Pearl Liang (漂亮)

These days there are many places in London to have dim sum, and you do not even have to travel all the way to London Chinatown. The quality of the dim sum is just as good as London Chinatown, and Pearl Liang (漂亮）is no exception. The restaurant is situated in Paddington and for someone like me who was not familiar with the area took some time to find the restaurant.

Pearl Liang has been on my list to try for ages but just never got that opportunity. However, I could not have guess that the opportunity was open up from a friend who we had planned to meet up for lunch at Pearl Liang that I finally got to tick it off my list.

To my surprise, that when we arrived it was busy with tables already filled with people. Lucky my friend made a booking and just a short wait we got a table. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with pink chairs. It’s modernly decorated but still has that Oriental touch.

The dim sum menu has a range of dim sum to choose from steamed to fried, and the price is reasonable, with many under £3. We ordered various dim sum to try and here are a highlight of what we ate.

Pan fried turnip cake (香煎蘿蔔糕)

Shanghai dumpling with pork (上海小籠飽), which was a delight to enjoy. The pastry was thin and inside was filled with lots of soup. London quality of Shanghai dumpling has become better over the year, and this one at Pearl Liang tick that box of good London quality standard.

King’s crabmeat with egg white dumpling (帝皇蚧餃), is the first time I have seen in London. But it’s the less often seen dim sum that make a place special and unique that make a customer want to visit again.

Chrysanthemum custard bun (菊花炸奶皇飽), might have a beautiful name but it is actually a normal deep fried custard bun. The name is to represent that it is shaped to look like chrysanthemum flower. Each custard bun was beautifully deep fried to golden brown.

Steamed sponge cake roll with custard yolk (奶皇馬拉卷), was one of my favourite dim sum on the table that day. This was a nice sweet dim sum which was like having an Oriental version of a mini jam Swiss roll.

As well as dim sum, we ordered a plate of fried ho fun with beef (乾炒牛河). It was OK but still it is not as good as the ones I have had in Hong Kong.

I do like Pearl Liang’s dim sum and it has got my current tick of places I would recommend to have dim sum. The only down point is the location and the difficulty of finding free car parking spaces for car users.

Prices are correct at the time of dining.

Pearl Liang (漂亮)
8 Sheldon Square
Paddington Central
London
W2 6EZ
UK

www.pearlliang.co.uk