Panda Dim Sum Cafe

Address: 767 High Road, Leytonstone, London E11 4QS
Website: None that we could find…
Nearest tube station: Leytonstone

Being in the East End after the trial of watching West Ham lose at home (again), Mrs BYO, mother-in-law and I were in need of some refreshments, so we headed over to nearby Leytonstone to visit Panda Dim Sum Cafe.

Panda Dim Sum Cafe was recently covered in Time Out's Leytonstone feature, and the clue to this place is in its name - it's a cafe which serves dim sum. And, it should go without saying, it has a BYO policy...

The menu is broken down into sections – steamed dim sum, fried dim sum, soups, noodle and rice dishes, and special house dishes.

Between the three of us, we ordered prawn dumplings, char sui buns and broccoli from the steamed section, and pork and Chinese leaf dumplings and chicken and Chinese mushrooms dumplings from the fried menu.

The dim sum comes in portions of three or four pieces – perfect for trying other people’s food, but difficult if the number of pieces isn’t divisible by the number of people at the table!

The food comes out as it’s ready – which is quite slowly – but is worth the wait. This is really good dim sum. The char sui buns were my favourites by far – pork enveloped by a fluffy bread-like bun. Unfortunately, we were given two lots of the pork and Chinese leaf dumplings, rather than one lot of chicken and Chinese mushrooms. Luckily, the dumplings we were given were good enough to eat in double the volume.

For dessert, one has to head back into the jumble of the menu and look at the sweet dishes tucked away among the steamed dim sum. We had Cantonese sponge cake and coconut buns. Just as strangely as the location of the desserts in the menu, we weren’t offered new plates or chop sticks for the dessert, and had to ask for these – we didn’t think a soy sauce stained plate would really work with coconut buns…

I’ve never had a dessert in a Chinese restaurant before, but these hit the spot: the sponge cake was surprisingly light, and quickly polished off despite the size, and the coconut buns were brilliantly sweet.

The cost for the three of us was £25.70. Yes, that's the total price for three people for food and soft drinks, but excluding a service charge which is not automatically added. This place is seriously good value.

The quality of the food and the price make this a place to which we’d come back again, despite the somewhat haphazard service. If all you’ve tried before is dim sum in the likes of Ping Pong, you’re going to be amazed how good the food here is.

For your proper drinks, there’s a corner shop on the, erm, corner opposite, and a Sainsbury’s local on the way from Leytonstone train station (under a five minute walk).