Red Farm

The critic who reviewed it named exactly which half of the menu to order, and it is the American half (Time Out).

Why go

Red Farm is a New York dim sum restaurant with an outpost on Russell Street. Tania Ballantine, reviewing it for Time Out in January 2019, set out the gap between the reputation and the room: "Across the pond, Red Farm is a Big Deal... But food-wise, at least in London, it's a mixed bag" (Time Out).

Her advice is the reason to keep the entry. Take the American-Chinese inventions and leave the traditional dim sum. The pastrami egg roll is peppery pastrami in extra-thick pastry, fried until golden, and she calls it ace. The cheeseburger spring rolls, filled with soft diced beef and pickles, she calls bizarre but brilliant.

The other side of her review is just as specific. The signature Pac Man shrimp dumplings are "fine, but nothing special", the pork and crab soup dumplings are "too large, too fatty", and of the traditional plates only the custard bao worked. The room is farmhouse decor, red-and-white gingham and a lot of wood, with 90s R&B and American-style service.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the pastrami egg roll. Cheeseburger spring rolls. The custard bao, which is the one traditional item the review rated.
• Avoid: the traditional Chinese dishes as a rule, and specifically the Pac Man shrimp dumplings and the pork and crab soup dumplings, both named as failures (ref).

What locals & experts say

• Tania Ballantine, Time Out, January 2019, three stars out of five, with the ordering rule: "My tip is to skip the more traditional Chinese fare and go for the US-Chinese fusion numbers instead. Like the ace pastrami egg roll... Cheeseburger spring rolls, likewise, were bizarre but brilliant, with a filling of soft diced beef and pickles." ref
• The same review, on what missed: "Other dishes looked the part but fell flat on flavour, from the signature 'Pac Man' shrimp dumplings (fine, but nothing special) to the pork and crab soup dumplings (too large, too fatty)." ref
• Nobody else. No chef in the industry-vote file has named Red Farm, and no review dated after 2019 was reached on 1 August 2026. This entry rests on one voice.

Good to know

• Where: 9 Russell Street WC2B 5HZ, Covent Garden. The food hygiene register lists the premises as Red Farm and the Dovetail Cocktail Bar together.
• Timing: current hours were not established.
• Booking: recommended.
• Hygiene, stated plainly: the FSA rated this premises 2 on 1 July 2025. Reading the three components rather than the headline: food hygiene practice scored 5, which is satisfactory; structure scored 15, which is the state of the building and is what pulls the rating down; confidence in management scored 10, the middle band. This is a fabric finding rather than a food one, and it is disclosed here rather than left out. FHRSID 988463. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His raw saved-places export carries an empty Note against this row. The master line "NYC import; playful dim sum" is curation text. Both halves are true and the useful correction is that the playful half is the American-Chinese one, and the traditional dim sum is where the only critic to review it found the problems.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

could-visit — Go if you are in Covent Garden and you order it right, and understand what you are ordering. Red Farm is a New York restaurant with a London outpost, and the only critic to review it was direct about the gap between the two: across the pond it is a big deal, and in London it is a mixed bag. Tania Ballantine's ordering rule for Time Out is the whole value of this entry. Skip the traditional dim sum and take the American-Chinese inventions. The pastrami egg roll is peppery pastrami wrapped in thick pastry and fried gold, and she calls it ace. The cheeseburger spring rolls, diced beef and pickles, she calls bizarre but brilliant. On the other side, the signature Pac Man shrimp dumplings are fine and nothing special, the pork and crab soup dumplings are too large and too fatty, and the custard bao is the only traditional plate she rated. One thing to state plainly rather than bury. The Food Standards Agency rated the premises 2 on 1 July 2025. Read the components: food hygiene practice scored 5, which is satisfactory, and the mark is driven by structure at 15, the state of the building, with confidence in management at 10. That is a fabric problem rather than a food one, so it does not change the ranking, and it is on the record.