Far East

n.b. this is basically reviewing breakfast here.
This is basically a bakery + greasy spoon, Asian style.
Went to an overnight RA event for a 6AM booking and desperately needed breakfast.
Partner wanted noodle soup which may have been not the best idea — it was good, but very seriously over MSG/​salted.
I had the congee, however, as everyone else in the place (this was like 0820, mind) was having the same. It was £3.20 of goodness — fermented bean curd and pickled vegetables and rice porridge– amazing.
Loads of pork buns and other baked goods in the window.
4* for the congee
2* for the heart attack soup
3* overall

Not a bad place at all.
My mom and I ordered a bunch of dishes, which I guess got us funny looks, but when you live in Switzerland, decent Asian food of any kind if hard to come by — so we were trying to take advantage of the fact that Chinatown had some pretty good places. We ordered the you tiao and also a bowl (a HUGE bowl, it turned out) of tofu — I haven’t had this in years, so it was really a treat. It was less sweet and not as watery as I’m used to, but that wasn’t a big deal because I think it’s more personal preference than anything wrong with the order. We also got one roasted pork (char siu) bun, which was all right but definitely more on the doughy than meaty side. I ordered the beef noodles but wasn’t wow-​ed by them: the beef was okay, but the noodles themselves didn’t have a great texture and were on the thinner side for beef noodles.
Service was good.

Even thought my feeling haven’t changed my last review I felt it should be updated since that was almost 2 Years ago!
Really love their chicken buns here! Their huge !!! And if you don’t want to sit in they have a bakery section near the door were you can pick up a few bites to eat on the go!
Today I did get that. I got one of their yummy sesame balls with red bean and their delicious sponge cakes. I love their sponge because it’s just that, no cream, no special flavourings, just yummy eggy sponge! Yummy!
I always stop by here when I’m in Chinatown it’s my go-​to!

One of few eateries in Chinatown to open before 11.00 daily.
Having one’s own chili sauce/​oil creation is a point of pride and distinction amongst Hong Kong noodle houses; Far East has furthered that tradition. It’s this that makes their wontons and brisket so much more appetising.
The in-​store bakery is a plus. Not only are buns and (forgive my description) deep fried baguette on offer, but also sweet cold tofu in syrup, a staple from my childhood.
Food aside, the staff is far from professional so patience is warranted.

Oh no. I wrote a review recently in which I mentioned something along the lines of «when are [pork buns] not [good]?» Then I remembered a time when pork buns weren’t good. I went to the Far East baked goods counter a while ago (quite a while ago) for some post-​brunch snacks. Literally just after brunch. Hey, it’s the Malaysian way lah. Ho fei. I remember buying: a pork bun with char siu in it, a ham sui gok (aka Dinosaur egg, a deep fried glutinous rice pastry filled with minced meat), and a ham chee peng (fried doughnut with glutinous rice in the centre and flavoured with 5 spice). All of these things are very dear to me. I think the ham sui gok was the best of them — not amazing (a bit greasy and a litttttle bit collapsy, like a neutron star), but solid. The ham chee peng was a bit disappointing — I didn’t think it was spiced enough and again, it was a bit greasy.
Then the pork buns. «A man without pork buns isn’t a real man». Well. Not these ones. There’s a really good rule of thumb to use when preparing meat products: don’t put gone off meat in them. Even when you smother it in pork bun sauce, it’s still reaaaally obvious — pork and chicken are the worst offenders in this regard. It’s probably the only pork bun I never finished. Doubleplusungood. For some reason, I remember buying a second pork product, just to see. Same result. I’m all for not wasting food. Totally. But yeah. This was just a bit too much. It’s a shame, because I loooove all these snacks so I really want to love this place, but I’m not going to be back after that experience.

Chinatown is a very different place after 3am, and when you are looking for somewhere to eat at that time you will be happy to see the florescent open sign at Far East, I know that we were! So because of the time the experience was probably very different to most, but we still had a great time and meal there. The place was packed but they still seated us promptly and took our orders very quickly, pay upon ordering at this time which judging by the fight that the poor staff had to intervene in (it wasn’t us!!!) seems wise. We ordered lemon chicken, scallops and brocolli and Char Koay Teow. These all came really quickly and were all v delicious, the table favourite seemed to be the scallops which were good but I really loved the char Koay Teow also. Based on the price point (we paid £31 between the 3 of us for plenty of food, that we struggled to finish) I think they offer a lot here, and I would definitely recommend this place when wandering around town in want of a quick, cheap and cheerful meal. I definitely plan to go back at a more civilised hour to try out the pastries and buns that sadly don’t make it to the early hours!

