Kowloon

BAKERY Review Only:
This is the most authentic Chinese bakery in London. We enjoyed it so much that we made the effort to visit a 2nd time after finishing a tour in Trafalgar Square.

Egg tarts - Yes, good crust that doesn't collapse on the first bite. Center contents were perfect as it was smooth and rested on my tongue with no running liquid and reminds you of egg custards back in the days when people gave damn about quality.

Sesame seed balls - there is a pretty decent churn on these and we had to wait 5-10 min for the next batch. For those who do not like the familiar large chunks of red bean, this is a good compromise as there is a sufficient amount but it doesn't overwhelm the entire ball.

BBQ Pork bun - large portion, we got lucky that it was still pretty warm.

CASH ONLY

Kowloon is one of many touristy Chinese bakeries and buffets in London's Chinatown. Although I really wanted to like it, it just wasn't great. The pastries were ok but cold. The buffet was a decent value, but the food quality was nothing remarkable, and they didn't even have chopsticks. If you want a quality, authentic Chinese meal, this unfortunately isn't the place.

The first 1 star review I've ever given and I am extremely saddened...

First of all, the food: there was a great selection. As someone who grew up with Asian baked goods, the selection got me and my sister very excited. And the food looked fresh enough! But when we saw the reviews, instead of going crazy and buying all the goodies we wanted, we decided to just try one.

Thank goodness we did that! Because we purchased 1 Pineapple Bun and... it was terrible. Terrible in the way that it tasted stale, and it was salty? I couldn't figure out why because Pineapple Buns are supposed to taste sweet. I took one bite and immediately told my family members to just throw it away. It wasn't even worth trying to finish it.

Second of all, the service: now, like I said, I grew up on Asian baked goods so I have pretty thick skin when it comes down to rudeness. But man, was the rudeness in this establishment on a hole other level. My mother asked the lady who picked up the food for people a simple question and the lady immediately just shouted an answer at my mum as if she was ignorant and stupid. When we went to pay, the lady just took the money. No thank you, no come again. Well, we won't be coming again anymore.

This entire place was a disappointment. I don't really understand why they had so much business because just the service itself would've just put me off. Extremely disappointed, and it's establishments like these that give some Asian restaurants a bad rep.

Have to say that I do like a good Chinese and it's been awhile since I had one so whilst I'm London we thought that we would take a look at Chinatown and pick a place that looked good from the food on offer and had a reasonable price.

From the outside Kowloon looked like the place to go as the food through the window looked very appetising and good value - but word of warning they will take cash only so don't go in if you think you can pay by card.

It did look busy inside when we entered but we were taken to a table and sat down after a couple of minutes the person on the till started to talk loudly at us saying we couldn't sit there I tried to explain this is where we were told to site and tired to see where she wanted us to move to but that clearly didn't work until the original person came back and moved us to another table.

Plates were eventually brought over and we went a picked our food have to say that the choice was good and the food was hot so that was something positive the drinks didn't taste great but they were from a can.

Value for money wasn't really there which was a shame

It used to be the best Chinese bakery in Chinatown but I'm afraid their standards have dropped in the last couple months. What used to be fresh egg tarts with the fragrant egg middle and buttery flaky crust is now replaced with a diluted egg filling and a really sad crust. Along with the egg tarts, I bought my usual share of beef curry turnovers, banana mochi, melon cake and sesame ball. Melon cake was okay but the rest tasted stale. Would not go back again - the search for a decent Chinese bakery continues...

Once upon a time, the foolish hungry american tourist stopped at the buffet. happily never after.

Food: admittedly tastes alright, but choices are limited (many are filler vegetarian items - fried wontons with no filling, potato pastries, fries, sweet potato tempura only, fried rice with no egg, etc.) meat dishes (ex. beef stir fry, chicken w/black bean, mongolian pork were good) but i tried not to look to closely (read hygiene section).

Service: FAIL. could write an expletive-ridden essay, but attempting to write cliff notes version...should've left when the crazy host lady seated me next to the staff only door which kept slamming. got yelled at by lady because didn't know to pay first. yelled at by staff because another person put here bag on my table while zipping jacket (thought i was sneakily adding to people at table). another man got reprimanded for getting more food (staff said "i wish you were gone already").

