Royal China Club
The venue's own page currently prints "Temporarily Closed" under the Baker Street address, nine months after the premises passed a food hygiene inspection with a clean sheet (Royal China Group).
Why go
This is Royal China Group's flagship and the expensive end of London dim sum. Executive Chef Billy Wong runs it, and the group's own signature list reads whole abalone, pan-fried king scallops with foie gras, chilli sea bass rolls, crispy lobster dumplings with herbs and garlic, barbecued Peking duck, and Wild Scottish lobster (Royal China Group).
The dim sum is where the price shows up on the plate. Time Out's description of it still holds as the clearest account anyone has published: cheung fun filled with dover sole and scallop, siu mai topped with pearls of salmon roe rather than the diced carrot used in Chinatown, and steak ho fun with medium-rare sirloin in a dark soy sauce (Time Out). That review is thirteen years old and carries no byline, which is worth knowing.
Read the address carefully. Royal China Club is 40-42 Baker Street. Royal China is 24-26 Baker Street, forty metres away, a different restaurant with a different hygiene record, and it is the one three of the four chefs in our records actually name.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the cheung fun, for the dover sole and scallop in it. Siu mai with the roe on top. Crispy lobster dumplings from the group's own signature list. Peking duck if there are enough of you.
- Avoid: turning up without checking, while the Temporarily Closed notice stands. And do not walk into 24-26 by mistake, unless that was the plan.
What locals & experts say
- Z He, co-founder of Bun House, asked for the best breakfast or brunch in London: "dim sum at the Royal China Club. Dim sum is breakfast." She names the Club, which is why this one counts here. ref
- Time Out, 2013, unsigned, on what the money buys: "the signature cheung fun, which here comes filled with velvety dover sole and smooth pieces of scallop - all sitting in a puddle of sweet, smoky sauce. A quartet of siu mai (steamed pork dumplings) are topped not with a dice of carrot (as they would be in Chinatown), but with pearls of salmon roe, as you'd expect at the banqueting table." ref
- Three chefs name the other Royal China, and one says so outright. Santiago Lastra of KOL, James Lowe of Flor and Chet Sharma of BiBi all pick Royal China; our vote file records that Sharma "names the Baker Street site and distinguishes it from Royal China Club." Those votes stay on that restaurant.
Good to know
- Status: the venue's own page says Temporarily Closed, with no reason and no end date. Check before travelling. Next check due 1 September 2026.
- Where: 40-42 Baker Street W1U 7AJ, by Baker Street station.
- Timing, when open: Monday to Thursday noon to 11pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 11.30pm, Sunday noon to 11pm.
- Booking: book, especially for a group. Three private dining suites.
- The other one: Royal China at 24-26 Baker Street is a separate restaurant from the same group. The group also runs Royal China at Westferry Circus and Royal China One in Brent.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 24 October 2025, Westminster, all three components at 5. FHRSID 413264. Royal China at 24-26 holds a 4 and Westferry Circus holds a 3; neither attaches here. ref
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: none. His raw saved-places export carries an empty Note against this row. The master line "Top-tier dim sum on Baker Street" is curation text; the dim sum and the street check out, and the more important fact about that street is that there are two Royal Chinas on it.
Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)
could-visit — Check before you go, because the venue's own page currently says Temporarily Closed with no reason given, and the master list still says otherwise. When it is running, this is Royal China Group's flagship and the premium end of London dim sum: Executive Chef Billy Wong, whole abalone, pan-fried king scallops with foie gras, crispy lobster dumplings, barbecued Peking duck and Wild Scottish lobster, in a Marylebone room Time Out once compared to a five-star hotel down to the piano. The dim sum is where the money shows. The cheung fun comes filled with dover sole and scallop rather than the usual, and the siu mai are topped with salmon roe instead of the diced carrot every Chinatown kitchen uses. Z He of Bun House picks it for breakfast, and her answer names the Club specifically, which matters here: three other chefs in our records name Royal China, the different restaurant forty metres down the same street. Held at could-visit because it is shut right now, nobody has reviewed it under a byline since 2013, and at this price the dim sum has to be doing more than the cheaper rooms that three chefs prefer.