Far East is one of many Chinese restaurants/​bakeries along Chinatown. In fact, I’d probably have passed by this as usual except they had some fresh char siu steamed buns in the window and that happened to be exactly what we were craving.
Upon further inspection, it turned out they have a host of fresh meat filled buns including a deep-​fried number that sent Rob H over the moon in delight. No idea what it was called but it looked like a small dinosaur egg and was filled with ham and cheese (I think). Not the healthiest of food but damn tasty and a great snack for a couple of squids.

It’s fine. Like most places in Chinatown, but only slightly better because their stuff is pretty cheap and some of it is actually flavorful.
Bubble tea (iced): It’s in a tall glass. The tapioca pearls were a little on the hard side and the darned straw was just slightly too small. It’s not fit for purpose!!! Drinking it became a chore. The tea was very so-​so.
Egg fried rice: My date ordered this. It was quite flavorful, surprise of surprises! But as a good Chinese gal, I can’t bring myself to order a giant plate of egg fried rice. Can’t do it.
Beef ho fun: I forget what it’s called there, but that’s what it is. Beef was tender, if a little beefy flavored in a negative way (‘nah mean?). The noodles were pretty oily. I had my tea to cut the grease, luckily. Tasty, but too oily and too beefy.
Egg tart: Not bad. Pretty big. I’d get it again.

I really like the concept of this place, but the food itself from what I have tried is not spectacular.
We saw all the bread and steamed bun from outside and thought it was a bakery, but it ended up being a café with a tiny corner of the section in the front for quick takeout and if you sit down, they provide you with a full menu and real food. At first i thought that if we only wanted to have buns they wouldn’t let us sit down, but they did and they are super polite.
We had two chicken buns and two bbq pork buns and a cup of milk tea. I had thought the steamed buns sitting in the steamy display case would keep them pretty hot, but they were barely lukewarm and they had to warm one of them up in the microwave. The buns were salty and not that good. The milk tea was probably the biggest disappointment. It was not hk styled and brewed properly, but a regular english tea bag with some milk and you add your own sugar. Similar but not at all -.-
The total for the four buns and tea was a little more than £9 — not too bad for london i suppose.
The service is fantastic — that’s definitely something that will actually bring me back if im ever in need of a quick snack during grocery shopping.

A smallish restaurant, more or less in the middle of one side of Chinatown’s main drag I can’t say I’ve eaten anything here, bar from the bakery and baoxi (steamed bun) counter at the front of the establishment. Baoxi were serviceable (meat and vegetable one was better than average, the chicken was odd, and I think the bakery products are made off-​premises, but are fresh.) As with the other Chinese bakeries nearby, a great place to fill up for less than a fiver.

If I’m after a cheap Chinese pastry in Chinatown, I do pop in here for a takeaway. To be honest, their restaurant section did look rather ummm basic
However, the shop has just been given a makover. The refurbishment has given the interior a nice dark brown wooden theme with nice decorative accents with things like a large collection of traditional Chinese teapots
To be honest with you, I hadn’t been planning to eat here. The refurbishment had caught my eye and I was idly perusing the menu when in amongst the fairly short list of Chinese dishes, I saw char koay teow. If you’ve read my profile, you’ll know that it’s the dish I’d eat for my last supper. So, in I popped to give it a try
Char koay teow is a Malaysian hawker (street) food dish where broad rice noodles are fried over a high heat together with variations of meat and seafood, beansprouts, chives and a mysterious black sauce that I have yet to reporduce accurately at home. The high heat chars the rice sticks and a good version is supr fragrant
I’m not sure where this place does its booking but the visible kitchen at the back of the shop doesn’t have any cooking facilities other than a microwave. To truly test the versatility of the kitchen, I also ordered some dim sum — a plate of Shanghai dumplings (xiao lung bao)
When my plate of char koay teow arrived, the smell was promising but as I worked my way through the dish, it became clear that the main flavouring was soy sauce and it lacked the depth and authenticity of the true Malaysian street version. I even found a small piece of green pepper in it
The xiao lung bao was reduced to a portion of 4 rather than the advertised 5 (they took a pound off the price) as they had run out. Unfortunately, the pastry was too thick and there was no soup inside the dumpling
The service was very friendly throughout but I’m afraid the food didn’t live up to the service
I’ll still pop back here for pastries though

first bakery open before the others, so got one of the steamed buns (pork/​cabbage), just a bit too doughy

This place is great — after midnight, that is. Cheap, good greasy Chinese in large quantities, and the other patrons are endlessly entertaining (read «often drunk and disorderly»).
OK, so the food isn’t the highest quality, I admit, but this seems to be the Chinese restaurant that’s open the latest in Soho, which is a big deal in and of itself. Recommendation: avoid the duck halves, which can be somewhat old, and go for the battered duck slices (I forget the exact name, Crispy Duck?). Pair these with fried rice and you’ll go home happier than hungry!