Many many moons ago, people used to refer to me as ‘Leong’. And several moons after, I became a legend, and I galloped into the sunset with my silver stallion and lived happily ever after. No, I’m kidding, but I did (and still do) go by Kang L(eong), Leong being my surname for anybody who is wondering. I think it translates to ‘Gentle’, so you can all refer to me as Mr Gentle from now on (perhaps a reflection of my skills in the boudoir….?). This (of course) has nothing to do with the Taiwanese restaurant we’re going to talk about, which is now so successful, it has open its second legendary outpost. Let’s find out if indeed, the legend does continue.
Where is the love?
I was a little confused to find that after eating at Leong’s Legends, I walked past another Leong’s Legends. Surely, Chinatown ain’t that small; puzzled, I felt a black cat moment there. Free your mind, Neo. Either it was a really big restaurant with multiple entrances, or they have opened a new branch (what fantastic logic, mr gentle). Anyway, Continues – like many Chinatown restaurants – is spread over multiple floors, and we had to scale very cramped staircases until we finally hit the 3rd floor that could accommodate us. I love all the faux rose wood they have used for the furnishings and the low hanging lights are just great. Bit like a mass produced version of Hakkasan. (wait, isn’t that called cha cha moon?)
Chilli chills
The menu reads well, a lot of faithful Taiwanese classics, a statement backed up with a recent trip to Taiwan. I spotted ‘Thousand Year’ egg with tofu, mmmm… and the oyster pancakes, mmm… and stuffed breads, mmm….
I was on the bench for this one, and I left it to my Taiwanese bred compagno to make the decisions on what to eat.
Dish number one is boiled pork belly slices with a very intense garlic paste on the side. The blandish meat didn’t taste like much, but it did have quite an intense chilli hit in the after taste, my throat was positively flaming. I chose the douse those flames by dipping the meat into the garlic paste, but man oh man – it was probably strong enough to fend off Dracula… ok in keeping with times, Edward, no no, Bella.
Gluten
Next, I sampled the bamboo rice with scallops.
Yeah it wasn’t bad, full flavoured and the choice of going with scallops definitely a prime contributor to the umaminess. However, the glutinous rice was verging on being too dry. Not enough stickiness or density. It was forgettable…. next?
Mono sodium glutamate
I was lusting after an oyster dish since I had amazing oyster dishes in Taiwan. And so, Tofu with Oysters and what was supposed to be a black bean sauce, although what came out looked more like a spicy chiili bean paste; a ma-po sauce I believe.
This dish is seriously spicy, with just a tad too much chilli in my humble opinion. I don’t mind the chilli so much, but the heaviness of the sauce weighed down the dish as the tofu tasted very dead, instead of being lively. Similarly, the oysters were a total failure, it was utterly mushy, like its been in a freezer for far too long; bursting flavours of the sea, were positively absent.
The Legends end.
Overall, I think Leong’s Legends is merely ok. There were flavour balancing issues, far too much chilli to go with stale ingredients, not a good combination I can assure you. Still, it was a rather affordable meal which just sneaked in at £20 plus a couple of glasses of soya milk. I probably won’t be indulging in my namesake restaurant again in the near future; I’m afraid the legend ends with this meal.
The Gist of It
Leong’s Legends
26-27 Lisle Street WC2H 7
(020) 7734 3380
£12pp
Verdict: Not Taiwan in London as I originally imagined. Flavours are all over the place, and excessive use of MSG is alittle worrying. Merely ordinary in my opinion.
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Tags: chinese, leicester square, leong's legends, london, restaurant review, soho, taiwanese
so my brother’s name is also Leong and maybe my parents lied to him to maintain his musculinity but they tell him it’s Dragon. Mr Dragon sounds pretty cool huh? You’d need a tattoo to go with that. Leong’s Legend sounds like Ba Shan in Soho. I’d hoped Taiwan in London also but not to be. Plus not that affordable.
catty’s last blog post..Le Comptoir Gascon rend mon ventre tout heureux
You know, I’ve never noticed all these dishes you tried during your meal at LL. Try sticking with the dim sum there.
An American in London’s last blog post..Malaysian Restaurant Faceoff: Rasa Sayang (Soho) vs. Sedap (Clerkenwell)
Too bad the food wasn’t as perfect as your photos.
: )
My former Chinese teacher and now foodie friend didn’t like the food at this branch either. I wasn’t a fan of my dinner at the original Leong’s, but my recent dim sum lunch was more successful!
Helen Yuet Ling Pang’s last blog post..Taste of London 2009
Catty – Do you mean your brother’s name in Dragon, as in, ‘Lung’ , like Bruce Lee Siau Lung?
An American in London/Helen – I just read Helen’s review on Dimsum at LL and It looks quite good
I’ll have to return and try the dimsum sometime soon 
Mylastbite – thanks
hey kang! another great review. the leong family has recently opened Keelung on Lisle street which does taiwanese food. it’s pretty good (depending on what u order!) and priced reasonably. if you’ve tried it, let me know what you think!
We used to like going to Leong’s Legend when it first opened last year. In fact, kept taking different friend there. But only a few months after it first opened, we happened to go for dumplings that night but discovered the place was closed as health inspector caught them, can’t remember whether it was cochroaches or rats? They have since re-opened but when we got up the courage to try them again last month, we were pretty disappointed. They used to do really good soup dumplings with the skin just thin/thick enough to contain the soup but without breaking. But this time, the skin was so thick that you can’t really break it whichever way you pick it up. That was the biggest let down. Then we tried a dish with vermicelli and the noodles wasn’t even fully cooked yet! It was so hard that you can feel it going down your throat! We’re definitely not going back there again.
Hi Kang, thanks for your wittily written and honest review. I am very curious to try some good Taiwanese cuisine, would you have another recommendation in London? I like Hunan a lot but wanted to try something different. I haven’t yet been to Taiwan, and am dying to learn more about the cuisine.
I went to Terroirs last Friday after reading your review, and loved it, what a great find, thanks for that!
We used to frequent this restaurant 2-3 times a week, despite the rushed service we were given. Slowly over a year the service has become unbearable, to the point of rudeness, being hurried through your meal so they can turn the table and last night was the last straw. After being sat at a dirty table, we waited 15 minutes to get our menus only after we asked. We ordered 3 starters straight away to avoid any further delay. We asked for some plates or bowls at the same time. This took asking for it twice whilst we sat watching 2 of our starters go cold. The won ton then came out cold. We then ordered kung po chicken to which I bit in to it and was raw. We discretely told the waitress who seemingly did nothing. The Manageress walked past so we stopped her. We told her we cannot now eat any of the remaining food as our stomachs have turned at the thought of raw chicken and food poisoning. She said we have to pay for everything except for the chicken as we had had spoonfuls of the other 2 dishes. After explaining all of the above she still said we had to pay for it all. Seemingly no idea about customer service or ways to keep customers. As a token gesture she removed a bottle of sparkling water off our bill. She still tried to charge us service charge. The food used to be amazing, the service used to be a hell of a lot better when there was a very sharp man managing the floor. There is now no point in going there.
[...] and I have chosen to return to Leong’s Legends Continues – a restaurant which I panned not too long ago. I have good reason to go back because I have heard good things about their dim sum. I take the [...]