Tao Tao Ju
The kitchen makes the dim sum on site every day and steams it to order rather than holding it.1
Why go
A Lisle Street room open since 2011, with a light dining room, a wine list and a kitchen that grounds itself in Chinese home-style cooking.1 The dim sum is the reason to go and the steaming-to-order claim is the reason it might be better than the room next door.
Order this / avoid
- Order: dim sum, and book if you are bringing a group, since the dining room is what the restaurant sells hardest.
- Avoid: taking the awards on the door as a judgment on the food. They are a 2021 traveller-vote award and a Deliveroo nomination, and this entry cites neither.
Good to know
- Where: 15 Lisle Street WC2H 7BE, in Chinatown. The restaurant's own pages name Chinatown without printing the street, so the address comes from the saved pin.
- Booking: taken through the restaurant's own site.
- Hours: not published on the page read this pass.
Verdict
listed — A Lisle Street dim sum room open since 2011 that makes its dumplings on site and steams them to order rather than holding them, which is the difference you would taste if it is true. The two awards on the door are a 2021 TripAdvisor traveller vote and a Deliveroo nomination, and neither is a critic writing about the cooking, so do not read them as one. It sits on the bottom rung because the restaurant's own page is the only source anywhere read this pass: no dish, no cook, and no newspaper or guide has written about it in fifteen years of trading.