Royal China

We tried to go to Royal China – not only did they not answer the phone to ‘Square Meal’ but they also didn't answer when I called directly. I eventually walked down there to find it ‘closed for refurbishment’. It might have been helpful to have put that on their website, to tell Square Meal, or to put a message on their phone!

We want to love Royal China. Who doesn't want a great dim sum place on their doorstep for Sunday lunches? And though the food here is decent, it's not worth enduring the eye-wateringly bad service – totally absent one minute, then a whirlwind of plate clattering the next, and always rude and/or unhelpful. The room has no atmosphere, but by some strange acoustic trick, you can hear all conversations apart from your own. We won't be back.

I note Squaremeal's review of the restaurant suggests that service has improved, but I guess all things are relative. We have been going to Royal China in Putney, on average, a couple of times a year for a decade and have always put up with the poor service because of the quality of food. Sadly, no more. At the weekend they achieved new lows. It did not start well, as we had to wait 10 minutes before being greeted and shown to our table. Further delays occurred, as only the head waitress was allowed to take food orders. A drinks order was never taken, and there was not a smile or a friendly face from any of the staff. To cap it all off, we were told at the end of the meal that they were only accepting cash (not even debit card, which is usually the case); they also over charged us by £20. It is a shame, as the food was of a generally good standard (save for the beef cheung fun), although overly expensive (£8.50 for a small portion of Chinese broccoli). Hare & Tortoise for us next time!

One of the best dim sum places I know. I don't think the prices are too high, it's more the danger of over-ordering; the menu is massive and it's easy to order way more than you can eat as everything sounds so delicious.
It's always very busy so you get a feeling all ingredients are very fresh and there is a good turnaround in the kitchen. We usually find the service quite OK, but it's not like some of our other locals where the owners get to know you once you have visited a couple of times – maybe that's a cultural/language thing more than anything else. It's always full of chinese guests which ought to mean they serve good chinese food, but we haven't noticed that they get any better service than anybody else (which can sometimes be the case in French or Italian places).
Great place for lunch at the weekend and kids love it too. The big round tables are perfect for a nice family lunch and everyone can pick and share all the dishes. Quite an experience to visit the place during the chinese new year – but make sure you book a table as you won't get in otherwise!

Enjoyable food, but attrocious service with an emphasis on encouraging customers to have as many extras as possible (£3.60 for prawn crackers !!! ). Rarely have I come across such poor service though, with plates clunked down agressively, and not a single smile the whole night. We had to ask for glasses of water 3 times before finally wandering up to the bar and demanding some.
12.5% service charge is added onto the bill with cunningly no chance of docking it, since on presentation of the credit card, its whisked away and processed out of sight.

Even with the good food, I just couldn't recommend going there – its highly overpriced given the terrible service, and “extras” chasing that goes on.