Yimchai in Kingston upon Thames

HORRIBLE STAFF. My child has diary allergy so I asked them about any dairy in selected dishes. The waiter was super unfriendly and rude. On my question she looked at us with super rude face and said “what dairy is?!?!” “I don’t think there is any milk product in it” I asked if it’s possible to double check because it’s very important. She turned around rolling her eyes then came back with her colleague and he said THERE IS milk as an ingredient…. No apologies no nothing from that woman. We just stood up and left. Will never come to this place again!!!

The waitress has a bad attitude. Food tastes average. The barbecued pork rice arrived already cold and not hot, the lasa rice noodles had soaked, and halfway through the meal I didn't want to eat anymore. The astringent lemon base of the frozen lemon tea is as thin as paper. All in all it's not worth the price.

One of the best Canton and Hong Kong style restaurant in the UK. As a Hongkonger, I would say the food there is better than 90% restaurants in HK. Fried rices, beef ho fun and lamb hot pot are exceptional outperforms. I don’t really want to recommend this as I don’t want queuing there 😅

The place was just 1 min walk from where we live. Keep seeing the place and would like to try one day and that one day came. To be honest food was not good. We ordered roast pork which I did not expect that its a bit sweet and was chewy. Next was the chicken with black bean sauce it was bland has no flavour at all so as the won ton soup bland bland bland. Fried rice was over cooked.

I have been to this Hong Kong-style tea restaurant 5 times, and it was my first time for dinner. From being seated at 5 o'clock to ordering and being served, it was very fast. We ordered wonton soup, barbecued pork buns, pork ribs, pot stickers, radish beef brisket, and dry roast. The noodles, roasted duck, and pork rice with pickled vegetables were very delicious. The only thing I didn't like was the bitterness of the dry-roasted noodles and the frozen lemon tea. Everything else was very delicious.

Ordered stir fried beef ho fun. Replicated 80% of HK taste. Service was alright. Not the best but decent price and food

Great Chinese restaurant.. laksa is excellent..

Poor service, rude stuff. Would never go again.

no Deliveroos or Uber eats anymore, why!

Very very bad services...and the food is not nice at all as a Chinese Restaurant. Very Disappointed.!

Rude staff ,the food was very poor and overall poor ,chicken not cooked correctly still raw

It is the first time we have come here, it has a good atmosphere and the Lol was very clean , I ordered the l6 dish, it was very delicious. Only the dishes did not come at the same time, and when I finished my meal, my sister's dish came, and she ordered the G6, which was very salty, but when we told them, they quickly changed it and it was very good. I recommend it

Singapore curry laksa was really delicious. It has a good curry flavor and is moderately spicy.

Very good food been using this Chinese restaurant for dine in and take away.. highly recommended

dim sum were bad and small portion. not worth the price. cha siu were especially bad. i recommend beef ho fun which was pretty tasty. overall wouldnt recommend to come , food was bad, overpriced but the seats were pretty comfy.

We have started coming here on a regular basis every week because it’s that good. Highly recommended

We waited over an hour for the food to be delivered. We ordered chicken chow mein and peking spare ribs and they were both cold. There was very little chicken in the chow mein and the noodles were over cooked. In terms of quality and value for money it we extremely poor and we feel cheated!!! We will not be ordering food from this restaurant again!!!

Very close to Hong Kong’s authentic “Cha Chaan Teng” food in dinner time. Many dishes are not commonly found in the Chinese restaurant nearby, and some of them are really delicious like the clay pot satay beef etc. Staff are a bit busy and cold somehow, but generally it’s a good place to eat.

Not the friendliest of people. Makes you want to eat your food quickly as they didn’t want you there.

About ten minutes walk from Kingston Station. Great location , quite near the river if you fancy a walk before your meal. Not very spacious but well maintained. Could do with a well trained staff - They get quite stressed when asked if they can explain the menu items - we wanted the Chinese New Year menu explained , shame that they couldn't explain what went on the steamed fish and other items on their 'festive offer menu' Overall, dimsum items were average. Duck with pancakes came with the duck so diced up that we were wrapping mushy duck meat in our pancakes. Some items were priced at the high end. Took my aunt there again two weeks later, tried other items, but we were again disappointed. Not Chinese fine dining in my opinion.

