More Flavor: City Gem Haozhan

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Thanks to its bustling location in London's tourist hub, Chinatown is less a mecca for cuisine lovers than a torturous odyssey to find decent food, good value and polite service. The sleek, jade-and-wood-bedecked Haozhan, however, has proven that the Wong Kei "quick and cheap" template need not apply across Gerrard Street. With a former Hakkasan chef in the kitchen, the focused menu is full of succulent, tasty and memorably presented pan-Asian dishes, which still respect the price points of the competitive district. Menu highlights include the salt-chilli soft-shell crab starter and the Singapore noodles served up in a hollowed-out bamboo boat.

– Joe Rudkin