A. Wong

A. Wong holds a distinction no other restaurant in Europe can claim: it was the first Chinese restaurant outside Asia to be awarded two Michelin stars. Andrew Wong opened it in Victoria in 2012, in the room that had been his parents’ Cantonese restaurant, and spent the years before that travelling China and studying at the Sichuan Culinary Institute in Chengdu.

That research is the whole proposition. Rather than the Cantonese-by-default menu most British Chinese restaurants inherited, Wong cooks across the country’s regional traditions, and the menu is closer to a survey of Chinese cooking than a greatest-hits list. It is deeply researched without being academic about it.

The restaurant is really two experiences. Lunch is dim sum, and it is the best in London by a distance: precise, inventive and, for a two-star kitchen, remarkably affordable. Dinner is a tasting menu that ranges much wider and costs accordingly. If you have not been, go at lunch first.

The room is small and unshowy. Nothing about the decor announces two stars, which is part of the charm and occasionally surprises people who have booked expecting grandeur.

Our verdict: the best dim sum in London, in the first Chinese restaurant outside Asia to hold two Michelin stars. Lunch is the great-value way in.

Go if: you want Chinese cooking taken as seriously as any European kitchen. Skip if: you want a grand dining room.

Book lunch weeks ahead. Wilton Road, Victoria.