Water Margin

I am currently here with my American family of 8. The prices are fair and the food comes out quickly.
Our appetizers were out within ten minutes of us ordering, and our main was out right after our appetizers were done.
The Chinese food here is COMPLETELY different from the one in America. Everything is fresh and nothing was overly salted. If you are America coming to a Chinese Resturant in London, you’re in for a big surprise.
I could actually taste the orange in the orange chicken. I was in shock. In my 23 years of living, I have never been to a Chinese Resturant in America that didn’t use high fructose corn syrup, food coloring, a ton of salt.
The food was good, the service was fast, the décor was quaint, and the servers were lovely.

I should have known this wasn’t a good idea when I saw one person sitting in the restaurant — and the place next door was packed…
We went to the Water Margin because we craved for Chinese, and hoped that the good reviews on Unilocal were true. They might have been, but that’s not how we experienced it.
First things first: the food is ok — but a long way from «woohoo.» But good enough for take-​away.
The restaurant looks a bit shabby, and the service was mediocre. When you add that they had no chilled drinks, you probably should go somwhere else…

This a a good local Cantonese, authentic, fresh and reasonable value.

One of the stalwart Chinese restaurants in North London for over 40years!
Basically, the place to go if Chinatown is too far!

It’s difficult to understand how anyone could rate this restaurant less than 5 stars. We have been eating here regularly for about 25 years sometimes twice a month. And ‘eating’ is the key term here. The quality (and quantity!) of the food at Water Margin is pretty damn high; one might find ‘fine dining’ alternatives closer in to the centre of London, of course, but the price difference, if you’re honest, is maybe not quite worth it. As for the service, it is by human beings, for human beings. Avoid the usual turista choices and you will fare well. Duck and roast pig from the window are first-​rate; almost all of the noodle dishes are fine the more straightforward, the better; the salty pepper squid (#172) is the best I have been able to find on this side of the Atlantic lightly fried, tender, with bags of flavour from both the squid and the dressing; spinach with white bean curd sauce (# 102), pungent and powerfully fresh, made with real spinach (which seems to have vanished from supermarkets); and steamed chicken in spring onion sauce (#178), simplicity in elegant form. By the way, unlike most, this restaurant routinely serves Chinese ‘winter’ mushrooms (shiitake, dōnggu) of a very high standard: notice what a difference this makes in so ‘simple’ a dish as, e. g, (#111) ‘Mixed Seafood Noodles’.

The roasted ducks in the window caught my eye at lunchtime on my first day in town. This was some tasty roast duck. Less greasy than some in San Fran Chinatown. Great service, too.

Really, I am not impressed by this restaurant. The food is OK, but nothing to write home about. The carpets are tatty and dirty. I’d hate to go back into the kitchen! The prices are good, but I honestly think for good Chinese food I’d rather take the tube to Leicester Square and Chinatown. I did like the duck, however.

This is a really nice Cantonese restaurant in Golders Green. Even though it’s not in China Town, the food is very authentic, real Cantonese food. The range of dishes is excellent and what they do, they seem to do really well.
I’ve been three times (which suggests something by itself) and each time I’ve tried a different duck dish. Each of them were really good. The braised duck with mixed vegetables and the sliced duck with bamboo shoots were particularly good.
In particular however I would recommend trying the eel dishes that you can get at the restaurant. You can’t get these everywhere and this restaurant does them well. If you haven’t tried eel then you haven’t really lived and this is a good place to try your first dish of the slippery creatures.
The fried noodles are also worth trying. Nice and crisp, with a decent variety to choose from.
The only reason I don’t give the place five stars is that it wouldn’t hurt them to offer a few more non-​Cantonese dishes. As anyone who wants a more diverse range of regional Chinese dishes will be a little disappointed. However for anyone just wanting Cantonese food, you will be pleased indeed with what you get at the Water Margin.

I’ve visited here many a time over the years and the quality of food is very good but not as good as it used to be. It’s great to find somewhere other than Chinatown that serves crispy pork and duck, as well as shark soup.

tasty food, efficient service, could be better value

If you can be bothered to trek into town to find somewhere a bit more authentic (although not necessarily better) then Water Margin is a good place to go. Usual fare, friendly quick service and conveniently located.

Water Margin is a fantastic restaurant that has been around for years! It is conveniently located on Golders Green road and is about a 5−10min walk from the underground station. The restaurant itself has looked the same for some time, however it was been very well maintained. The staff are always friendly and the best bit is that they can cook extremely quickly. Food almost seems to appear instantly after ordering as if you were eating at a fast food joint. The food is also exceptionally good and in good portions. The price is also reasonable as it is out of central London. I would highly recommend this place if you are looking for great Chinese food in Golders Green!

Walking past this restaurant in Golders Green, you would not necessarily think that it would be Chinese, as it has not been typically named in a proverbial sense, to that of the Chinese language or culture. Especially as it is not in Chinatown, any restaurant there can be named anything, and you would know it’s Chinese. Either way, the Water Margin is Chinese, and it definitely is a top notch restaurant.
I have eaten in Chinatown on many occasions, some have been real dingy with bad service and bad food, and others in Chinatown have been fantastic. The Water Margin definitely lives up to the best ones in Chinatown and in my opinion, is probably even better.
The décor is a little dated, there are two floors and downstairs is far more appealing, so if you are planning on booking a table, try request a table downstairs. Regardless of which floor you sit on, you will be pleasantly waited on by the caring and thoughtful staff, something which is a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ in Chinatown! More importantly the food will be absolute quality.
Around two years ago, I was introduced to the Water Margin buy a Chinese friend and I have been many times since. Plenty of my friends have been dining here for many years, and I have only ever good things said about it, and if the weren’t good reviews, they were fantastic.
Everything on the menu is great, cooked and presented well. Who would have thought that one of the best Chinese restaurants in London would be in Golders Green!