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Restaurants

Taste of Chongqing.

Chongqing Sichuan · Bloomsbury · $$ · Solid · should-visit · verified

40-42 Woburn Place

Dunlop rec doe for Sichuan. Beef tongue, chongking chicken. See insta.

Jeff's note

Taste of Chongqing

Fuchsia Dunlop's post about dinner here starts with the word "Another," which tells you more than a rating would.

Why go

Dunlop wrote The Food of Sichuan and is the reason most English speakers can name a doubanjiang, so a repeat dinner from her is the endorsement that matters for this cuisine. Giles Coren reviewed the place for The Times on 22 September 2024 and got there by the same route: he records the restaurant as an indirect recommendation from Dunlop, and clocked a copy of her book at the front desk, signed for the owner (Harden's). The cooking is Chongqing rather than generic Sichuan: jianghu dishes, a dry pot series, Wanzhou grilled fish, Chongqing noodles. It runs all day, seven days, on Woburn Place by Russell Square. Harden's has no survey score for it yet, which means too few of its readers have filed, not that they filed badly.

Order this / avoid

  • Order: the spicy beef tongue and the Chongqing chicken, which are Jeff's two picks. Coren's starter run was "spicy beef tongue; sliced whelks with chilli; grilled scallion pancakes; fried crispy pork; fried lotus root," and by his account they all landed. ref
  • Avoid: the big sharing pot unless you are a crowd. Coren's cost 52 pounds and, in his words, it "would have fed ten." ref

What locals & experts say

  • Fuchsia Dunlop (Instagram): "Another fab dinner at Taste of Chongqing in Woburn Place!" ref
  • Giles Coren, The Times (22 September 2024), as quoted by Harden's: "brilliant," and "a Chinese-for-the-Chinese place" with an "exciting menu." On the sharing pot, 52 pounds went from "the most expensive main course of my year so far to the cheapest thing I'd ever eaten." ref
  • Harden's (2026): "Not yet reviewed (insufficient survey submissions)." ref
  • Local rec: Jeff's row credits Dunlop and points at her Instagram. REAL.

Good to know

  • Timing: 11:30 to 22:30 Sunday through Thursday, 11:30 to 23:00 Friday and Saturday. Seven days.
  • Booking: worth booking at peak. Phone 020 7631 0888.
  • Groups: the sharing pots are built for numbers, so this works for a table of six or more better than for two.
  • Hygiene: FSA record 1206132, rating 4 under Camden, inspected 8 April 2026. Food handling and management both scored 5, cleanliness and condition of the building scored 10.
  • Dietary: nothing published, and nothing inferred. Ask before ordering if it matters.
  • Getting there: 40-42 Woburn Place, two minutes from Russell Square, ten from Euston.

Jeff's take (his words)

  • Order: "Beef tongue, chongking chicken." REAL.
  • Rec via: "Dunlop rec doe for Sichuan. See insta." REAL. The Instagram post is Dunlop's own, and Coren's Times review credits her for the same tip.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Fuchsia Dunlop, who wrote The Food of Sichuan, posts about dinner here and calls it another one, meaning she keeps going back. Giles Coren reviewed it for The Times in September 2024, called it brilliant and a Chinese-for-the-Chinese place, and ate spicy beef tongue, whelks with chilli and scallion pancakes before a sharing pot he says would have fed ten. That is Chongqing cooking, jianghu style, dry pots and grilled fish and chili by the handful, in Bloomsbury and open all day seven days. It is a strong recommendation from the right people, and it stops short of the top rung because no source pins a chef, a technique or an award to it.

Order

  • Spicy beef tongue, sliced thin and swimming in chili oil
  • Chongqing chicken
  • The large sharing pot, enough food for eight or ten people
  • Dry pot series, including dry pot squid tentacles
  • Wanzhou grilled fish
  • Chongqing noodles

Good to know

  • Booking: recommended
  • Timing: all-day
  • Best for: lunch, dinner, groups-ok, big-night, solo
  • Avoid: Ordering the sharing pot for two. It is built for a table of eight or more and reads as the most expensive main on the menu until it lands; Looking for a guidebook rating before you go. Too few diners have submitted for the surveys to score it
  • Expert picks: Fuchsia Dunlop, Giles Coren
  • Verified 2026-07-29

Where

city map →© OpenStreetMap © CARTO

40-42 Woburn Place

Sources & mentions

  1. [1]
    Fuchsia Dunlop (Instagram)

    Post at instagram.com/fuchsiadunlop/p/DDbqlzGO2fr opens 'Another fab dinner at Taste of Chongqing in Woburn Place!'. Dunlop is the author of The Food of Sichuan and the leading English-language authority on Sichuan cooking. The word 'Another' marks it as a repeat visit. Caption read through the search index; Instagram serves a login wall to direct fetch, and no post date is exposed

  2. [2]
    Harden's, quoting Giles Coren in The Times (22 September 2024)

    Coren calls the restaurant 'brilliant' and 'a Chinese-for-the-Chinese place' with an 'exciting menu'. His starters were spicy beef tongue, sliced whelks with chilli, grilled scallion pancakes, fried crispy pork and fried lotus root. The 52-pound sharing pot 'would have fed ten', taking it from 'the most expensive main course of my year so far to the cheapest thing I'd ever eaten'. Coren also records that the restaurant came to him indirectly recommended by Fuchsia Dunlop, and that a copy of her book sits at the front desk signed for the owner. Harden's itself carries no survey rating: 'Not yet reviewed (insufficient survey submissions)'. Address 40-42 Woburn Place WC1H 0JR, phone 020 7631 0888

  3. [3]
    FSA food hygiene register

    FHRSID 1206132, trading company 'Chongqing (UK) LTD', 40-42 Woburn Place WC1H 0JR, local authority Camden. Rating 4, inspected 8 April 2026. Component scores hygienic food handling 5, cleanliness and condition of structure 10, confidence in management 5

  4. [4]
    Taste of Chongqing (venue site)

    Hours Monday to Thursday and Sunday 11:30 to 22:30, Friday and Saturday 11:30 to 23:00. Menu covers Chongqing noodles, Wanzhou grilled fish, jianghu cooking, the dry pot series and red-braised pork intestines with rice. The site sits behind Cloudflare and cannot be opened directly, so this was read through the search index on 29 July 2026

Record

slug
taste-of-chongqing
city
London
group
Restaurants
category
Restaurant
cuisine
Chongqing Sichuan
area
Bloomsbury
price
$$
editorial class
Solid
ladder verdict
should-visit
provenance
verified
confidence
medium
status
Open
address
40-42 Woburn Place
coordinates
51.52399, -0.12738
last verified
2026-07-29
curated page
places/taste-of-chongqing.md
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