China Tang at The Dorchester Hotel

Launch Meal

I came to China Tang on Monday 8th April, i arrived with some freinds to celebrate my new clothing company thats being launched. All i have to say is that we were treated like royalty, the food was full of taste and cooked to perfection, the staff when we entered the restaurent in the basement area were very helpful and polite, and all stood with pretty smiles on their faces. The cocktails we had before our meal were (no word fo a lie) the best in London. I highly recommend this place the bar's atmosphere is wonderful, the decor is stunning. The place is one of the places to be in London.

Very Disappointed

I visited China Tang on Saturday 23rd Feb for birthday dinner. On arrival we were shown to possibly the worst table despite the place being nearly empty. It took very long to place an order as the waiting staff were disorganised and simply nowhere around. The waitress was very unprofessional and distracted. Upon ordering we were told that food will arive as it's ready and not at the same time which was shocking considering the ''acclaimed high standard of the restaurant''. In fact all dishes arrived at different times. Half of the food got cold before one of our main courses arrived 45 minutes late. The staff admitted they got it wrong, meaning they forgot to cook it. The manager was apologetic and did not charge us for 2 dishes. One of the main courses was chicken with cashew nuts which should be instead called cashews with minute amounts of chicken in it. The amount of cashews in this dish was extraordinary large and we were struggling to actually find the chicken pieces which were cut to a size of green peas. I've never experienced similar oddiness. I'm used to dining in the best restaurants in London and can confidently say China Tang does not fit into fine dining category by any means. I will never return there and do not recommend it.

Amazing place. The food is a little over priced, so I wouldn't eat here everyday but when you do, you're in for a treat.

Staff are polite and very helpful. I would recommend this place to anyone.

While the food is good it is overpriced and you get either same quality a lot cheaper somewhere else or even better quality. It is stylish but feels a bit soulless and stiff

Great decor, both bar and restaurant, poetry in toalets,
Very good dinner, amazing duck and presentation.
Quite busy, it was Friday night, nice atmosphere.
Pleasant service, tought a loots of stuff.
Interesting wine list, Slovenian wine by the glass?
Deffinatlly recommend and would return.
Expensive £££

As a Chinese person who has eaten at many London restaurants from dives in Chinatown to michelin starred restaurants in Mayfair and Knightsbridge, I had high expectations for China Tang since I had heard so many positive things. Cost was not a factor in my judgement of the food, only in my “value for money” rating on this site. The food was not even close to living up to the hype – everything from the dry white rice to the mediocre chicken/lobster dishes was disappointing. I brought a friend that I dine with regularly, hoping to show him how good chinese food could be, but unfortunately, there are some delivery/take-away restaurants that could have produced food of similar or better quality. That said, the atmosphere was elegant and the wine we ordered was very good. If you are going for the cache or the drinks, then maybe this is your place (but I can think of many better places for this in mayfair – hakkasan, nobu, mews of mayfair), but if you are going for the food, I would give it a miss. Kai, which is not too far away and similarly priced, has much better Chinese food.

I hate to write reviews that are overly critical but I don't have much choice. China Tangs is ridiculously expensive for food that is not as good as some of the better places in China Town if you know where you are going and are also a quarter of the prices and twice the portion size. There were a number of things that niggled especially as we were paying top dollar for the experience. The ambiance and decor of the restaurant is very nice as were the quality of the cocktails we ordered. However we ordered our starters to be told that we would have to have our mains first as there was a lengthy wait for the crispy duck. Not being funny but surely a restaurant of this standing should be better prepared and should not run out of its signature dish? So we ordered our mains and ate them before the starters. A combo of salt and pepper squid (delicious); scallops (bland) and Szechuan prawns (average) arrived with side orders of mushrooms and stir-fried rice (so so). Portion sizes considering each main was £20+ were daylight robbery. The starter finally arrived Back To The Future style after the main and to be honest was pretty delicious, what little we got of it. We ordered a whole Duck, it didn't feel like we got a whole duck. The menu states its ordered in two parts. You get the breast filleted into small pieces with pancakes. There were far more pan cakes then duck breast. The rest of the carcass is taken back and shredded and sauteed and returned to the table, What we got was the smallest dices pieces on a tiny saucer. Not sure what happened but no way had we eaten a whole duck between four people. I can't really tell you what happened as I don't have a clue. £46 for a whole duck where we got tiny amounts of meat (no matter how delicious) is a rip off. All i can say is I will never return to eat at this restaurant with service like this when you are treated like an idiot. I hate it when you go to places like this that are as expensive as this and you leave looking for the nearest kebab shop as you're still starving! Open letter to Kate Moss; listen darling, always been a massive fan of yours and I know your friends with the proprietor but really recommend you head down to Soho and checkout the likes of The Mayflower where you'll get a meal that is twice as good and a quarter of the price.

went there for a business lunch. Despite us being the only guests in the restaurant for the first hour of our lunch, the service we experienced was unbelievably slow and disinterested. We almost had to waive our hands to attract the attention of many waiters passing by. Food was nothing special, and all four of us ordered different stuff and shared so we tasted a wide selection from the menu. I only went there for the name of it and to experience China Tang, but I find it not much different from lower price bracket Chinese restaurants. Overall, it was nice but i won't go there again. Good decor overall, but the picture of a dead chambermaid in the foyer is disturbing and a big turn off.

It is at the Dorchester – this is probably the highlight lol. I had high hopes for China Tang, institution of chinese food in a glam location. However the restaurant itself is tired and uninspiring, and the food is quite average. There is no real atmosphere and the staff are not great. I really cant understand why it has the reputation that it does as I feel more that this was maybe once a colonial style outpost for chinese food for the British and now with the comparison for everyman's palate with good local chinese, this place is struggling to compete (I have no idea about its history, this is just my impression). I would be surprised if they dont feel the need to up their game sooner or later. I wouildnt bother going… head to the Dorchester bar for a far better experience in the same building I would say.

I have to be completely honest…I would definately think twice before coming here again.

The bar was really busy so they advised us that we couldn't have a drink and needed to go straight to the table…they then ignored us and we waited in the lobby whilst about 3 or 4 other members of staff asked us to go and sit in the bar…it was all very confusing until they worked out what was happening and who we were and then a table was found for us immediately in the bar.

The food was really good,…but I have also paid a lot less and had just as good food. Celeb spotting for those who enjoy that kind of thing was one of the highest (we dined on a Friday night) but the service just really lacked.