Restaurant Some Call London’s Rudest Serves Cold Rice And Dry Pork On Plastic Plates While Staff Barely Acknowledge Her Existence

Most food reviewers hunt for the best table in town. London creator Hannah Ricketts decided to do the opposite. After a couple of years of showing viewers places with glowing customer service, think Claridge’s and The Ritz, she says it was time to keep it real and walk into a restaurant that some call the rudest in London. Her first reaction as she headed in, in her own words: “Oh gosh, why am I doing this?”

Plates of pork and rice at a London restaurant beside a plate of meat and rice

The restaurant is Wong Kei, tucked into the middle of London’s Chinatown, and it has been around since the 1970s. It spreads across five floors and carries a reputation for being very blunt with customers. On Tripadvisor it sits at a rating of 3.3, and Ricketts read a few of the reviews out loud before stepping inside. One reviewer called the special fried rice tasteless and meatless. Another said it was an experience not to be repeated. A third called it the worst meal of the year with abysmal service.

Before she went in, Ricketts strolled through the neighborhood, and she says the surrounding streets were a pleasant surprise. It was a busy Monday, with bakeries, picture menus, buffets and window displays full of food, and she says everyone she passed was friendly. Then came Wong Kei.

A Quiet Room And A Cold Welcome

Inside, Ricketts says the room was so quiet it felt awkward. She wanted to ask the staff what was good, but she says nobody was really acknowledging her existence. Tea is free and included, so she started there. When she finally asked for a recommendation, the answer was short and to the point: salt and chili pork chops on boiled rice. She also ordered the aromatic duck with pancakes, a quarter portion at £13.90.

Diners sit at shared tables, and she says most people around her were eating alone, many with headphones on. The plates were plastic, which made her feel like a kid, and she says there was quite a lot of food on the floor and a number of flies buzzing about. Filming, she says, was close to impossible, and she was holding the microphone because she did not want to put her bag down.

Cold Rice And Dry Pork

The pork chops came with three pieces of pork on a bed of rice. Ricketts says the rice looked light and fluffy and sticky, but it was cold, and she could not work out how. The pork, she says, was salty, chewy and super dry inside. She summed it up as three pieces of incredibly dry pork and called the dish a little bit rubbish. She said the pork chop dish was £11.90.

The duck fared a little better. She calls it a tale of two halves: some of it was tasty, with salt, pepper and a garlicky kick, and there were nice crispy bits. But the meat was thin on the ground. By her count she had one pancake and that was virtually all of the meat. The cucumber was dry enough that she joked it looked like it had been cut four days earlier, and the lettuce she called sad. The plum sauce, she says, had a nice tang and was thick, and she spilled some on her T-shirt.

She did pass along some polite feedback to a member of staff, saying she felt there was not much meat. She was thanked, and she says the response was not exactly warm. Still, she says one server did warm up. Ricketts tried a trick of being extremely, sickly nice to everyone, and by the end she says she got quite a few smiles from the woman serving her.

The Bill

The duck pancakes at £13.90 and the pork chop with rice at £11.90 came to £25.80. Service charge was not required, though a card machine did prompt for a tip. The restaurant takes cash only. Ricketts compared the price to what she had recently paid elsewhere: a two-course off-peak set menu at Hawksmoor was around £26, and at another spot around the corner she says she got three courses for nearly the same money. Her verdict was that the volume of food is not a lot, and she agrees with the reviewers who call the portions small.

She was careful to add that she would not call the staff proactively rude. It was not, she says, the kind of place with a scene or a shouting match. It was more a missing welcome. Other restaurants along the street were inviting her in, and by comparison, she says, it was night and day. “It takes 2 seconds to say hello,” she said. She rated the experience 2.5 out of 10 and called it the most awkward dining experience she has ever done on her channel.

What To Take From It

If you are planning a trip to London, there are a few easy lessons from her afternoon.

Check the payment method before you sit down. Ricketts notes the restaurant is cash only.
Look at the full price of your order, not just the menu price. Her two dishes added up to £25.80, which she says could have covered a multi-course set menu elsewhere.
Watch the crowds. When she walked back through the area, she found another duck restaurant packed with people and smelling wonderful, with a quarter duck at £14.80.
Be friendly anyway. Her experiment in over-the-top politeness got at least a few smiles in return.

The Consolation Prize

Ricketts did not leave Chinatown empty-handed. She spent the rest of the video wandering the bakeries and snack stalls, and she says they were the cheerful part of the day. She pointed out egg tarts at £4.40, a big bun for £2.40, a mini sausage bun at £2.50, a crispy top roast pork bun at £4.20 and floss pork rolls at £3.20. She also noted Swiss rolls for about £9, bubble tea from about £4, and fritters, corn dogs on a stick and stalls selling fruit and ice cream.

She finished with a £3 treat of sugar-glazed grapes, which she rated six out of ten. It was a fun bit of fluff after what she called the most uncomfortable meal of her channel. Her takeaway for travelers is simple: the best of Chinatown, she says, is in the busy bakeries and grab-and-go stalls where the prices are low and the welcome is warm, not necessarily in the restaurant with the famous reputation.