Any good place that serves Dim Sum in East London/Essex tonight?

'Ping Pong'

The clue's in the easy-listening soundtrack: this is dim sum at its most populist. The polite welcome, easy set menus (from £10.50) and all-day offering make this seven-strong dumpling and cocktail chain the entry-level option, the very opposite of an authentic Chinatown experience.

Menus have a pan-Asian slant and nary a webbed foot in sight. Even the tea experience is sexed up: "flowering" jasmine tea in tall glasses. But there's a reason for the queues out the door - Ping Pong gives good glamour at a great price.

45 Great Marlborough Street, Soho (020 7851 6969)

'London Hong Kong'

A casual Lisle Street restaurant offering an extensive menu complete with full colour photography, so you know exactly what you're getting. Duck tongue with chilli and sesame oil (£2.80), goose feet with abalone (a type of shellfish) sauce (£3.80) and bowls of congee (rice porridge) fall into the only-if-you-dare category.

Thai-influenced mince prawn skewers or chive dumplings are more familiar territory. It has a bigger, flasher sibling near Heathrow. Dim sum served 12-5pm.

6-7 Lisle Street, Soho (020 7287 0352)

'Plum Valley'

Another new entrant and only a few months old but Plum Valley has dove head on into the competition and is rising to the top. The dim sum is fresh, innovative, and full of organic and high quality ingredients. The décor screams Soho, the service admirable, and the location is CHINATOWN (not kidding).

20 Gerrard Street, London W1D 6JQ, Tel: 020 7494 4366

'Shanghai Blues'

Following on the heels of Hakkasan, beautiful, trendy Shanghai Blues serves up some of the best dim sum in the city. Certainly the best dim sum east of Soho. It is the only quality dim sum restaurant anywhere near the City. The unique combination of quality ingredients makes a meal there memorable. You pay for this privilege so more for an expense account or a special occasion.

193-197 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD, Tel: 020 7404 1688

'Royal China'

Before all the designer dim sum restaurants appeared in the millennium, Royal China ruled the dim sum world in London. The stern military-like service is very pre-1997 Hong Kong. The dim sum was the best you can get in London. In the past year, quality appears to have slipped perhaps due to attention being diverted to their posher Royal China Club restaurants (see below).

13 Queensway, Westminster, London W2 4QJ, Tel: 020 7221 2535

'Dragon Castle'

Another great Chinese dim sum restaurant in an unusual location - Elephant and Castle. Brave the urban jungle to step into a culinary temple full of Chinese diners gobbling up delicate and flavourful dim sum at good prices. If you see Chinese people looking lost in the Elephant & Castle area, they're looking for the restaurant.

100 Walworth Road, Elephant & Castle, London SE17 1JL, Tel: 020 7277 3388

Dim Sum East London

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Any good place that serves Dim Sum in East London/Essex tonight?

Could you recommend a good place that serves Dim Sum in East London / Essex borders? It's for tonight (yeah a bit of a last minute). Thanks!!

Dim Sum Elephant And Castle

Have you tried China Pearl in Woburn (right near Washington St and Rt 128 intersection)? Also Peking Garden in Lexington (on Waltham St in downtown Lexington) has a good dim sum and draws many local Chinese families as repeat customers.

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Drunken Monkey on Shoreditch High Street - wicked dim sum and noodles and amazing cocktails