Just ordered lamb in blackbeans sauce and was horrible. VERY BITTER .I had to throw the food away

A Hidden gem ! So happy to discover this Cantonese restaurant in Kingston The food is delicious and price is not bad too

Terribly rude lady Matre D at YimChai. Food is excellent at this HK style diner but true to form, it also comes with the most arrogantly rude matre d when you ask for a table. I don’t understand why the service is so atrocious! It’s almost like they know their food is nice so they enjoy treating customers like beggars begging to pay money to eat there. So unfortunate, because the food is nice but it’s not worth being treated like dirt. No customer deserves this type of service, no matter how tasty the food is. Will NOT recommend.

Very bad service from all waitresses. The service is unacceptable and food is below average Not recommended for HongKonger or brits if you’re looking for good cantonese food. Min charge £20 per person during new year.

Fantastic food and service. My kids 13 and 11 loved it with plenty to choose from but all very good quality. Squid the favourite for the kids.

Update: today a terrible service experience. I wonder I would ever come back again. I gave a 4 star before but today out of my list ——————- It’s now my canteen for lunch or dinner when I don’t wanna cook. Beef fry noodle and roast duck are must try.

food is good but service not the good

I had a meal and waited 45 minutes from ordering to serving. I'd really like to thank you

Great experience at Yimchai. The first visit and food was pretty good, I have to say. The wing's definitely recommend 👌🏾

Ok Chinese food Cantonese cuisin. Service is awful though. The owner and waitresses all from HK and frown upon us when we canme and when they served us

Service is really really poor, which is a shame as one of the few Chinese restaurants in the area. The older female waitress grabbed the soy sauce bottle twice from my two year old sons hands when he was just pouring some sauce on his food, without a word to us as parents, when I asked her about this when paying the bill she stared at me silently with the angry face other reviews and kept repeating ‘no Amex’ as I got out my Mastercard. Strongly advise against this place if you have children and hope the management will train their staff (one male waiter is great)

Very authentic Cantonese food, good service

Best Chines restaurant in Kingston

After having a long and stressful (as well as foodless) day, me and my friend were looking forward to going to a restaurant and indulging. We were absolutely starving when we ordered our food, including a whole roast duck. Which we agreed that if we would not finish, that we would split it and take it home. All the side dishes we ordered were great, but we were really waiting for the main dish. When the duck came out, we were drooling. We ate 1-2 pieces each when we started questioning whether the food should be stone cold. With the London temperature being 1 degrees outside, we were looking forward to roasting hot duck. We asked the waiter to heat up the duck, and she said it was already room temperature (which it was not), she explained that the more they cook it, the skin and meat with dry up? Anyway she took the dish and came back, not 5 mins later, when my friend and I started eating it, it still wasn’t hot, let alone room temperature. My friend then discovered that some pieces were pinky red, which we found extremely off putting, we then questioned the manager once more, and she paused and looked at the duck for a long time and apprehensively agreed. So once again, she took the duck to have it cooked some more. It came out again, not 5 mins later, and to be honest, at this point, we were starting to lose our hunger. Once more we tucked in, a lot less excited than the beginning, and after consuming 2-3 more pieces, I was getting a strong metallic taste in my mouth (blood), and I just stopped eating, my friend also ate a piece and she got the exact same. At that moment, we asked for the manager to bring the bill and we explained that we couldn’t eat it because of this reason. Her response to us was that we were too enthusiastic about how much we ordered an that we wouldn’t have been able to finish in the first place and that we shouldn’t have ordered too much, also telling us it’s the bestselling item on the menu and then sell ducks left right and centre all day every day. How can you question a customer on how much they are ordering! When it came to paying, I asked for some money off as we literally didn’t even touch a quarter of the duck and it even went back twice, her response was that they don’t have service charge (which I would never have paid in the first place if they did) and she’ll take only 10% off. Absolutely ridiculous, don’t blame yourself, blame the customer for raw duck that costs £38. Never coming back again, poor service.

