With the Chinese New Year fast approaching there are plenty of celebrations going on to welcome in the new year. My childhood friend Amy’s yum-cha feast at Princess Gardens today marked the first of them. It turned out when we got to Princess Gardens that quite a few other groups had the same idea – to celebrate CNY early!

13 of us turned out for this feast – a mixture of Amy’s work friends, randoms, uni friends and childhood friends (that would be my bro and I.) For some 13 may not be a lucky number and in fact often in the really supersticious of chinese buildings floor 13 (and 14) will be missing! Knock on wood I’ve never had a problem with the number 13 so here’s hoping it bodes well for the new year.

This is only the second time I’ve been to Princess Gardens. Located just near Bond Street in a road perpendicular to Selfridges I’d say Princess Gardens is a hidden gem of London. Yes the dishes tend to be slightly pricier than what you’d find at the yum-cha places in chinatown but bearing in mind your surrounds and the extremely good quality of the food its not such a bad price to pay (and today the price tag didn’t even hurt that much coming out at only £14 each!) Surprisingly (surprising becuase I thought I’d sampled most yum-cha offerings before) I even tried out a few new dishes including Shredded Mooli Cakes (why haven’t I eaten these before – they are delish!), Cuttlefish Cheung Fung and a couple of desserts – honeyed deep friend lychee and some wierd donut dumpling thing with banana and red bean.

A good feast was had by all. We were having such a good time that a few of us even continued on with drinks first at Bonds (where strangely they were only showing the rugby and not the football) and then at some pub in Paddington. So what I thought would just be lunch turned out to be a 10 hour affair!