Terrific Asian dining options in London
This week, as I gear up for a keynote in Iowa, Thanksgiving, and my forthcoming restaurant The Blind Goat, I’ve found myself a little scant on time. That’s why I’m sharing a guest post which highlights four things I love: eating, Asian food, travel, and London. Happy reading!
London gets a lot of attention for having embraced cuisine from around the world. It’s the Indian food throughout the city that probably gets the most attention, but many of the best restaurants also celebrate classic French preparations, and you can also find excellent Italian and Mexican food - not to mention a growing number of restaurants that put forth authentically British food! Not to be lost in the shuffle, however, is the city’s excellent Asian cuisine. Sushi, Thai, Chainese, Pan-Asian, and other specific types of Asian cuisine are all done to near perfection at various places around the city.I wouldn’t presume to know definitively which of these places are best, but I do want to point to some excellent options.
Som Saa
The Spitalfields district of London in East End has become a trendy place, known for some nice newer bars, a bustling craft market, and international cuisine - with a primary focus on curry preparations! And despite a heavy Bangladeshi population in the area, it’s the Thai establishment Som Saa that serves as the main highlight of the area, even to the point that it’s been written up as one of London’s best international restaurants overall (meaning not even in the specific Asian or Thai category). Jungle curry is the most well-known dish on the menu, but it’s a place that serves small plates meant to be shared and sampled, which means you can try a little bit of several different things.
The Duck & Rice
This is frankly an awesome place and it’s somewhat surprising it hasn’t been imitated more widely, not just in London but around the world. Referred to as a “Chinese gastropub,” it is neither bar nor Chinese restaurant in the traditional sense, but rather a fusion of the two. It is in some senses a traditional British brewpub, but instead of the traditional comfort food there’s a menu full of unique Chinese preparations, meant to satisfy you after a pint or two. It doesn’t hurt that The Duck & Rice is in the perpetually trendy Soho area either!
Zuma
The Japanese izakaya is effectively a sort of bar popular in Japan and compared in some ways to more traditional Western pubs. These establishments evolved from sake bars in the Edo period in Japan and are now more like gastropubs, providing casual places to drink as well as small dishes of food for the after work (or late night, these days) crowd. Zuma was essentially the first restaurant in this model - not the first gastropub, but the first one in this uniquely Japanese style - to pop up in London. It opened in 2002 and has developed a stellar reputation in the time since. While the kitchen is known for occasionally putting out some playful or unorthodox dishes, you can more or less expect a menu full of small sushi and sushi-like dishes, all in a casual but comforting setting.
FuLuShou
FuLuShou can sometimes escape people’s attention given that it resides within the Empire Casino - an establishment some may be surprised to hear even exists in London in 2018! Several of the leading sites in the online casino business are UK-based, which specifically makes a real-life establishment like the Empire seem like a relic. It happens to be a busy, highly entertaining place however, right in the midst of the bustling Leicester Square. And in keeping with one of the best traditions of real world casinos, which online gaming can’t emulate, it has excellent dining options - such as FuLuShou. This is a high-end Asian fusion restaurant featuring everything from dim sum to Thai rice and noodle dishes, with a special focus on lobster. It’s got a little bit of everything, and an excellent reputation for all of it.
Hutong
This is a different kind of restaurant on this list, but arguably the most spectacular of them all. Like FuLuShou, it’s somewhat surrounded by tourist attractions, not only because it’s on the 33rd floor of a skyscraper but because it’s in the London Bridge neighborhood, and not far from the Tower Bridge either. So suffice it to say the views are extraordinary and there’s plenty to see. The restaurant itself is based on one in Hong Kong, and has the same traditional Chinese décor and high-end, modern Chinese menu.
Written by contributing guest writer Chloe Holt