Hygiene: yes, its that bad that this gets it's own section (a personal Yelp first!). dirty floors, dirty food area. will spare fellow Yelpers pictures - do not wish to cause loss of appetite.
1) no clean plates provided for subsequent trips
2) lady halfheartedly washing dishes in middle of restaurant (weird) while screaming at waitstaff and banging dishes onto cleaned pile. station is next to buffet area.
3) don't look at floors. didnt brave a visit to restroom. pity/applaud one who does.
lady washing

Bottom Line: doesn't matter how hungry you are don't dine-in buffet here. crazy lady hostess & staff. if desperate, try other buffets in area perhaps? or get takeaway of lots of regular chinese food.

Buffet review only:

'Twas a rainy evening in London on Christmas, and my family and I were tourists trying to find a decent and inexpensive place still open for dinner. Seeing the multitudes of people inside, we assumed Kowloon was an okay restaurant and entered. Fake news! Turns out the others inside were also misguided tourists who stumbled into this trap of a sad, sad restaurant.

We were seated at a table in the back, where the corner of the walls was visibly cracked, repaired haphazardly, and then left to attract dust and grime. The waitstaff immediately demanded the money in cash upfront. It was £14 per person. We were then given plates and reminded repeatedly to take our plates with us to the buffet. We asked for still water, and it took them fifteen minutes to bring us a pitcher and some old plastic cups. The staff kept yelling at each other throughout the restaurant, creating quite a noisy environment. They gave us an empty bowl to scrape our leftovers into, because we had to reuse the same nasty-a** plates. Revolting!

I started on my treacherous trek to the food area, carefully squeezing my way through cramped tables. The buffet selection was minuscule - about sixteen different selections, just enough to line the windows and deceive hungry passerby. A third of the food was the type of fried food you can get at the store and bake in your own oven. The curry potatoes dish looked like half of one potato swimming in a yellow grease pool. The broccoli dripped with oil. The rice was steamed with dubious egg-like flakes. I wondered why they had a serving spoon with the so-called Singapore noodles; turns out they had cut it into such short pieces that it was possible to serve with a spoon (very inauthentic fyi). They had no soup or dessert.

Bathroom: [redacted to prevent your complete loss of appetite]

Bonus: a French couple was on a date next to our table. Both grabbed fried food and ordered cans of Coke (£2 each I believe), neither finished either, the man asked for dessert and was rudely told that there was no dessert, both looked thoroughly disappointed at the end, their relationship was maybe on the rocks after this experience, who knows.

Tl;dr save yourself fifty pounds and a nightmare. If anyone is in contact with Gordon Ramsay, tell him to come here to film Kitchen Nightmares. Sad!

I hate this place! Horrible service, once you sit down they give you your check already and you'd have to pay right then and there. If you leave food on your plate, you'd have to pay and I got the iced tea and they gave me a small amount. Once I finished the drink I asked for a free refill and they said, "yeah sure," and when she gave me my refill she said, "£3 for drink." I am completely dissatisfied about this restaurant.

I only go to the bakery for a quick pit stop. This place is always busy with people picking out sweet and savoury delights. But after seeing the Munchies Youtube Channel and Action Bronson (rapper who also knows world food and can cook) state that this place has THE best BBQ Pork bun...I had to go. I went, I bought two, and I loved it. As he also stated it's better warm but they don't really warm it up. And barely speak much English, but loved it all the same as a cheap snack on the go. And for £1.20. Cheap as chips!

Another one of the Restaurants in Chinatown that has a bakery front so you can just buy and go. I selected a duck pastry (wasn't sure what it was and took a risk) and got a red bean mochi !  The mochi was delicious! So delicious I wanted to go back and get more!  The duck pastry was interesting to say the least. I started with the duck pastry and ate only half. It had interesting flavours, like a sweet bean/ peanut paste? And then some fermented duck egg? That was my guess at least . It was a gamble but I'm still glad I tried it! The mochi was good to end on since it was so yummy and sweet! I love red bean mochi.