Originally, Soho was our place of choice for a Sunday lunch and meet up. But the eatery that we had in mind happened to be closed on Sundays.

Not to worry though as we were in a central location with many more places in Soho open. Also Chinatown and Covent Garden were close by too.

Chinatown was where we decided to go for some lunchtime dim sum. The entrance of New World was busy but once we entered, we were given a ticket by the staff and were told that there was a 5-10 minute wait for a table. After only a few minutes, our ticket number was called out and we were directed to enter the restaurant dining area.

There seemed to be a flurry of activity going on. Diners were being seated, lots of staff with trolleys stacked with dim sum baskets going up and down the restaurant and also staff attending to the tables generally.

Once we were seated and given some tea, food was presented really quickly. Lots of choices although the vegetarian options were not as much but still enough.

Each trolley that stopped by our table had lots of tempting dishes. The selection that I went for was some steamed vegetable dumplings, bean curd rolls and rice pasta rolls. All of the dishes had a lovely flavour and were tasty.

The rice pasta rolls were filled with steamed vegetables and was a big portion. The steamed vegetable dumplings were perfectly sized parcels of vegetables. The fried bean rolls were very thin and crispy.

When we first asked for the bean curd rolls, the waitress went from our table to another area just to the side. We weren’t sure what she was doing but when she returned, it all made sense. The waitress had stepped away from the main area to chop the bean curd roll into bite size pieces. She had taken her trolley to the side to prevent any “traffic congestion” with the other dim sum trolleys.

A selection of dipping sauces were given with our dim sum meal. The only thing was that when the staff were putting our dim sum baskets and plates on our table, they weren’t really taking that much care on where they were being placed. On several occasions, they managed to tip the little sauce dishes all over the table.

After our main dim sum meal, it was time for a sweet treat. My friend recommended that I should try the mango pudding. Once the dessert trolley came over, we were happy that they had the mango pudding and also some condensed milk to accompany it.

The mango pudding did not disappoint my sweet tooth. It was like a mango blamanche and had the right sweetness. The taste of the mango was good.

New World is a great place for dim sum. The staff were friendly and the food is fast. It’s good that you can see all the dishes before you choose to have them. New World also have a normal menu with lots of items including meats, fish, noodles and rice.

New World, 1 Gerrard Place, Chinatown, London, W1D 5PA

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