Canton Blue is where London comes when dinner needs to mean something. Around us, the capital’s polished local set slide into velvet booths for long, late dinners, while out-of-towners arrive dressed for the occasion and slightly thrilled to have secured the reservation. A birthday is being toasted beneath the chandeliers; at the next table, somebody has ordered the Peking duck and possibly intends to propose. It is not somewhere one wanders into for supper because the fridge is empty. This is dinner with earrings on.
The adventure begins at The Peninsula’s grand entrance on Hyde Park Corner, before leading upstairs and through an extraordinary porcelain doorway. Beyond it, Belgravia slips away. The lighting lowers, the carpet deepens and Canton Blue appears, dark, decorative and wonderfully seductive.
Hong Kong designer Henry Leung based the restaurant on the Keying Junk, the great three-masted ship that sailed from China to Britain in the 19th century. Its four dining rooms unfold across different levels like the decks of a ship, filled with painted porcelain, carved wood and jewel-bright plates in yellow, cobalt, pink and red. Above, a celestial navigation map glows across the ceiling, tracing the constellations that would once have guided the ship through the night.
Ask for one of the red booths. This is, without question, the spot. Sunk into the scarlet upholstery with the stars overhead, one feels deliciously hidden and considerably more glamorous than one did at the beginning of the evening.
The staff understand the mood perfectly. The restaurant manager is a total delight, warm, funny and present at precisely the right moments. Nothing feels stiff or over-rehearsed. Plates arrive with ceremony, but the room never falls into that peculiar grand-hotel hush in which everybody begins whispering over dinner.
And what plates they are. Begin with dim sum, and plenty of it. Each piece is made by hand under Chef Ling Ling Zeng, London’s first female head dim sum chef, whose warmth is as memorable as her extraordinary precision. She has spent more than two decades folding, pleating and perfecting these tiny parcels, yet arrives at the table with a radiant energy that makes it all feel joyful rather than terribly serious.
The steamed lobster dumpling comes with celery and caviar, translucent and trembly, its wrapper just strong enough to contain the sweetness within. A tiny goldfish dumpling swims across pumpkin sauce, almost too charming to eat, though naturally we manage. The Obsiblue prawn har gow is plump, glossy and beautifully clean; the Shanghai-style xiao long bao releases a rush of rich soup at the first bite; and the baked Iberico pork bun arrives golden, soft and sticky with barbecue pork.
There is no MSG or chicken powder disguising the ingredients. Chef Ling Ling’s cooking relies on traditional Cantonese techniques and flavours that remain clear and distinct. Prawn tastes properly of prawn; scallop of scallop. It sounds terribly simple, but in a dining room this elaborate, that restraint feels rather clever.
Then the theatre begins. The Silver Hill Peking duck is brought to the table whole, its lacquered skin catching the light, before being carved in front of you with knives made especially for Canton Blue by blacksmith Leszek Sikon. First comes the crisp, golden skin with pancakes, plum sauce and the necessary little bowls of cucumber and spring onion. The meat returns as a second course, deep-fried with barbecue sauce and black sesame or stir-fried with lotus root and folded into cool lettuce leaves. It is £135, feeds two and turns dinner into an event.
Elsewhere, the wok-fried Wagyu ribeye with black pepper sauce is smoky, glossy and deeply savoury; steamed sea bass arrives with preserved mustard cabbage; and the barbecued Iberico pork has dark, caramelised edges that make conversation temporarily unnecessary. Order the stir-fried rice with shrimp, scallop, crab and Sakura shrimp for the table, plus something green and garlicky to maintain appearances.
The cooking is Cantonese at heart, with British produce and the occasional clever crossing of worlds, but it never feels confused or overwritten. Even the most elaborate plates know when to stop.
Drinks offer another little journey. Canton Blue holds an extraordinary collection of baijiu alongside more than 200 wines, Chinese rice wines and rare loose-leaf teas. Allow the sommelier to persuade you towards something unfamiliar. This is the sort of restaurant where surrendering control is part of the fun.
For September, the Mid-Autumn Festival brings mooncakes and Mahjong Mondays to the Tea Lounge. The mahjong sets are made from recycled wood by Hong Kong atelier Start From Zero, with jade-green tiles and tiny aviation details designed for Cathay Pacific. A table includes hand-pulled noodles and an apricot gin and yellow baijiu martini, a rather superior way to spend a Monday.
Chef Ling Ling is also hosting intimate mooncake masterclasses, followed by dinner and the chance to eat one’s own handiwork. Those less confident in their pleating can simply order The Peninsula’s warm custard mooncakes or finish with its mango pudding, bright, silky and exactly right after the richness of the duck.
Canton Blue is extravagant, certainly, but not empty spectacle. Beneath the lacquer and constellation light sits serious, traditional cooking, generous hospitality and a restaurant with a warm pulse of its own.
Come for a first date you are hoping will become something, an anniversary that deserves more than the usual booking, a birthday requiring candlelight and duck, or one of those deliciously arbitrary evenings when being together feels like occasion enough. Choose the red booth. Order the dim sum. Let the duck arrive with all its tableside theatre and look up at the stars.
For proposals, milestones and dates you want to remember, this is London dinner at its most transportive.
To book: Canton Blue, The Peninsula London, 1 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7HJ.
The Mid-Autumn Festival menus run from 1 to 30 September 2026. Mahjong Mondays begin on 14 September and cost £30 per person.
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