In January 2017, Roberts London visited Jen Café in the heart of London’s Chinatown. The small jade-green café on Newport Place had become one of the neighbourhood’s most recognisable informal eating places, known above all for Beijing-style dumplings made by hand in the street-facing window.

Chinatown during the lantern season

The film begins outside among the red lanterns of the Chinese New Year season. Newport Place was busy with visitors, restaurant queues and people moving between Gerrard Street, Wardour Street and the surrounding West End. The decorations gave the neighbourhood a striking identity after dark, but Jen Café stood out in a different way: compact, brightly lit and unmistakably practical.

Jen Café occupied 4–8 Newport Place. Its green-painted frontage and simple interior never suggested a polished restaurant experience. This was a no-frills café where the preparation of the food formed part of the attraction. Passers-by could watch flour-dusted hands turning wrappers and filling into neat dumplings before deciding whether to step inside.

Dumplings made in the window

The defining image of Jen Café was the dumpling maker at work. Dough was rolled and divided, wrappers were filled, and each dumpling was folded and sealed by hand. It was a continuous, skilled process carried out in full view of the street. Long before open kitchens became a familiar design feature, this window offered an unvarnished look at the work behind the plate.

Inside, the dumplings arrived boiled and glossy on a patterned plate. They were substantial rather than delicate, with soft wrappers enclosing a generous savoury filling. Soy sauce provided the simple accompaniment. The pleasure came from the contrast between the yielding dough and the seasoned centre, and from knowing that the plate had been assembled only moments earlier.

Jen Café also served drinks associated with the changing food culture of Chinatown, including bubble tea and Hong Kong-style milk tea. Yet the handmade dumplings remained its clearest identity. The café offered something direct and memorable: visible preparation, quick service and a dish closely associated with northern Chinese cooking.

An archive of a closed Chinatown café

Jen Café closed permanently in October 2022. Its disappearance was felt particularly strongly because the café had occupied such a visible position in Chinatown and had remained deliberately uncomplicated while the surrounding West End changed. For regular customers, its green frontage, shared tables and plates of boiled dumplings belonged together.

This 2017 film is therefore no longer a current restaurant recommendation. It has become an archive record of a London institution during an ordinary evening of service: the lanterns overhead, the preparation window in motion and a plate of dumplings placed on a green table. Those everyday details are precisely what make old city films increasingly useful.

Filmed in London’s Chinatown and published by Roberts London on 31 January 2017.