Jia
1 Harrington Rd, Kensington, London SW7 3ES
Nearest Tube: South Kensington
3.9 Yummy Stars
Price £ Dim sum - £3.30-£6.80 each (at time of writing)
☏ 020 7584 7188
Casual eatery with good quality dim sum at very convenient location
Map→
No website
Shredded marinated chicken with Cheung Fun at Jia
Buzz Factor 3.7/5 stars
Food 4/5 stars
Value for money 4/5 stars
Eat-in or Take-away
Conveniently located literally a couple of minutes from South Kensington tube station. This fairly small and casual dim sum restaurant spreads over 2 floors, linked by a glass panelled staircase. It has a contemporary, simple and stylish décor with wood clad walls and a glass frontage covering the full height of both floors, giving it quite a light and airy feel.
The dim sum that we had – including the Pork and Shrimp Shu Mai, Pea Shoots and Prawn Dumplings, Prawn Dumpings in Chilli sauce - were all of a pretty good standard. I hear that they have a chef who specialises just in making their Chinese dough for the Chinese doughsticks, “Cheung Fun”. Well, it definitely showed, as the Prawn with Dried Beancurd skin Cheung Fun was one of the best that I have had in London. The doughstick was so smooth that it just slid into your mouth. The beancurd skin gave the dim sum a slightly crispy and chewy texture which was perfect with the prawns. We couldn’t resist also ordering the Shredded Marinated Chicken Cheung Fun. The chicken sat on top of the Cheung Fun, which you could enjoy on its own in all its glory. The Baked Crispy BBQ Pork Buns had a crumbly pastry, topped with a pineapple glaze normally put on traditional Chinese pineapple bread rolls. While this showed real skill and creativity, I am not sure that the Baked BBQ Buns, with its well-textured pastry and juicy BBQ pork inside, needed the extra sweetness from the pineapple.
The service was absolutely fine. Though I was there with a regular customer, I did not witness any rudeness described by some reviewers on a website. In fact, “Jia” means home in Chinese. Does it feel like home then? Just smile and ask the waiters if they are having a good day?
Given the overall quality of the dim sum, I would definitely go back!
