like, but they aren't appropriate for repeating here. The only edible food on my plate were the pineapple chunks and the samosas. (For their credit, the samosas were pretty good.) The previous reviews make this place sound pretty good, so I'm wondering if I hit Buffet V on an off-night (a VERY off-night), or if the place has just gone downhill in the past year. Either way, though you can't beat £6.50 for an all-you-can-eat buffet, I definitely felt a little ripped off. This is one restaurant I'll be staying far away from on future trips to London.

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    Buffet V

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    JRC Global Buffet

    JRC Global Buffet

    3.0(7 reviews)
    8.2 miWhetstone, Totteridge

    We arrived around 6:30 PM on a Friday and were surprised to find the restaurant not full. Having…read moreexperienced better buffets, I was disappointed by the food quality--the meats were tough and overly salty, the salt and pepper prawns were similarly tough and over-seasoned with salt, and the fried rice was undercooked. Many of the sauced dishes relied too heavily on salt, and the dessert station was underwhelming. At £20 per person--without drinks included--the experience fell short of expectations. While they do offer a variety of Asian-inspired dishes, they need to realize that salt and pepper aren't the only seasonings available. As for those who thoroughly enjoyed it... bless them, but I know better. I won't be returning although the service was good.

    Disappointed with this experience. We were charged for our 2-year-old daughter based on her height,…read morewhich was never explained via phone call. She barely ate, yet we were billed as if she were an additional grown child. This policy feels unfair and very misleading, especially for families with toddlers who are taller than the average height. If this is their rule, it should be clearly communicated before when making a table booking. The lack of flexibility and empathy when we asked about it sealed the deal. Families with young kids should be aware as I was very very disappointed by the way we was treated because of that rule.

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    JRC Global Buffet
    JRC Global Buffet - Massaman Beef Curry

    Massaman Beef Curry

    JRC Global Buffet - Prawn Crakers

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    Prawn Crakers

    Kowloon - chinese - Updated July 2026

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