Last Updated on July 4, 2026
Dim Sum at St Katherine’s Dock
4.0 out of 5.0 starsBanquet 88 opened in May from the group that also runs the dim sum restaurants Good Fortune Club (Wimbledon and Ealing), as well as Canton Blue and Tao Tao Ju in Chinatown. This light, open and airy spot is a stone’s throw from the Tower of London and nestled nicely in St Katherine’s Dock, an area that, despite its location, is relaxed and almost like a village in feel.
Banquet 88 also has air conditioning, which will continue to be useful as the summer rolls on. The interiors balance the vibes of a futuristic airline lounge with ancient Chinese wall art and knick-knacks. Of course, complete with the ubiquitous large, round, polished tables that spin, giving a large group access to all the goodies across their surfaces.
We started with a lovely glass of Francoise Monay Brut with notes of apricot and sultanas. We were impressed then with the speed of the service, especially as the dim sum started to arrive.
We started with a smoky, crunchy Turnip cake coated in seafood XO sauce. Who knew turnip could be so tender and flavourful! The vegetable had been reconstituted into toothsome cubes which readily absorbed the umami goodness of the XO sauce. We also had Wagyu beef inside a ‘1000 layer’ pastry. Hong Kong is well known for its egg-glazed pastries, and much like those, this casing was mildly sweet and burnished with egg yolk. The Wagyu was soft and peppery and reminded us most of a Cornish pasty.
We then had a Seafood Cheung Fun. The bright red steamed rice-flour batter exterior hides a perfectly crunchy, fried prawn, benefiting from its string-like pastry coating.
Banquet 88 also has a respectable cocktail menu. They were all £9, which is a very good price for London. We started with a Tea Martini, which was mildly sweet, boozy, smooth, and not too tannic, and a Strawberry Margherita, which was strawberry-sweet with that tequila bite. Our second round was a Manhattan with classic Bitter orange, smoke, tobacco, and leather flavours, and a Cosmopolitan, which was sweet, syrupy, and not too dry.
Next came the stars of the show, the steamed dim sum, which all arrived promptly and ready to be enjoyed. The texture of the dough and filling also made clear that these had been handmade, not a certain thing these days when frozen factory-made alternatives are so easily available. We had Cuttlefish and crab dumplings, which were light and bouncy and a little sweet from the crab. We also had pork and prawn Siu mai; the true test of a dim sum, these were delicate but substantial with large chunks of juicy prawn inside.
We also had Har gao prawn dumplings, translucent and bursting with juice. This is a dim sum classic for a reason. And extra special, black truffle siao long bao, which were steamy and sophisticated, filled with truffley soup, each could be delicately lifted with chopsticks from its top knot, drop onto your tongue where they would burst with the broth trapped inside.
We next had pork belly with lettuce wraps; these were lovely and crispy and spiced with cumin, surrounded by cooling, crunchy lettuce. This dish was clearly influenced by the spice trade from the Silk Road, where Middle Eastern ingredients would make it across to East Asia.
Another special dish, black truffle king prawn fried rice. With its short-grain rice and juicy prawns, it was not sticky at all, as it should be, with a decent dollop of proper truffle aroma. It could probably have been served on a slightly smaller plate, however.
And how could we leave without trying the Roast duck? Toothsome, spiced with five-spice, saucy yet still with a crispy skin. This is not to be missed on a visit to Banquet 88.
Our final savoury was highly garlicky garlic greens and had maintained their structure instead of dissolving into mush.
We finished with a refreshing pot of jasmine tea and mango and strawberry mochi, an import from Japan filled with fresh strawberry/ mango and whipped cream inside the rice dough casing and thankfully, not too sweet. We also had a Date and coconut jelly, which were very cute, shaped like rabbits. It was a firm, mild jelly; the coconut tasted most like Thai coconut rice.
We had certainly enjoyed our fill at Banquet 88; the service was delightful, and there is plenty of space for a big gathering, with the location being highly accessible if people are coming from outside of the capital. The menu is also extensive enough to satisfy all sorts of tastes.
Banquet 88, Unit 2, Commodity Quay, St Katherine’s Docks, E1W 1AZ
020 3951 4389
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