Eat Chinese : Dragon Castle, Elephant and Castle

Finding a good Dim Sum place is an essential part of being Chinese. The hunt had begun ever since the Teh family moved over to the UK from Germany and has been ongoing ever since. During this long and arduous journey, we have loved and left the New World in Chinatown (a shame as it used to be brilliant), stuck our noses up at Royal China (overrated and over priced), marvelled at Yauatcha's invention and got confused with the new Dim Sum fusion restaurants (yes you Ping Pong and Dim T).

To cut it short, we've been around a bit. So imagine my surprise when the ground floor off the monstrous blue building at the top of the Walworth road opened up to reveal Dragon Castle. Now this place is a mere ten minutes drive from my flat. This wasn't luck, this was fate.

I have been here many times, so I guess it's about time I wrote about why it's so great. And it is great. I have eaten here for dinner and for Dim Sum (traditional Chinese brunch comprising of dumplings and fried loveliness) many times, and with good reason. Put simply, the food is great. I'm guessing you want a bit more detail, so here it goes.



The Dim Sum menu is pretty straightforward. It's certainly not as fancy as something you would get in Royal China, but at the end of the day, it's all about the taste. The menu itself is quite clear with pictures of all its dim sum and brief descriptions of what they are. The steamed dim sum is of a decent standard. Their Har Gau is juicy and tender and full of prawn, their bean curd rolls are in a lovely sauce with good bit left to the bean curd skins, and their Shanghai soup dumplings full of lovely soup (a sure fire sign of good Dim Sum). Although it doesn't have normal spring rolls (although their prawn ones and Vietnamese ones certainly make up for this), its fried goods are not oily or greasy, and crispy. Definitely try their Wu Kok aka "Crispy Taro Croquette with Pork", absolutely delicious.




Another speciality of theirs is their noodles. Whenever I go there, we normally back up the Dim Sum with a plate of noodles. Personal favourites include their Seafood with crispy noodles and their Beef Ho Fun in black bean sauce.

So, to cut a long story short, this place rocks. The food is great, tastes fresh (I can't guarantee it, but I'm pretty sure they get all their ingredients shipped in daily), is very affordable (try as hard as you may, it's going to end up at about £15 a head) and is endorsed by my dad. Now that may not sound like much, but this is coming from the man where everything is "alright but too expensive". I take him to this place, and you won't hear a peep from him, even when the bill comes.