Richard Lander: Poon’s is back in town

There’s some great news for those of a certain age (me) who love authentic Chinese food (again me) –  a new Poon’s restaurant will be opening in London later this year. Almost 20 years after the last of seven Poon’s outlets there used to be in capital closed, Amy Poon, daughter of the legendary Bill who ran the old empire, is hoping to hang out the sign again come September. That’s them together in the photo above.

“We are getting there with the legals, which are always a hassle,” Amy says when we meet for coffee in Russell Square, very close to where one of the family restaurants stood back in the day.

To rewind a little, the first Poon’s opened on Lisle Street in the heart of Chinatown in 1973 after Bill and his wife Cecilia, emigrees from Hong Kong, found the capital to be bereft of decent Chinese food. If I close my eyes I can still see and smell the wind-dried duck and sausages hanging in the window. For someone whose introduction to Chinese food had been the post-pub carb fillers in suburban Manchester, the genuine home cooking of Poon’s and the otherworldliness of Chinatown was a wonderful and overwhelming experience.

The other six restaurants opened over the ensuing decade, operated by Bill and his siblings, including a starry – in both the Michelin and clientele sense of the word – restaurant in Covent Garden. Glamour was much closer to hand in London back then, with the likes of Roger Moore and Mick Jagger spottable at the next table rather than being hustled by security goons into a private dining room.

Now, Poon’s is to return in the hands of Amy, who was born and raised here but only returned to London in 2018 after a peripatetic corporate career taking in the Far East and Australia, with sidebars into the art business and opening a champagne bar in Singapore’s red light district.

Since coming back, she has built up a niche business selling fresh wontons and homebrew Chinese sauces via ecommerce and along with successful pop-up restaurants in Clerkenwell and Fitzrovia. She has also just launched new lines – wind-dried bacon and pork and duck liver sausage, which have already received stars in the Great Taste Awards. This business is soon to receive a major upgrade, with a production kitchen in a Bermondsey railway arch opening that will serve retail customers at weekends.

The culinary connection with the historic Poon’s at the new restaurant will be strong. “I think about some of the dishes my father created, based on the readily available ingredients he would have had in Hong Kong,” Amy says. Zhá Jiàng Miàn soup – a noodle and pork-based broth – will be one dish ported over because of the welcome emotional baggage it brings.

But Poon adds: “It’s going to be my version of Poon’s, which is where you would want to come if you don’t have a nice Chinese friend who will cook for you. I’m not a trained professional chef, I’m never going to get a Michelin star.” But judging by her Instagram feed of her home feasts, you’d be extremely lucky to count her as your nice Chinese friend.

She has mixed feelings about how Chinese cuisine has developed in London since peak Poon’s. “I think the standard of Cantonese food by and large has really fallen,” she says. “But the flip side is we do have a lot more regional stuff. But even here people are a bit lazy. They’ll discover one thing about that cuisine, such as peppercorns in Sichuan food, and they’ll peg it as that. So even with this massive influx, which can only be a good thing, the understanding of Chinese food is still very, very shallow, I think.”

Asked where she would dine out for Chinese food in the capital, Poon’s choices include the grandeur of the Royal China Club in Baker Street for dim sum and the unbeatable roast duck in the rather more low-key Four Seasons outlets in Queensway and Chinatown. For the most special of occasions, there is A Wong, the only two Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant outside of Asia.

The involvement of her octogenarian parents in her new ventures has been mixed. While Bill has kept his counsel on the wisdom of the whole operation, her mother has been extremely active, calling in a feng shui master to placate the spirits and insisting on major structural changes at the retail outlet. And it was also her mother who told her she was mad to even think about reviving the family business: “She told me, ‘you could have stuck at a corporate job and had your pension, holidays and company allowance’ and this, that and the other. But the truth is, I’m just not very employable.”

This is a slightly edited version of an article that first appeared on Citywire and is reproduced with permission. Follow Richard Lander on X/Twitter. OnLondon.co.uk provides unique coverage of the capital’s politics, development and culture. Support it for just £5 a month or £50 a year and get things for your money too. Details HERE.