Jen Café (Chinatown)

• S original Chinatown was in Limehouse in the East End (thank you Wikipedia for that nugget
• The current Chinatown off Shaftesbury Avenue was only established in the 1970s
• Gerrard Street was home to the first Ronnie Scotts Jazz Bar in the 1920s
• There is one with a window displaying heated silver trays full of congealing day glow orange
• Cafe TPT for the standard Cantonese fare (the honey roasted pork and shrimp dumpling soup are particularly good)
• My most regular is Jen Cafe for Beijing dumplings and bubble tea
• The ones at Jen Cafe are made by a consistently grumpy lady who sits in their window for hours at a time (possibly why she is grumpy)
• I have them with a bubble tea
• And littered with tapioca pearls
• The bill is often placed down in front of you while you are still mid chew
• It does make an excellent pit stop if you are in the area
• The dumplings are reliably good
• This is a small cafe in Chinatown with limited seating area
• Their dumplings are nicely thick without it feeling too rubber like
• The filling is great and compliments the overall taste and texture
• It is more of a pit stop cafe rather than a relaxing dining experience they'll rush you to order and present you with the bill as soon as your finish eating
• I ordered their steamed Beijing Dumpling which was stuffed with pork
• I would say the pastry is better than the filling
• The turnover is very high so you won't have to wait very long for a free seat
• Only dumplings are great in this restaurant
• Other dishes are fine for a quick lunch if you don't care about what you eat
• Food there is warm up by microwave which kills the texture
• Jen Café (Chinatown) is excellent if you just want to eat fresh dumplings
• I ordered the soup noodles with roast duck the soup was maybe a bit bland
• It wasn't too bad when eaten with the roast duck which helped balance out the flavours
• The noodles looked homemade and were quite thick like udon noodles
• We were too full to try their dumplings which are supposed to be pretty good
• In the middle of Chinatown there is this green painted café
• Fortunately some other diners finished just as we arrived so we were seated straight away not always as easy with 10 tables
• The noodle broth was a little bland with a much higher ratio of noodles to other toppings and ingredients
• We felt very hurried with 3 waiters asking for our order after being seated for only 5mins
• The bill was placed at our table before we'd even finished and we were asked several times when we were going to pay
• The food was pretty decent for the price but the customer service was pretty atrocious
• One portion was steamed and the other was fried
• The fried dumplings were only fried on one side which made them not at all greasy
• Both sets of dumplings were so tasty and even the outer pastry was good
• When you walk into Chinatown there are a lot of those well populated restaurants trying to pull you in with offers of unlimited buffets
• A dumpling fan like me Jen Café (Chinatown) was a treat indeed
• You eat yummy dumplings (both steamed and fried are delicious) and watch them being made on your side
• Making dumplings is a skilled job
• Their drinks are quite interesting as well
• The dumplings were at best passable
• The only thing I can count as a plus is that is cheap
• They don't know english very well but it isn' a problem and they are fast with orders and food
• Jen Café (Chinatown) is one of the "
• The fried fishes were good as well

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