Diners who come to London’s Chinatown do not lack for options. There are over 100 places to eat within walking of the district’s famous Gerrard Street Gate. Baozilnn is not one of the best. Admittedly the flagship restaurant is located in London Bridge, but its Soho sister falls flat. In offering too many different things, it fails in producing memorable food in any area.
The Baozilnn angle is “authentic, affordable Northern Chinese street food,” per its website. That’s fair enough, but then why go on to say that you also offer “all-day Cantonese Dim Sum.” Cuisine with Sichuan and Hunan influences also apparently feature. At least it’s hard to quibble about the affordability contention. Our group of three ended up over-ordering, but paid only £40 a head, with beers and service included. It was just a pity the food not much more than mediocre.
Don’t expect posh at Baozilnn. It’s an 80-cover venue spread over two floors. Tables and seating are utilitarian. Communist propaganda from yesteryear dominates the walls. Diners have to fill in forms not dissimilar to betting slips denoting their food preferences. They are taken away brusquely. The food arrives as soon as it’s ready, in no pre-defined order.
This is not a venue to go to if you’re indecisive. Over 70 options straddle the menu, hence our over-ordering. Surprisingly, despite such plenitude, we were not offered any Dim Sum. All day, seemingly, does not include 7.30pm on a weekday. Maybe the venue just forgot to hand us this page. Most likely, they didn’t care. At least a tangy cucumber in ‘chef special’ chilli oil was a promising opener. The spicing was judicious and the balance good. Salt and pepper squid, by contrast, was bland and greasy with the batter-to-fish ratio way out of balance. Spare ribs were an abject failure in this reviewer’s opinion, unpleasantly sticky and similarly fatty. Steak skewers in black pepper sauce would probably best be described as average. Dan-Dan pork noodles were slightly above, but a chicken fried counterpart below. A final assessment: average all round.