Bun House Chinatown: walk-in only, and open to half ten at weekends

Bun House is a small Cantonese place on Lisle Street doing steamed buns, dim sum and wontons, and it has one rule that decides how you use it.

It is walk-in only. No bookings, at any time, for any size of group. Checked on the venue’s own site on 9 September 2026.

Where and when

26-27 Lisle Street, London WC2H 7BA, in Chinatown, a couple of minutes from Leicester Square.

Monday 12 to 9. Tuesday to Thursday 12 to 10. Friday and Saturday 12 to 10:30. Sunday 12 to 10. Monday is the short day and the one to avoid if you are coming late; Friday and Saturday to half past ten make it a genuine after-show option, which most of Chinatown’s sit-down rooms are not.

What to order

The buns are the reason to go and they are steamed rather than baked. The custard one, with salted egg yolk and coconut carrot juice, is the signature and the one the queue is usually for. The savoury buns run to chicken thigh with lemongrass and coconut curry, lamb belly with cumin and chilli, BBQ pork belly with yam and lardo, beef flank in chuhou gravy, and a vegetarian one of roasted mushrooms and water chestnut.

Beyond the buns there is proper dim sum, har gau and siu mai, and wontons in soy vinegar or hot and sour sauce.

How to handle the no-bookings rule

Go early or go late. The middle of a Friday evening in Chinatown is the worst possible time to arrive at a small room that cannot hold a table for you, and the half ten close means the last hour is often the easiest hour.

For a group, this is the wrong venue and there is no arrangement that changes that. Somewhere that takes bookings is the answer, not turning up in eight and hoping.

Around it

Burger and Beyond on Old Compton Street is a few minutes away and does take bookings, which makes it the fallback when the queue is out of the door. Soho and pre-theatre dinner cover the rest of the area, and after dark lists what runs later.