top of page

A DAY IN LEICESTER SQUARE - CHINATOWN & AFTERNOON TEA



Thankfully, I was blessed with at least one sibling who shares my passion to get out of the house see the world (or London on this occasion). My little brother and I thought it was about time we took another random wonder around London and this time found ourselves in Leicester Square – Chinatown to be precise. It's been about three years or so since we last visited Chinatown and boy have things changed..


Chinatown London is easily accessible via the London Underground and literally sits on the doorstep of Leicester Square tube station on and around Gerrard Street – perfect for people travelling via public transport. It literally is just CHINA TOWN – a small group of Chinese shops, restaurants, bakeries, souvenir shops and supermarkets, and has become more of a close community than a tourist attraction over recent years – except on special event days, such as Chinese New Year where it's filled with bautiful light displays, fireworks, parades, etc.


Unfortunately for us, we were pre-occupied on the day of Chinese New Year this year and Chinatown's official online calendar is not particularly blooming on a month to month basis, so we went with little to no expectations of seeing any spectacular shows or events this time around.


If you have visited Chinatown before, you will probably remember at lease one of the three 30ft Chinese arches - well known 'landmarks' at three different entrances to Chinatown & Gerrard Street, each designed differently and all very colourful and bright.


Of course, this is probably the best place in London to get Chinese food with multiple traditional restaurants, both regular service and buffet style within arm's length of each other. The only problem would be trying to decide which restaurant to go for!


If you are looking for somewhere to grab a few touristy or traditional Chinese goodies, there are a couple of souvenir shops sprawled around selling everything from phone cases, to union jack flags, to Chinese souvenirs such as;

  • The gold waving cat or maneki-neko - which roughly translates to 'the beckoning cat' – this item is actually Japanese and is said to bring good luck to it's owner. The ornament is sculpted as a golden cat waving his/her paw slowly back and forth and welcoming or beckoning the owner or anyone entering the home/shop.

  • Chinese lanterns – beautiful wall or ceiling hanging lanterns made from thin paper and card – usually taking the shape of a small pumpkin. These lanterns are usually seen on TV or on the internet in red only but can come in a variety of colours and sizes – it's main uses are to attract attention outside of shops and other buildings or can also be used during lantern festivals.

  • Hand fans – pretty self explanatory but oriental hand fans are usually made from bamboo and paper or cloth and have beautiful hand painted or printed designs on the front and sometimes on the back too.

  • Chinese dragons – The Chinese dragon is actually a symbol of power, strength and luck to anyone 'worthy'. It is no wonder why one would buy a Chinese dragon ornament to place in the home – similar to the beckoning cat. Also, they are pretty nice to look at.









Honestly, thirty minutes to an hour is really all you would need in Chinatown (unless of course, you are also sitting down to a nice meal). Chinatown does not occupy a huge area of land in Leicester Square so it is pretty easy to get through everything in a short space of time, especially since it's mostly just shops, restaurants and pretty signs and symbols. I would still recommend visiting as it is almost like walking into a whole different culture in a whole different country which I almost always find enjoyable. I think next time I will definitely attend Chinese New Year or another big event to ensure I make the most of my visit and avoid disappointment! You can check out Chinatown's upcoming events calendar here on their website.







 

After our short and questionably 'sweet' trip to Chinatown, we were a little hungry and found ourselves literally on the doorstep of Patisserie Valerie – a franchise of cafés / patisseries which sell breakfast, brunch, lunch, handmade cakes and other sweet treats and hot and cold drinks. My favourite Pat Val branch is in Ealing (W5) – my 'local' if you will, but this branch in London was by far my least favourite..


Usually upon entering any Pat Val branch, you're almost immediately seated or greeted at least, we were actually left standing by the door for a couple of minutes before I had to flag down a waitress who seemed (for some reason) less than impressed to have to find us a table. She ushered us over to her colleage who told us to sit anywhere we wanted – we chose a table near the middle of the café, next to the window with the view of the busy high street but were then told that we could only sit at a table for two people – not much point in telling us that we could sit where we wanted since there was only one table for two free .. we sat there .. next to the window at the back of the restaurant with the view of the grotty alleyway and the lovely aroma from the near-by restrooms..





Most Pat Val's work with Groupon or Wowcher allowing you to use online vouchers to get a little money off of afternoon tea – one of their hottest selling menu items. I love a good afternoon tea – yummy cream cakes, soft warm scones with sweet jam and cream, cute little sandwiches with the crusts cut off (always a bonus for me as I am like a big kid and can only normally eat the crusts if I'm having white bread – weirdo – I know), a pot of warm, well brewed tea – perfect for the lips but a devil to the hips.. You can't go wrong with a good afternoon tea – or so we thought.


After letting our waitress know that we had the Wowcher coupon and wanted afternoon tea she pretty much smiled and walked away. We were then left wondering whether or not she had actually gone to place our order and waited for about fifteen minutes before another waitress came over to serve us. When she came over she asked if the voucher was ready. I had explained to her that we had paid for the voucher and were just waiting for the app to update but we would order the afternoon tea in the meantime and whether the app worked or not we would still be buying it, she then walked away. A regular thing here? The first waitress then came back and took our order for afternoon tea and began walking away, again, unfortunately I had to remind her that a pot of tea also comes with the tray of desserts, to which she confirmed and went off to order (finally). So far, not so good. The pot of tea came first, unfortunately it must not have had time to brew properly and was very weak and pale, especially when I had added a little milk – it was more of a whitish-grey than light brown - not patisserie Valerie's usual standard. We then waited another fifteen to twenty minutes before our tier was served to us. It took three attempts at asking different members of staff for preserves (which is supposed to be served with it), before we actually received it, at this point we were already halfway through the cakes and sandwiches and had eaten a dry scone each. The sandwiches were little dry also and could've done with a little more spread. The rest of it was pretty nice but again not patisserie Valerie's usual standard of food, drink or service.




We then waited quite a while for the waitress to;

A) check that everything was OK with our 'meal' and/or

B) check our voucher so that we could leave


After another fifteen minutes or so, we had to call another waitress over to ask if she could check our voucher instead, she took down the reference number and said she would go downstairs to check it – this was quite confusing to us as the till was actually behind us on the shop floor, but hey-ho. Surprise surprise - we were left waiting for another eighteen minutes (and counting) before another waitress came over who looked puzzled as to why we were still sitting there, I told her that her colleague had gone to check our voucher and we had not had back from her in almost twenty minutes, she then told us that we were actually free to leave... Thanks for letting us know!




All in all, I must say that our Leicester Square afternoon didn't quite go to plan with probably more lowlights than highlights but I would still recommend two things:

  1. VISIT CHINATOWN – when there is an exciting event happening in their calendar

  2. VISIT PATISSERIE VALERIE – in Ealing where the service, food and drink is much better (in my opinion anyway)

 

Have you recently visited Chinatown? If so, how was your experience? Any different to mine? What about Pat Val? I'd love to hear about your latest afternoon tea session!

ARCHIVE:
FEATURED POSTS:
bottom of page