Leong’s Legend
4 Macclesfield Street Soho London W1D 4AX
Modelled on an old-style Chinese drinking den, with its low-slung lampshades and screened-off dining tables, this attractive Chinatown restaurant takes its title from a gang of outlaws in the thousand-year-old classic, The Water Margin. Although the friendly staff take pains to point out they specialise in Taiwanese cuisine, poised somewhere on the spectrum between Cantonese (milder) and Szechuanese (scorching), in fact if you’re so minded you can order examples from either tradition. The real speciality here is the fresh, exquisite dim sum selection, available at lunchtime only and ranging from dumplings in soup or duck and chestnut pastry puffs, via slippery white cheung fun (pasta parcels) filled with meat or seafood, to smoky dark barbecued pork on sticky rice. It takes quite a few to satisfy a healthy appetite, but for a cheaper meal you can always order one of the more substantial main courses.
