Kim Chee opened a long time ago in Holborn and is really popular with the huge number of people willing to queue outside to sit at the communal tables. The tall ceilings, dark paneling and nice interior reminds me of a Hakkasan-inspired restaurant without the prices.

Fortunately the food is still pretty good. I ended up here meeting a friend for an early lunch so we didn’t have to queue. Go at noon during the week and you get seated pretty quickly. Ordering happens via touch remote and food arrives relatively quickly. The menu is very well assembled – nice pictures but I opt to for the Dolsot Bibimbamp (a hot stone bowl served with raw beef and vegetables and rice that you mix together). They provided lots of hot chilli paste and the bowl very well heated to toast the rice in just the right spots.

My dining companion went for the tofu noodles because she was vegetarian. She mentioned it was pretty tasty though a bit hard to eat when the noodles arrived on a plate and you only had chopsticks to eat it with.

The restaurant filled up quickly but it wasn’t too hard to get the bill and, perhaps we were lucky, we didn’t feel rushed as one might expect in a place where the rent isn’t going to be cheap. I’d come back but I’m not so sure about the lining up thing.

Name: Kim Chee
Found at: 71 High Holborn, London WC1V 6EA
Website: http://www.kimchee.uk.com/