Went with a friend after a crit which we didn’t have time to eat the whole day. Ordered some side dishes and got a full duck. It came cold and we asked for it to be hotter. Note: full duck comes broken down in 2 halves, one half was cold, one was slightly warm but still cold. Came back with room temperature duck. We both ate a few pieces of one half, and the other half we turned around and they were raw. We asked to be cooked properly and they brought it back. This time it was hot so we ate a few again till we both felt a metallic taste. Turned again the duck on the plate and saw some red spots. Left with bloody taste. We told them the duck tastes weird metallic bloody and the manager proceed to tell us it’s a popular dish of theirs, everyone orders it everyday. We asked for the bill and when she came back, she starts telling how we are 2 girls, we ordered to much, ate too much and that is why we started tasting weird. That is not the case. We were not full. We looked forward to the duck. The rest of the dishes were amazing. Didn’t even bother taking it home as leftover since both of us were left sick of the taste. Too bad we didn’t take a picture. The fact that the manager tried to shift the blame onto us being too full??? Cherry on top

Terrible service . Very Rude cantonese female Waitress and hostile Asian waiter . No respect and unfair treatment . Surprised to see at Kingston upon Thames . On 16 Jan about 2:15pm , I just want to have a lunch there . After entering , I was unwelcomed by the Cantonese female waitress with a so black face . After I sat down and waited for 15 minutes, I asked them respectively to take order for me but the waitress ignored me and the waiter told me rudely that he was busy. I only saw them two both were happily serving a table of 4 British people . I will not go there again and will not recommend my friends to go there . They believe they have good business and will not care about service.

Amazing food 😍 Enjoyed every dish and service very friendly! P.s- food was very cheap given the amount of dishes we ordered

Delicious food!!! One of best the restaurants in Kingston would definitely recommend !

Wonderful Yum cha place near the Kingston station. Staff was very kind and helpful, we asked for the recommendation and food was amazing. If you want to have not pricy but tasty Chinese food, highly recommend!

Plenty of menu choice.Really lovely food and friendly,welcoming staff. Very clean restaurant and toilet areas.

Karen is a superstar!! She gave us a lot of good suggestions of dishes to choose and also suggested delicious options for teas! The food is very flavourful!! You have already been there twice, especially because of Karen!

The food is delicious and the service by Karen was superb! Ten out of ten! It is a first come first service system so make sure you organise your trip.

Karen is a superstar!! She gave us a lot of good suggestions of dishes to choose and also suggested delicious options for teas! The food is very flavourful!! You have already been there twice, especially because of Karen!

Fantastic food and great staff, we had a small issue with a meal and they turned it round perfectly with a great service mentality.

Staff were very attentive and really nice. Food was amazing, best Chinese food I've had a in a very long time and everything tasted fresh. Will be my go to Chinese restaurant from now on!

男性服務員良好，女性服務員好過無！ 主廚有好大的進步空間，不過，希望佢哋有試過自己的食物與其他餐館的比較！ 梅菜扣肉飯只有扣肉是可以，港式奶茶是可以！其他，就…….，如凍檸檬茶是一片檸檬加似茶粉的飲料！乾炒牛河啲牛肉非常堅實等！

Very bad service from all waitresses but only the guy works like a professional waiter. Food is below average but only recommend Braised Pork belly. Not recommended for HongKonger if you’re looking for good food. Lemon tea is the worst ever in my life and it costs £4 totally nightmare.

Very bad and rude service they bang things on the table as if they doing favour by serving the food

We use to visit this place quiet regularly, but unfortunately it seems that the food and the service (very rude manager) went really down this past few months. Bit of a shame

We’re regular customers for about two years but our last visit will unfortunately be our last. The service was terrible - my friend came first while the rest of us were looking for a spot to park. The male manager rudely asked him to stand at the door until every one arrived. The manager then rushed us to order when we’re clearly not ready. Food used to be very good, and we always came for the char siu. This time it’s almost tasteless and very fatty. I asked for hot lemon water cos I can’t drink caffeine. They refused to serve that even tho they have hot lemon tea on the menu and I was willing to pay the same price. There used to be a different manager who’s very nice and welcoming. Heard she resigned which is a shame. Very very disappointed.

When we are shopping at Kingston, we always eat at this restaurant, pre covid times. I dined at your and unfortunately, my experience was horrible. The plates were very dirty and had dust and chilli powder in it. The roast duck was excessively salty, and the sauce tasted very watery and not like duck sauce. Also, the chili was extremely spicy, the spiciest I hd ever tasted in my 20 years of eating out. Also, and the vegetable dish was equally salty. My tongue is still salty from this food. Lastly, the service was as if the waiters didn’t want to be there as they made sick faces at us when we ordered. I hope this restaurant will improve otherwise I will not come to eat here ever again.

we ordered a takeaway. Some good some not so good. 1. spring rolls were excellent but not enough Chili sauce. 2. sweet & sour chicken and boiled rice. Did not enjoy. Better if I had had the chicken in black bean sauce. 3. the golden mushroom aubergine with rice was very good for me but my partner was not so pleased. 4. the scallops with asparagus etc was a bit underwhelming. 5. mixed veg with noodles was ok but I don't like the use of spring onions in a lot of their dishes. Ugh. not great value for money at £70

