Lau's Restaurant

Best Yumcha (Chinese tapas) in Jozi by far!! Fresh, authentic and delicious as always. What more could you ask for... Definitely one of my must stops whenever I'm in town.

Real Chinese restaurant as in not westernized food.

The service is nice, polite and efficient but could be more attentive.

Authentic, tasty dim sum and Chinese food. Lots of local Chinese folk frequent this place, so to me that speaks volumes of the quality :) it's not 5 star because bill is in Chinese and most of the waiters are rather indifferent. But then with such great food, I don't mind too much.

Decent dim sum every Sunday! Good amount of selection to choose from. The prices leans towards the expensive side and lack of service; thus be prepared to be proactive to get your own food.

If you're looking for an authentic spot for Yum Cha on a Sunday, Lau’s delivers. It’s a self service affair (don’t expect much when it comes to service) where you head up to a table filled with mini bamboo steamers and plates of delicious little tapas style Chinese foods. There is a lot to choose from and it’s all authentic and delicious. The bao, dumplings and spicy cucumber salads were stand outs, as well as my favourite congee soup. Be warned though, it all starts adding up quite quickly and we managed to rack up a bill of R400 for three people.

Hi folks, this is a delayed posting of a visit with a friend to this Dim Sum place.  Took place last week Sunday over the semi-long weekend.

Decided to induct my Portuguese Chef friend into the wonderful world of Dim Sum by taking him to this establishment.   As everyone knows, Dim Sum is dime a dozen in Johannesburg, but authentic Dim Sum is hard to find outside of Cyrildene.  No no, I'm not talking about those so called avant-garde places which serve cheese and spinach har gou and the likes, bleh!!!

Since the demise of Regal Palace in Linksfield Terrace, the only other decent Dim Sum restaurant is Shun De.    But Shun De, I feel can be somewhat of a hit and miss place.  Sometimes good, sometimes very average in the food quality.  And the service, well, that's a different story.  I recall some weeks back when I took a friend there for Dim Sum brunch, she was visibly shocked and taken aback when the waitress just plonked the tea pot (with panache I might add) on the table and walked away.

Nevertheless, back to the review of Lau's.  There is secure parking behind the building where Lau's is. Just  turn where you would turn if you are going to McD's.   But I have seen some patrons park their cars at McD's car park too.

When we arrived there at 1pm, lunch service was in full swing and there were no empty tables save one which was right by the entrance which I politely declined.  The waitress then suggested to "tap toy" (no, we don't tap any toys here) but that's Cantonese speak for share a table which is the norm in Hong Kong Dim Sum places and of course where I come from in Singapore.  

The 8 seater round table that we would be sharing with was already occupied by a young couple.  We sat at the other side and gave a running commentary to my Chef friend on the whys and wherefores of the etiquette of Dim Sum dining.  

After ordering Jasmine tea (and stopping my friend from ordering a cool drink) and it was delivered albeit with less plonk and more grace, we got up with our Order Chit and proceeded to where the food was displayed and dished.  

For the first round (referring to the pic), we ordered all the steamed and boiled items.  It included Tripe (for Chef, not me) the ever popular and Pork & Century Egg Congee and Char Siu Pau, etc.  

Chef was particularly impressed with the tripe as it was done very Asian style with pieces of Daikon in it.  I helped myself to the Daikon while Chef devoured the tripe which was done in a slightly spicy gravy.  

The congee was nice, but the Restaurant used pieces of pork instead of minced pork (which I prefer).  But the flavor of the congee was nice still.  The quintessential Siu Mai, Har Gou and Char Siu Pau were good. 

For second rounds, we ordered more of the fried and baked stuff.  Of special mention was the Char Siu So.  The flaky pastry that surrounded the sweet Char Siu filling was outstanding, and easily the most sumptuous offering that we picked.

All in all the restaurant was really promising and the quality of the food in my opinion is of a higher grade than that of Shun De.  I see a lot of families there and as usual, they would be ordering items from the a la carte menu to supplement the Dim Sum dishes and as we were seated quite near the exit from the Kitchen, we could glimpse the dishes being carried out and they do look quite amazing.

A gem of a place to have been discovered and I am pretty sure I would be there again real soon to savor more of the delicious Dim Sum dishes they have to offer!

My husband and I had a wonderful dinner here! The service was ok. One server was really nice and the other not so much. We loved the food though! Our favorite was the shrimp dumplings, but the fried pork dumplings, wonton soup, sizzling beef, and salt and pepper calamari were also fabulous! We would definitely recommend eating here! We didn’t have a bad dish!

What an Experience! An introduction to Chinese cuisine! Was awesome!

Good variety of 'dim sum' with new ones that I haven't tried before. Yum Cha does get very busy during peak hours so best to book or come early to avoid long waiting periods. Service is 'ok' and can definitely be improved upon.

Great place to have dim sum. All the food are good and well made. The price is a bit high so it's not a place I will be coming weekly but I will come back occasionally.

Fantastic yum cha / dim sum brunch.