The reliability of dim sum

Joy King Lau, 3 Leicester Street, WC2H 7BL

Lunch for two: £20

There are many reasons to return to a restaurant: it may serve excellent food, be one of those undiscovered gems you feel smug about when the rest of the world starts to appreciate or it may be particularly convenient or reliable for you. The Joy King Lau falls into the latter category of places for me. It is reliable. Located as it is on the edge of Leicester Square, it is even convenient. Describing a restaurant I like as reliable or convenient feels like damnation by faint praise; and yet that is precisely how I would describe several oft-visited places that account for many of my happy food memories. Does that make me a bad person? Or even, and far worse, some sort of anti-foodie?

Our last visit was for a Saturday lunch of dim sum.  Mr F had to work so I offered to take him for lunch to offset the pain of working at the weekend. Starving and desperate after a morning of serious work: a quick, voluminous and low-risk lunch was required.

Lots of other people had conceived a similar plan so, even though Leicester Street was closed, enough people had climbed past the roadworks to make the queue for tables stretched down the stairs and out of the door. This didn't put us off; as seasoned pros, we knew that the man with the walkie talkie would usher us up to the top of the building when he heard there was only two of us.  In your face, polite people who joined the back of the queue!  

The menu is typical of an ordinary Cantonese restaurant. All the dishes you would expect are represented but nothing more. The main event is the dim sum; our one evening visit found the place empty and the food disappointing. However, the dim sum is reliably tasty.

We had roast pork cheung fun which were a bit low on pork but otherwise fine, slightly oversteamed and unremarkable Shanghai-style dumplings and a dish of rice, chicken and sausage that was perfectly pleasant aside from the disappointingly low sausage count (two small pieces - sigh).  The squid cakes were good though: golden and not quite crisp on the outside and chewy in a good way on the inside. Scallop dumplings were a highlight (of sorts) with a pleasantly crunchy texture to the filling. We washed it all down, as everyone does at the joy King Lau, with the simple Chinese tea that is presented unbidden on arrival.

It's not just about the food here though. I think people come back for its happy combination of reliably good dim sum, low prices, central location and lively atmosphere.  The Joy King Lau is typical of many Chinese restaurants in the area: it is located over several floors of an old house, perpetually noisy and fantastically cheap. However, unlike many other restaurants in the area, the service is pleasant at the same time as being brisk and the food is always good value. 

I am not alone in my fondness for the Joy King Lau. According to a civil servant friend who works on our relationship with China, it is the lunchtime restaurant of choice amongst staff at the Chinese Embassy in London.  That probably says enough. Vindication over.