Service awful .faces of thunder ! Duck dish was completely full of bones .starters arrived 20 mins apart ..avoid

Good quality, good value and comfortable. My only comment is that I think it's weird they charge extra for fresh cut chilli or chilli oil, and instead serve sriracha on the table

中午點半入座，唔算太多人，卡位無人坐但係就安排我坐喺落廁所門口隔離嗰張枱，隔離仲有對夫婦坐緊，要背對背坐，感覺有啲迫！ 而且廁所入口位置經常有人行出行入，都幾騷擾。 點心感覺一般同茶樓相比明顯有距離，但係價錢就貴咗一截！ 個滑蛋蝦球飯似芡汁多過似滑蛋，蛋嘅份量好少！ 味道比較淡，我要落豉油先夠味！ 椒鹽豬手算係唔錯，只係稍嫌炸得有啲太濃，不過味道係ok 嘅！ 埋單5x 鎊，有點貴，可能係因為高尚地區呱！ 整體感覺中下，未必會再嚟食，因為都要揸成個鐘頭車過嚟！

Splendid tasty food, very popular with the local Chinese community. Large portions at very reasonable prices, and charming friendly service.

If you want authentic Chinese food yimchai is 100% the place - their roast duck and pig intestine is second to none, aside from the fantastic dim sum. Great service, and environment.

Food is above average, especially the steamed black bean chicken feet.

Staff are not very friendly but food is good. Staff needs to be more polite and smiling :)

Used to be my local go places for Chinese with my family probably… but standards have dropped . Roast duck isn’t good .. it was so hot and asked them to please turn our air con in - was ignored. This was despite us spending just over 200 for lunch . Do t think will visit again.

Food edible, service very bad. The lady there isn’t friendly, rude even. Won’t see a smile in the restaurant.

Food used to be amazing and the menu used to have a wider variety of choices. The standard has gone down a little on certain dishes but overall it's still a very decent Chinese restaurant in Kingston. It was very hot last time we visited as air con seems to be not working.

So nice enough for a casual meal if you're feeling hungry. Quite large portions that definitely fill you up, and they have a large menu with many options. I asked for recommendations and tried some authentic asian greens with fermented miso which were very nice but in general the quality of the rest of our food was essentially that of a good takeaway.

If you know what is wok hay and here it is. We ordered Fried Beef Ho Fun, Caviar King Prawn Fried Rice, Salt & Pepper Pork Trotter, Sweet & Sour Pork, Iced milk tea and lemon tea. They are delicious. I love it very much and I will go again!

Fried noodles with beef is good. Milk tea is slightly less than excellent. Friendly waitress. 👍🏼

I visited this restaurant with my family recently. The staff were very welcoming even though they were taking last orders. The food was absolutely delicious, so fresh and full of flavour. The food was all hot when it came as well. The sweet and sour prawns, sesame toast, beef with ginger and spring onion, pepper prawns and stir fry noodles were all yummy, I could not fault anything to be honest! Thank you very much, I will definitely be returning and have already recommended to my friends.

Very good chinese malaysian food.

We dined here and we had to ask for water at least 4 times. The food was delicious, however we did find part of a stainless steel scourer in our noodles - but we told the staff and they made a new dish.

Highly recommend the stir fried beef noodles!

Up dated 7th July 2023 Ok a bit on the experience side especially when adding a service charge which is optional. This restaurant is popular with lots of Chinese families relaxing which speaks volumes. So best to book ahead Offering pigs trotters and intestines along With frog legs with in their array of dishes its also a bit different. And yes incase your woundering I have had the trotters and frog legs but not here . I'ill save that for a future visit. Friendly, relaxed atmosphere Dose takeaway but charges 30p extra per box If like me you do not like ALL DISHES arriving at once or before you finish your starter please let your waitress know There is nothing worse than your main courses getting cold .

By far the best Chinese food in the area . It beats China town hands down .3rd visit now and it keeps Impressing . I would choose this over any other restaurant and take away in the area Including the horrible tourist trap China town in London any day . Service is great and It’s worth every penny .

平均水準之下 點心難食 星州炒米還可以 服務一般 就環境比較好 不推薦

Nice milk tea and food, good price.

