Cafe Kowloon

Cafe Kowloon sits behind Wonton Charlie’s, a noodle bar on Mentmore Terrace that acts as its front door. You walk through the empty daytime shop and into a pair of railway arches fitted out with a steel counter, tan booths and enough neon to make the whole thing feel more nightclub than restaurant. It opened in February 2026 from the team behind Mr Bao, and it has been busy since.

The menu leans into Hong Kong reference points without copying them exactly. Grilled curry fish ball skewers and prawn toast sit near wok-fried cheung fun in a shiitake XO sauce, and the Iberico secreto char siu, cooked over charcoal, is the dish most people order twice. Hong Kong French toast shows up as a savoury-sweet hybrid rather than the dessert you might expect, and there’s a rotisserie-cooked half chicken for the table.

Cocktails matter here as much as the food. The bar runs its own list rather than treating drinks as an afterthought, with mini cocktails around £6 aimed at people ordering several rounds across a long dinner. It suits a group booking better than a quiet solo meal, and the noise level in the arch reflects that.

The caveat is consistency. Some plates land exactly right, the char siu and the aubergine among them, while others have come out overcooked or underseasoned depending on the night, which is fairly normal for a kitchen still bedding in. It is not a cheap night out either, once cocktails and several small plates are added up, closer to a proper dinner bill than a quick bite.

Book ahead if you want a specific time. Tables go through SevenRooms and the arches fill up fast on Thursday to Saturday nights, less so earlier in the week if you want to walk in.