The team behind Good Fortune Club – the dim sum institution with outposts in Wimbledon and Ealing that Londoners have been devoted to for years – has gone bigger (and, arguably, better).

Banquet 88 has just landed in St Katharine Docks this May, and it means business: 140 covers, a private dining room, stunning water views, and a sprawling menu that feels like you’re at a Las Vegas buffet – not in the sad, lukewarm, sneeze-guard sense, but the kind where the sheer scale of choice is half the excitement.

Whole Peking duck, roast suckling pig, handmade dim sum, prime seafood. This is not a restaurant that does things by halves. We visited recently – here’s what we ordered.

The vibe check

Banquet88 is right in the middle of St Katharine Docks – a rather lovely marina with yachts on the water, tables spilling outside, and Tower Bridge just metres away. There are a few tables outside if you want to sip on a cocktail before the main event or to eat alfresco. Inside, the space is ample – large round tables with plenty of room between them, so you’re not elbowing your neighbours every time you attempt to eat your egg fried rice with chopsticks. It’s bright, airy, and makes for the ideal unhurried summer dining.

What’s on the menu?

Banquet 88’s menu could very easily be a sequel to War and Peace – it’s a ten-page-plus spread of the best of what Cantonese food has to offer. We started with some gluey, gloopy dumplings that win your heart just on texture and look alone. The translucent, chewy dragon fruit wrapper is really the star here and makes for rather heavenly bites. On the side, the deep-fried taro was dense and mushy, encasing a shrimp-packed centre. It’s a heavy, more filling dish, but we really enjoyed it.

The menu is built for sharing – there’s no rigid starters-mains-dessert march to follow, just a gloriously anarchic back-and-forth of plates landing whenever they’re ready. Order freely knowing nobody here is judgingly keeping score.

On this note, we also tried the salted egg trio – wrongly assuming they were cured egg yolks (always ask before you order). The initial disappointment didn’t last long, as these tempura-battered green beans, taro and aubergine were light, crisp and deeply moreish. Other dishes included:

• Egg fried rice (£12) – for the ultimate quality test -and it passed with flying colours. Not quite as egg-heavy as we’d have liked, but fluffy and toasty like fried rice should be.
• Hot and sour sesame aubergine (£12) – one of the highlights. Battered, which we didn’t see coming, and all the better for it – that extra layer of texture and flavour was the making of the dish.
• Mixed mushroom in crispy pastry cups (£12) – a rich, meaty filling against the crisp, crackling shell. Good, though looking back there were probably more interesting things on the menu worth trying.

We only realised afterwards that there was an entire dessert menu of dreams – a vast spread of mochis and puddings. Luckily there are a couple of sweet treats alongside the mains, so we got our sugar fix regardless. As pictured below, we ordered the soft, steamy sponge cake (almost like a cornmeal bread in flavour) and the custard buns – an absolute heart-robber. Buttery, eggy centres that erupted the moment you opened them, dough so soft and bouncy, the filling unforgivingly rich. These are seriously divine and a must-order.

Desserts

What about drinks?

All the classic cocktails are covered, but we strongly recommend you to try the Chinese wine. We never had Chinese wine before and – having done our rounds through some notable wines from Portugal, Spain and the like, we would never expect much of wine ever again. This was a real revelation; both the white and the red were sweet, full-bodied, dense and velvety. A fabulous – and necessary – pick-me-up when you’re knee-deep in all the lovely dumplings and buns.

Verdict

Banquet88 is worth a one-hour commute across London – it’s not a pit stop but a place where you sit, order another round of dumplings, and watch the world go by. For one, we loved the authenticity of it. We aren’t the Cantonese cuisine police to verify just how close this food comes to the real deal, but we say this wholeheartedly with a grin on our faces: this food feels homely. It’s comforting, moreish, filling and feel-good.

The staff are incredible, too – attentive, always on hand. Our only regret was not leaning on their knowledge as we picked and chose our plates, but you can pretty much blindly point your finger at any item on the menu and you’ll land on something earth-shatteringly good.

Key details

Address: Unit 2, Commodity Quay, St Katharine Docks, E1W 1AZ

Website: banquet88.com

Socials: @8banquet

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