Chinese Restaurant Archives – URBAN-ADVENTURER

June 2 2026

Chinatown’s Best Kept Secret – Nan Hotpot

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Traditional Chinese hotpot experience with a modern twist. Located in Chinatown London, Nan Hotpot is a modern Chinese restaurant with vintage-style interior, wooden benches, and antique signs offering Sichuan-style hotpots and modern, creative desserts.

Hotpot

Nan Hotpot London Interior

Photo: Urban Adventurer

Nan Hotpot takes pride on their authentic Chinese hotpot dining experience and its insane shaved ice desserts that are the best in town.

If you’re new to hotpot experience, hotpot is a huge bubbling pot with two or three different broths of your choice and a lot of raw ingredients that you cook for yourself.

Photo: Urban Adventurer

You can choose from a long list of ingredients, including vegetables, thinly sliced meat, seafood, noodles, mushrooms, tofu, egg and even skewers.

It’s a very interactive and fun experience and you can cook your ingredients as long as you wish, so they will be exactly how you like them.

Photo: Urban Adventurer

We ordered the trio soup: tomato, mushroom and Guizhou which is an aromatic hot-and-sour soup base.

We chose a variety of ingredients from meat to seafood to vegetable, including double chilli tender chicken, crab sticks, black fungus, Enoki mushroom, gong choi, lotus slices, tong-ho and meatballs.

Photo: Urban Adventurer

We also tried the Oolong milk tea which was five-star!

Unlimited Dipping Sauces

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Your hotpot comes with unlimited access to the dipping station where you can pick and mix any sauces you wish. Simply, grab a dipping bowl and start mixing.

If you need inspiration, a chart helps you what to mix to get the most satisfying result. Once your mix is ready, bring it to your table and dip your bites into it or pour it on the top of your noodles.

Our go to sauces are sesame paste, garlic, and soy sauce.

Viral Dessers

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Make sure you leave room for dessert because Nan Hotpot’s viral shaved ice dessert is the best (and the TALLEST) in town.

There are over 10 different flavours to choose from, customisable and they even contain popping boba, biscuits and jelly!

The Mango Royale Snowflake Ice was heavenly delicious.

Photo: urban Adventurer

We also ordered the Taro & Ube Ice Mountain. It came with extra Taro sauce and there were lots of sweet crunchy bits, popping boba and jelly inside. It’s a HUGE sharing dessert, so make sure you leave room for it.

Nan Hotpot is the only one in Chinatown open till 3am. Perfect spot after a night out with friends.

Practical Info

Photo: Urban Adventurer

Address

Na Hotpot | 1 Leicester Pl, London WC2H 7BP

(Nearest stations are Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus)

Opening Times

Mon – Sat: 12pm – 3am

Sun: 12pm – 11pm

Booking

Book a table here

Ready for your next adventure? Now that you’ve visited a modern Chinese restaurant, how about travelling back in time to the 8^th-century China. Dragon Inn Club is just a stone-throw away from Victoria station and it invites its visitors to a journey to the Silk Road.

March 12 2025

Dragon Inn Club – A Time Travel to the 8th-Century China

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Hidden away from the busy Victoria station, Dragon Inn Club is famous for its Sichuan Hotpot and relaxing atmosphere with dim red lighting and bamboo décor that recreates the journey of the Silk Road.

@urbanadventurerldn

⚠️ Hidden gem alert ⚠️ [MORE INFO IN BIO] If you love Sichuan cuisine and Chinese history, this restaurant is a must visit 🥢 @Dragoninnclub2017 is an authentic Chinese restaurant, inspired by the 8th-century China 🐉 🗺️ Embark on a journey on the Silk Road that once famously connected China to the Western world 🍹Enjoy cocktails influenced by ingredients from the Far East or indulge in a classic Chinese hotpot with three different broths and cook your own meat and vegetables 🍗🥬 #chinesecuisine #chinesefood #chinesehotpot #hiddengem #chineseculture #chinesehistory #nightout #silkroad

♬ Chinese New Year – Lux-Inspira

Travel Back in Time to the 8^th Century China

Photo: Urban Adventurer

Tucked away on Upper Tachbrook Street (5-min walk from Victoria station), Dragon Inn Club doesn’t seem extraordinary from the outside. It looks just like other restaurants in the area.

