Old Tree Daiwan Bee

Slightly hidden away from the main area of Chinatown, this restaurant serves up Taiwanese street food, so think rustic, hearty fare. Taiwanese food has some influence on Malaysian Chinese food, so I decided to give it a go
Cold weather is the perfect excuse for one of my favourite genres of food — noodles in soup. I plumped for the stewed belly pork noodles. I found the fatty belly pork lovely for my taste but the soup could have done with more depth and umami
I also had a side of oyster omelette. I had assumed it would be similar to the Malaysian version but what arrived didn’t quite match. The sauce that covered the omelette pretty much dominated
I’ve seen other dishes I want to try but for now, it’s a 3 star rating from me

As a huge fan of Taiwanese cuisine, it pains me to give any Taiwanese restaurant a bad review — and I thought long and hard about any redeeming factors that could allow me to at least give a pity 2*. But this place just doesn’t serve authentic Taiwanese food, the prices are high even by London standards, and the service is poor to boot. To put it in perspective, my two Taiwanese friends I went with were even more disappointed than I was.
Take the oyster omelet (oazen) as prime example — it is a completely nontraditional preparation (see attached picture). Here they take the oysters/​vegetable/​starch and quite literally wrap it in a fried egg, so that the egg is completely distinct from the ingredients. So the moment you try to split it up or bite into it, the oysters/​vegetable/​starch just fall out of the fried egg. This is one of Taiwan’s most famous and recognizable dishes and the preparation here is just shameful.
We also ordered the beef noodle soup and the three cup chicken. While the basic flavors and preparation were better (not that that’s saying much, especially as it’s pretty much impossible to screw up three cup chicken), we found both dishes rather bland — especially the beef noodle soup, which was barely spicy at all.
Worst off, the service was at best indifferent and most of the time was just plain unfriendly. Considering all of the above and at about £9 per dish and very small servings, there’s just no justification to visit here.

Found this place on the off chance– absolutely loved it. 90s pop music in a non hipster way, relaxed atmosphere, amazing prices and tasty Taiwanese food! Definitely coming back–

I would absolutely recommend Old Tree if you’re looking for Taiwanese food in London. The soup broth isn’t hugely flavourful, but all other dishes were delicious.

Really good food, we had the chicken with rice and it was really nice, but they should say it comes with pork on top. One of my friends ordered the «famous famous lamb noodles» which were again really nice. As starter we asked for the dumplings and were really surprised to see they came with no sauce or anything.
The bubble tea is also really good.
Why 3*, then? The staff is so, so difficult. It took a while to get the soya sauce and we ordered a lemonade only to be told with a nasty face they didn’t have lemonade. We were really confused after seeing all the staff cutting lemons like crazy and when we looked at other table and we pointed at a lemon looking drink, she said: that’s lemon juice! and rolled her eyes. Seriously, can’t you just tell us you have lemon juice instead, darling? We did not take long to decide, we knew what we wanted but we did have to wait a good five minutes for you to stop cutting lemons and do what you are supposed to do and take our order.
Would I go again? Maybe, but I having passed a couple of times, I decided to go somewhere else instead.
FYI– there is no toilet.

As a taiwanese couple, we stop by old tree for a late dinner. The space is limited and it seems always crowded. However, we left thinking it’s probably our last time to come here. Service was poor thus we were stunned to be charged 10% service fee, seriously? Its a shame, they should do better.

Fyi– this place is cash only!
Yum! Well, at least I think it was delicious… my current cold is preventing me from tasting food for my first couple days in London but my husband said it was delicious so I’ll believe him!
We ordered number 27 (8.8 pounds), hot and sour beef noodles. The menu showed 2 spicy chilis and this was a really good spice level, enough to make you sweat just a little bit. 3 chilis would be too much for me here. The beef was high quality and thick and the carrots were delicious. Definitely a great choice to warm your soul on these winter nights.
We also ordered number 2 (4.5 pounds) which was a pork belly steam bun sandwich and this was amazing. I’m normally pretty skeptical of fatty meats, but hey, when you’re in an exotic place like London, why not try something new ;). The meat was definitely fatty but it tasted great so no complaints here!
Definitely give this place a try! It’s very cramped and there is no restroom, so don’t go to this place for the ambiance.

Great Taiwanese food, reminded me so much of home:) The place is quite small, so i wouldnt recommend groups bigger than 4.
They have quite a selection of small plates, and a few mains with rice/​noodles. The small plates can add up to quite a bill, so i would recommend getting a main, and a small plate to share. We had the pork schnitzel with rice and dan dan noodles, which were both amazing, and shared a small plate and a drink each. That, and a super yummy strawberry puff to share left us both super stuffed but sooooo satisfied!
The bill came to £31 for 2, which i think is totally worth it for good food in London!

I was pleasantly surprised to find this little café located close to Chinatown; I’ve heard great things about its Golders Green location but since that’s so far away…
Anyway, I came here once every week or two last fall, and I really like the décor — it’s a pretty small space with wooden benches instead of individual chairs, and a display of cakes and pastries lining the windows (reminding me a little of 85C.) The sesame oil chicken noodle soup is GREAT! Not sure if they also serve it in spring/​summer (as I recall it was a winter-​only dish???) but I do recommend it. The fried foods were alright, a little overly salty. I also liked their bubble tea (especially the boba which was always the right consistency) but at that price I prefer going to Chatime for tea since they have bigger drinks for just ten pence more…
The one thing I’m not too keen on is the staff — they’re not outright mean or anything, but could do with more smiling and attentiveness. In all a pretty alright place for Taiwanese food in London.

Ordered: Mapotofu, Taiwanese pop chicken, Buns, Ramen amongst others
Price: £20-£30 per head
Review: Its OK I guess. Its quite expensive for the portions. I was pretty hungry after the meal… I guess its a nice place to go when you’re feeling like a quick bite to eat. Not a place for something serious.

When I randomly passed this place and looked at the menu, I couldn’t believe my luck.
THEY HAVE RED BEAN MILK HERE!!!
And one can put bubbles in that if ones chooses to.
I was looking for that stuff all over London — Red Bean Milk Bubble Tea. Couldn’t find it anywhere. Until now!
Also some nice red bean pastry (can you tell that I love me some red bean?).
It was quite yummy too, with the bubbles being neither too hard, nor too soft.
As far as price was concerned, the red bean milk with bubbles was about 4.50£ and one of those small balls filled with red bean paste was 2£.
The combination of the staff not being particularly friendly (I wanted to barge in there and go «Oh my god! You guys have red bean milk!!» — but once I saw their faces, it instead became «Uhm… one red bean milk please»), as well as the price at least for my taste being a tad high (if memory serves me right, Candy Café was better in that regard) makes me drop the rating down that one notch from a perfect one.
If you want to check out photos, look up the timeout page for this place. I won’t upload those images here for obvious copyright reasons.
It is also mentioned in a review there that allegedly somebody was charged for sitting down with just dessert. Personally, I didn’t encounter that. Hell, I even read a book while taking my sweet time sipping that red bean milk. Of course the place wasn’t very busy at the time and one should say that it IS incredibly tiny. So… we’ll see what more people will report as time progresses, I suppose. So far, so good in my opinion.