The Best Chinese Food I Ever Had

Gerard’s Corner Restaurant, London, UK

We were in the mood for sushi, so I did a quick Google search and made a list of restaurants to check out in the area where we were already heading. We peeked in windows as we passed the sushi restaurants on my list, but none drew us in. Even the “highest-rated” options looked, well, uninspired.

Rather than giving up, we decided to take a break and have a drink. Across the street from where we were standing, next to the Victoria Palace Theatre (current home of the musical Hamilton, on the corners of Victoria and Allington Streets) stood The Duke of York. It was late and the neighborhood was getting dark. But across the street, the light from inside the pub was spilling out the windows. It was glowing. We’d order a G&T, play a game of cribbage and maybe get some advice about sushi in London.

The bartender suggested we head to Soho, so after a game and our drink, off we went.

It was after 9:30pm when we arrived at our stop. We quickly learned that Chinatown borders SoHo. As you can see in the photo below, even though it was late on Tuesday night, the neighborhood was mobbed.

We roamed the street for a bit, checking out the menus posted outside a variety of restaurants, but nothing drew us in. It looked like we’d struck out for sushi. On a whim, we chose Gerard’s Corner, a Chinese restaurant located at the corner of Wardour Street and Gerard Street. It seemed busy, and that’s all we really had to go on.

Gerard’s Corner Restaurant is pictured above. I apologize for the horrible photo. They had pop-up canopies set up outside their entrance. For better images, see their Google listing.

The restaurant didn’t look like much from outside. And inside wasn’t terribly exciting either. But the dining room was completely filled and everyone seemed to be in a joyful mood, eating and drinking and laughing. And the aroma throughout the room was amazing.

We started off with an eight-piece vegetarian dim sum platter, which looked just like this. It was outstanding.

For a main dishes, we ordered the Malaysian Vegetable Curry and a combination of Belly Pork, BBQ Pork and Roast Duck. They were all outstanding. Even though the menu was enormous, next time we visit (and we will be back) I’ll probably order the same thing. It was that good.