Step in, however, and find yourself transported back in time to the 8^th-century China. Embark on a journey on the Silk Road that once famously connected China to the Western world.

Authentic Interior

Photo: Urban Adventurer

To make the restaurant as authentic as possible, all the decorations are imported from China. All the lanterns, the ceramic decorations, the statues, the pictures on the walls, even the tiles on the floor and the wood on the walls are all from China.

Photo: Urban Adventurer

There’s even an altar, a real Chinese desk with ink brushes and ink holder and an ancient rice milling machine which was used for changing the paddy rice into rice.

Ancient rice milling machine

Photo: Urban Adventurer

The ground floor gives space to a cosy cocktail bar where they serve themed cocktails, premium spirits, Sake, tea and more.

The signature cocktails are influenced by ingredients from the Far East and will bring guests on a sensory journey to the secrets of Chinese flavours.

Whether you choose the ‘Terracotta Soldier’, the ‘Call me Geisha’ or ‘The Lost Wuxia’, you can be sure that you will experience something very exotic. The cocktails are infused with rose and plum flavours, black tea, or fruits like watermelon or peach.

The Main Restaurant

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The main restaurant is downstairs.

It’s a large airy place, divided into dimly lit sections where guests can have relaxed intimate experience.

In addition to the main restaurant, there is a private dining suite and private booths for an even more intimate experience with your significant other or the closest family members.

Sichuan Menu

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Central to many Sichuan dishes the famous ‘Five Fragrances’. These are: fennel, pepper, aniseed, cinnamon and clove.

These are combined with chili, and Sichuan peppercorns that define the region unique, easily recognisable tase profile.

Dragon Inn Club has an extensive a la cart menu, including Peking Duck, seafood, noodles and more.

We started with the Beijing Roast Duck. The duck was cooked to perfection in a traditional style. It was juicy and soft and full of flavour. It was served with vegetables, some sauce and pancakes, so you can make your own mini savoury pancakes just as you like it.

Sichuan Hotpot

Photo: Urban Adventurer

The centre of the whole menu, however, is the Sichuan Hotpot.

Sichuan Hotpot is what Dragon Inn Club is specialised in and it’s a social way of eating Chinese people have enjoyed thousands of years. Dragon Inn Club embraces this tradition by offering authentic ingredients with a modern twist.

Hotpot dining is very popular in China even today. It’s a very interactive dining experience where raw ingredients are served with different flavoured soup broth and guest cook their own food in the shimmering pot of flavourful stock at the table.

Photo: Urban Adventurer

Hotpots can perfectly customisable depending on the guests’ taste or dietary requirements and it’s the perfect way to bring friends and family together and creating memories to treasure.

Dragon Inn Club offers Hotpot Set Dinner, Vegan Hotpot Menu, and Build Your Own Hotpot, along with a Sichuan a la cart menu, Express Menu which perfect for pre-or post-West End theatre dining, and Beginners Menu for those not familiar with Chinese cuisine.

Photo: Urban Adventurer

The restaurant’s Head Chef, Qing Song Fan, is proud of the vibrant modern dishes successfully blended with tradition and authenticity.

The menu features a range of adventurous dishes, including prawn ravioli with chili, corn-fed chicken cooked in Sichuan oil or century egg with soy and chili.

We tried the Classic Hotpot menu.

Photo: Urban Adventurer

The menu features three different soup bases: Sichuan spicy, Chicken & spring onions and Classic tomato.

The hotpot comes with 14 different ingredients – meat and veg – for you to cook for yourself in the broths. The ingredients included beef slices, chicken slices, lamb slices, tofu, fresh king prawns, fresh scallops, noodles, oyster mushroom, and lotus root slices, just to name a few.

Cooking our own meal was great fun. We experimented with different ingredients with different soup bases.

We also had seven different sauces from spicy to mild to soy sauce to try with the different meat and vegetables.

If you have never tried hotpot before, don’t worry! The staff if very helpful and will explain everything, from how to cook your ingredients and for how long, to why there are two different sizes of chopsticks on your table and how to use them.

If you’re not comfortable with using chopsticks, you can get fork and spoon instead.

Private room

Photo: Urban Adventurer

Dragon Inn Club is a must-visit hidden gem for anybody who loves authentic Chinese cuisine and interested in Chinese culture or history because this restaurant perfectly blends the two. Make sure you allow time to explore every corner of the restaurant because the more you look, the more you discover.