The Dorchester, China Tang: the Cantonese restaurant under Park Lane, its menus, prices and house rules

China Tang opened in 2005 and was created by Sir David Tang, whose name survives on the menu: the hot and sour soup is «Sir David’s», at £20. The restaurant’s own site describes a low-key Art Deco entrance on Park Lane and a descent into a room inspired by the romance of pre-war Shanghai, with plush banquettes, ornate panelling and small objets d’art in every corner. The hotel’s page calls it a subterranean jewel box and places it in the golden age of Art Deco.

The kitchen keeps to Cantonese classics. The à la carte linked from the hotel’s site, a PDF named for November 2025, opens with Peking duck and moves through abalone, sea cucumber and goose web, roast meats from the barbecue, soups, seafood, clay pots, noodles and fried rice. A whole suckling pig, £418, has to be ordered 48 hours ahead; the seafood hot pot for 2, £248, and the bird’s nest chicken soup, £108, take 30 minutes to cook. The menu states that no MSG is added.

Dim sum is the other reason to come. The 2026 dim sum menu prices most baskets between £10 and £16, 3 pieces a basket unless the menu says otherwise: har kau, scallop dumplings, Iberico pork siu long bao, honey spare ribs. The specials go higher, a lobster dumpling with salmon roe at £25 and a wagyu taro puff with caviar at £28, and the cheung fun are served at lunch only. According to the restaurant’s site, dim sum and the full à la carte are served all day and night, in the dining room, the private rooms and the bar.

On weekday afternoons there is a lighter way in. Yum Cha 3 – 6 – 8, on a menu dated April 2026, offers 3, 6 or 8 kinds of basket for £38, £58 or £78, numbers picked for their meaning in Chinese: «to live», «happiness», «to prosper». The teas poured with it were chosen for China Tang by JADE Tea, and the basket list runs from morel dumplings and siu mai to spring onion cake and chicken satay.

The bar is a 1930s-style re-imagining of Sir David’s living room, with plush armchairs, cocktails, live music and the full restaurant menus; the hotel’s page describes it as a place of gilded glamour. The restaurant’s home page also mentions a Cantonese afternoon tea served there, without giving a price.

Behind sliding lattice doors are 3 private rooms named Ping, Pang and Pong. Ping seats 18 at one large round table, or 20 at 2 tables of 10; Pang and Pong take 16 each; opened together, the 3 rooms seat 50. Their set menus go from a dim sum lunch to a dinner of Peking duck, whole blue lobster in XO sauce and Kagoshima A5 wagyu.

Guests on Google write about the food first. One, in August 2026, praised the halal dishes and named the braised rice noodles with beef in black bean sauce the best of the meal; another, after a business lunch in November 2024, counted it among their favourite Chinese restaurants. A diner in January 2022 liked the duck most, found the food less special than the setting and the chef’s reputation had led them to expect, and had to ask for things more than once.

Hakkasan Mayfair serves modern Cantonese cooking in a room designed by Christian Liaigre and lists a Michelin star among its awards, without a year. Its Taste of Hakkasan, 3 courses for £35 or £45 with a cocktail, runs Sunday to Wednesday from 5pm to 6.30pm and after 9.30pm; a 2-course lunch is £29 on weekdays.

Imperial Treasure builds its name on dim sum and Peking duck: a dim sum set lunch is £40 on weekdays until 3pm, and an 8-course dinner with the signature duck and lobster with black truffle £148, with wine pairing at £60.

Kai Mayfair cooks what it calls liberated Nanyang food «since 1978» and describes itself as the highest-rated Chinese restaurant in Mayfair.