Authentic Milk tea & ice-lemon tea 👍👍👍 Recommended dishes: Roast duck, Soy sauce fried noodle, sweet & sour pork, Choi Sun with Scallops 😋😋😋

Good food except BBq pork. Waiter black face no smile

The place is not very spacious and the service attitude is not overly enthusiastic, but it is just right. The quality of the food is very high, and the price is considered cheap. It is not a typical Chinese-style dim sum place. You can go there and have an afternoon tea.

Nice food. Menu prices as of 13 May 2023

Always really good food, good menu with choice and efficient service whether you eat in or takeaway. I think the food is better than most restaurants tried in China Town. Only improvement would be recovering of some of the seats (clearly too many customers over the years😀).

Great food, excellent service, good vibe, what else does one want in a restaurant?

My go to place every time I come over for business... Food is great...

Are you looking for a restaurant where Laksa is delicious? Then this is it! I ate laksa for the first time in UK and it tasted 100% satisfying. The food came out very quickly and the amount was enough. The shrimp in the fried rice was also very big and seasoned. But I want you to go before 9 pm. The staff wanted us to eat quickly and leave, and the attitude was a little disappointing. But I think I will visit this place again because I can't forget the taste of laksa.

Fantastic food, lovely staff and great atmosphere. Will be coming here again!

If you want to try causal Cantonese food, forget the rest, try this one.

We were totally ignored when we entered the restaurant. The attitude of the waitress taking orders for us is one of the worst I have ever seen.

Had a big mix of Malaysian food. It took me back to my time living in KL. Enjoyable experience. Staff were great. The Nasi lemak was nice.

Food is very nice but I ordered a pickup for takeaway food for 19:30 but didn't get it until 20:10. Probably won't go back because of it

We were exploring the area and wanted dinner somewhere. I’m going to have to say there is nothing bad about the service, environment and pricing but the food. Although food is edible, I wouldn’t say it is the freshest. We ordered two types of dumplings, duck wrap and fried rice. The dumplings were good but assuming that they had been frozen for some time. The fried rice was a little tasteless and had to add a sauce that came with the duck wrap. Most importantly the duck wrap - the meat was dry I think it was prepared some time ago. Also, the cucumbers and spring onions as sides were dry as well, like they prepared a few hours ago and left in a fridge without a cover. The pancakes were sticking to each other that made it difficult to separate ( I think it was also frozen and they steamed the layers of them as it is) I think it is not a high standard in terms of food, but the waiters were nice and the service was quick. So I appreciate that. But unfortunately, the food isn’t what makes me want to come back to this place again.

Got the Stir-fried chicken soft noodles and Spring rolls. Food was okay but could be improved on. Customer service also left a lot to be desired.

My friend and I went for a quick late lunch on Sunday and were seated and served quickly. The lady who seated us was kind and the other staff members were polite, though a bit shy. The food was delicious and really hit the spot. Their crispy shredded beef is divine and the smoothie I had was so refreshing and delicious! We will definitely be back for more.

Really really good food, stingy with prices, I.e. give you only 6 pancakes for 1/2 crispy duck, quality excellent but when you ask for more pancakes so you can actually eat half the duck with pancakes, they want to charge £3-4 more (odd, a) how is the price not set, seems a bit 'make it up as you go along' and b) it should come with 12 not 6 in the first place) defo would return for the food quality as it's one of the best Chinese places in the area - Just don't expect good service with a smile (some of the staff, the owner/manager was the only one who knew how to service customers).

Great food and very loud sociable restaurant, really enjoy it!

Taste is good. But the portion size of the mixed seafood crispy noodle is insulting. You pay £13.50 and you get a measly little portion. But as I mentioned the taste is good. Other dishes are fine.

Awful service from the staff and to top it all 4 of us have been sick tonight soon after the meal. We will never eat again. Awful, shocking and disgusted

as a hong kong people i can say this restaurant is very traditional. atmosphere is perfect, the price is also acceptable. definately would try again if i can.

The food was very good, service could be a little better, but pretty good and friendly anyway.

Quality stirred fried noodles and rice, and very tasteful Hong Kong milk tea.

Went for Chinese New Year. Excellent food, great atmosphere.

Hong Kong people Hong Kong food

I have never seen curry coming after 20 mins of serving rice. Really disappointed with the timing of dishes been served. We were sitting idle playing with grains of rice

周末Dinner去”YIMCHAI”, 燒鴨同梅菜扣肉很有水準, 三杯雞及炒飯及麵也不錯