Min Jiang — Restaurant in London

I am a single mom traveling with my two kids from California to London for spring break and my kids are ages 9 and 10. We had lunch at Mayfair chippy and did not plan to order a whole bunch of food but we did want to try their roasted duck dinner. So I ordered a half duck and Xiao long bao, which we could not completely finish. The waiter, an older Cantonese man, gave me some very degrading attitude after I ordered these items and said in a passive aggressive way ‘JUST TWO?’ And I felt compelled to explain that my two kids only eat the amount of 1 adult and we just hope to try the duck dinner. I don’t even know why I felt the need to explain myself and it felt very strange and unpleasant. The waiter cuts me off even before I finished my sentence by saying ‘okay okay’ and left the table as I was finishing my sentences. It was a very passive aggressive attitude. Of course. No smiles or eye contact in the meanwhile.

When the duck dinner came, he brought up the side dishes, and he asked me in Chinese - ‘you should know what these are, you don’t need me to explain anything right?’

In fact even though I was born and raised in China, it would be nice for my kids to hear and learn and enjoy the ‘high end Chinese dining experience’. But because this waiter has been throwing me attitude since the beginning, I told him ‘no need to explain’.

He asked us if we wanted sparking water or flat water, without saying that flat water is going to be bottled flat water. Fine, he brought up bottled flat water and opened without my consent. I though maybe that was my misunderstanding and didn’t say anything.

But as I was almost done eating and asked for the bill, he OPENED ANOTHER BOTTLE of that flat water, again without my consent!!! Our glasses were all half full when he did that without my consent and when I was checking the bill, he forcefully poured into our half full glasses to make them full again.

That action as really pissed me off - my family have owned a modern Chinese restaurant and I know all the sneaky tricks waiters do get just a little more money.

Service is non-existent unless you splurge.

I asked the manager what’s going on here - first the degrading attitude because I order ‘ONLY TWO’ and then this forceful sale of water without my consent. Manager cuts me off and claims he cannot refund my credit card charge, and offered to have me bring the 3/4 bottle water home. We have other plans afterward so I refused. Then he said, look, the two bottles are $11 pounds, he will just give me $5.5 back in cash. I told him this is not even about money, his employee is outright rude and judgmental. I do not even think ordering a duck dinner and another side order is considered too little, we could not finish the food either. The service here is bitter and very judgmental - they will judge you and provide minimum service if they think you are not worth their time.

Very unpleasant experience. I feel discriminated, judged and treated unfairly.

Food was sub par - roasted duck in LA is way...

Hearing of and reading reviews of this place I was truly excited. I went to dine with my friend, his dad who was visiting from NYC and my dad who was visiting from Hong Kong. We were hoping to impress with this meal, having heard of its authenticity.

The experience of service and the restaurant itself is fine. The servers are kind, the hotel is grand, the entrance ways are elegant and the view is one of the finest London has to offer.

The food was, at points, remarkably good. The famed duck deserves the credibility it receives, almost unanimously, from all who try it and from those sat across from you who eagerly watch, mouths watering, as a chef comes to deftly compartmentalise the fatty poultry. This was, without doubt, the highlight of the night, the spectacle that will remain in the visiting father’s mind on their long flights back home.

The other dishes neither impressed nor disappointed. Coming from Hong Kong, these other Chinese staples were occasionally flat in flavour (Choi sum), margins off authentic (gong bo chicken), or slightly smaller and less punchy than expected (sea bass). There’s is nothing to really complain about here. To a local these dishes are quite good, to someone who has not been exposed to them so much they are likely fantastic.

The desserts need not be commented upon, they also did not impress, but we did not expect fine sweet treats from a Chinese restaurant.

Why have I given 4 instead of 5 stars? One glaring issue pervaded our fine dinner that had consisted in astronomically tasty duck and reasonably well flavoured sides (if you don’t count £5 for rice - a tragedy).

This was the service. Whilst the staff were just as friendly and attentive as one might expect from a place such as this, their tableside manners were, in my opinion, not nearly up to the standard one might expect from a restaurant costing £90/head. Staff members regularly moved glasses and bottles by their rim, chopsticks by their end, and any items on the table left in the way of the dishes (such as phones or wallets). This is, in my opinion, a marked point that reduces the service quality. The staff were lovely, truly, but their manners were not. This act of touching a guest’s glass by its rim, without asking if they might move it first, appalls at the highest level of dining.

In sum: the duck blew my little smooth brained mind, the dishes filled my expectant belly, the desserts halfway satisfied my sweet little tooth, the manners by table left a lasting bitter...

Having lived in Singapore for a long time we know/knew the Min Jiang restaurants very well - both the original on Scotts Road as well as the newer branch in Dempsey. Min Jiang has always been an expensive restaurant in Singapore but always excellent. In fact I'd go so far as to say that their Yang Chow fried rice in the Dempsey branch is probably the best I've had. Period. And I could live on this dish. So we thought it would be interesting to try the London branch of this esteemed restaurant. Needless to say, we didn't expect it to be as good as the Singapore restaurants. And we expected it to be more expensive too. On both these fronts our expectations were fulfilled. In terms of cost, the average dim sum dish in Min Jiang London was about 50% more expensive than in Singapore. Anecdotally, I think the percentage difference between non-dim sum dishes is probably more than 50% but then it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. So what about the quality of the dishes? I would say mixed. Min Jiang is known for its Peking Duck - and to be fair pretty much every table had ordered that. But we did not. The crispy duck roll gave us a taste of their duck - and it was quite nice - though not something I've ever seen in a Chinese restaurant in Singapore or Hong Kong. Perhaps the most disappointing dish was the siu mai - surprising as this is such a stalwart of a dim sum meal. It was on the small side and rather dry - lacking the necessary juices and even a little short on flavour. Certainly not was good as, say, that in Yauatcha London. The Yang Chow fried rice was alright but not a patch on what we've had in Min Jiang Singapore. Perhaps the greatest and most pleasant surprise was the stir-fried trio of mushroom with lotus root, crispy bean-curd & macademia nuts. That was so enjoyable and a generous size portion. My one criticism was that the bean-curd was not crispy - and perhaps a crispy taro would have been better and as is more common in Asia. Service was first class and the views are stupendous even if you don't have a window seat. If you really want the views, perhaps book a sofa seat...