Dim sum is one of favourite things to have, usually enjoyed most with a group of people. Whenever I get the chance to choose a place to have a meal, I usually aim to head to the places where foodies often rave. The word was that Princess Gardens is the closest place in London to have the standards of Hong Kong Dim Sum. I had a list of three; Phoenix palace did not pick up my calls so I went to Princess Gardens of Mayfair. As soon you step inside the restaurant of Princess Gardens of Mayfair you are greeted with cool marble surfaces and large bar to the left. We waited around 5 mins to be seated, as I walked past I noticed an empty upper floor. The area was we went was spacious, the furnishing very modern chic it felt upmarket and high classed. The Staff was very polite and attentive during my dining experience we was looked after by 5 different people.
My usual choice of tea with dim sum is to order “po lee”, this cost £3.60 per person. We ordered 12 dishes one being a dessert. Dim sums are tiny bite size portions, traditionally served in steam baskets or small plates. We ordered the usually ones, consisting of pork crab dumplings, shu mai, savoury croquet, har gau, prawn salad dumplings, dough stick cheung fun etc. As I was able to tweet my visit I quickly asked a friend for recommendations and added cuttle fish cheung fun to the order.
The first two plates that arrived were prawn salad dumplings and crispy won tons. Both was perfect fried until it was crispy brown in colour, every bite was crunchy, the prawns was much flavoured and very generous in portion size.
The next 2 dishes was prawn cheung fun and paper prawns rolls. AS you can see from the photo the pastry of the prawn cheung fun was glossy and had a great chewy texture, I did found it odd the sauce was not poured on top and was served separately in a bowl. A little goes a long way, a teaspoon can be too overbearing. The dough cheung fun was delicious, and the mango salad was very different to the norm. I thought it tasted a little strange, as it was the very first time I tried mango cooked. The savoury croquette was much flavoured inside, the mushrooms very tender and juicy. The outer coating was also fried to perfection and very bite crunched. Har gau had a lot of prawns inside, I L-O-V-E-D all the prawn dishes at this place!
The following 4 dishes was my least favourite, somehow the mango pudding came out before our shu mai. I only took one spoon as by then I was very full to even budge out of my seat. The pudding was slightly bland but the coconut milk was very creamy. I’m not sure why our shu mai took forever to cook, but it came to us with the pastry still slightly uncooked. The cuttle fish cheung fun, reminded me of fish balls, it was a interesting dish but something I won’t order again.
Overall I’m very pleased with service and food the prices are very reasonable I was expecting SKY HIGH prices, each dish was roughly £3, and cheung funs at £4,20. The damage for 12 dishes plus tea for 2 was £48.10.
http://www.princessgardenofmayfair.com/
