North China Restaurant — Restaurant in London

This was my first visit to North Star and it took the biscuit. We We arrived on time at 6:45pm. Staff were somehow less than attentive and at 7:05pm we were eventually asked if we wanted a drink and too order. Far too long to wait for this. We ordered food and received a glass of coke which was warm and no ice, which was not offered, but I asked and was given a couple of ice blocks and a pot of tea. At 7:29pm our starter arrived nearly 23 mins afterwards. By this time my coke had been finished and not one waiter had removed my glass nor asked if I wanted another drink. 8:06pm our food arrived. I had asked a waitress at 7:50pm how long it might be for our food to arrive; well, she never came back to me with an answer and continued serving tables and just passing ours. My girlfriend did not want me to complain and I am certainly not a serial complainer, but I eventually asked a male waiter at 8pm what was happening; he answered ''food is coming''. The owner must have detected my anguish and came over and said, ''food is coming''. I had not time to chat to him as he turned around and walked off. Once the food arrived, I ordered shredded beef with chillies. Where do I start? whatever I was served was battered and the meat inside tasted of chicken and had a pork look to it. I asked the waiter what I was given? He look at the dish and said the beef is left in water which makes it go pale. Fantastic answer because I dissected the food and it was pork for sure. I was totally annoyed and my girlfriend was very self conscience of our extremely poor food and treatment. She left her fish which was £9.50 on a small plate with lots of watery fluid which had absolutely no taste. When I asked for the bill, no one asked how our meal was, nothing; as if we did not exist. I will never ever go back there again and please...

BEST Chinese in London and probably the West

My mum has been a professional chef for over 40 years and I have enjoyed a lifelong passion for food. Although I loved Chinese as a kid, over the years I started to notice it was too greasy and too much MSG if I didn't make it myself. NOWHERE in London - not even the expensive places - seemed to escape this greasy / MSG / unhealthy issue... Until I found North China. It is, in my view, the ONLY nutritious, delicious, tasty and perfect Chinese I can find in this part of the world. Well done. 10/10

NEW INFORMATION 15-10-2019: I just spotted this old review and realised that since that experience I invited my kung fu academy to hold our annual social there; it was an absolute knock-out success and Master Chiu was most impressed. Everyone was talking about how good the food was, exactly as I hoped. If you like Chinese but can't understand why I am raving like this, you really should try North China. I have eaten at some of the most expensive Chinese restaurants in London - for instance, I had a birthday at the Dim Sum joint A Wong in Chelsea and have been to China town on New Year's a few times - but nowhere comes close for the sheer delicious AND nutritional, healthy Chinese food they make there all year round (a lot of Chinese restaurants only make an effort for New Year's). Thank you for a lovely celebration (there were about 20 of us, including friends and family) and I know we will be back again soon, maybe even this December :) That soft-shell crab Chinese style, properly salted and crispy but with lots of delicious white meat inside... Might have to find an excuse to...

Disgraceful and deeply disrespectful service. Bitterly disappointed.

We've been visiting here for years, and have only recently noticed a drop in levels of service.

The male waiter/manager was rude and confrontational over details of our table booking. Constant eye-rolling by waitress upon any normal polite request such as "excuse me, may I have a spoon please?" And whatever you do, don't ever mention here that you feel like you're being treated rudely... can say from first hand experience that you'll be gaslit and told that if you don't like it you can leave!!

Reading some of the reviews, it doesn't appear that our experience is a one-off & it appears they are unwilling to ever admit to their mistakes.

We will never eat here again.

*edit - I can't respond to the restaurant's response directly, but given their response am further shocked - we were directly told that we hadn't booked a particular table when we had, were effectively accused of lying and, when raised being treated rudely, were now being told we were the ones being rude and aggressive - which was simply not the case and a further case of gaslighting all under the pretence of a polite response - something not afforded to us in the restaurant. If you value respect and professionalism in a restaurant experience - avoid...