Tucked away on a side street in Montpellier, one of the city’s best-kept dining secrets lies. For authentic Chinese dishes, neighbourhood charm, and Bristol’s only Cantonese charcoal BBQ oven, add Wangs to your must-visit restaurant list.
As I take my seat across from my partner for the umpteenth time, my mind wanders back to my previous visits to Wangs—in my humble opinion, Bristol's best neighbourhood Chinese restaurant—miscellaneous impromptu evenings out, birthdays, and our first date, exactly two years prior. Whilst the thrill of visiting somewhere new is exquisite, a regular haunt settles in with softness, punctuating the ebb and flow of day-to-day life, its story becoming a stitch in your own tapestry.
Glass noodle scallop
I first met Sandy and Sacha in the Spring of 2023, while they were simultaneously planning their wedding, renovating the soon-to-be restaurant site, and developing dishes across supper clubs and pop-ups across Bristol. Hearing about their generous stretch of mental resources was as impressive as it was inspiring, as they told me how they met—a film-worthy meet-cute ten years earlier in Hong Kong, queuing for a street-food vendor, during the seven years Sacha spent living across China—and how their travels and life together shaped what would become what we now know as Wangs, in an old fruit and veg shop in a Georgian Montpellier terrace.
Recently joining the Good Food Guide’s UK top 100 local restaurants for 2026, they swept in at number seven and also took the South West winner. Based on public recommendations before anonymous judge visits, it was quite a wonderful way to celebrate their second birthday.
From Hong Kong Street Food to a Bristol Foodie Favourite
As you step into the cosy restaurant, tables flank sage-green banquette seating and are set with blue-patterned china. Past partially exposed brick walls, a few counter seats, and thoughtfully incorporated antique shop equipment, your glance lands on the open kitchen and bar beyond, where cocktails and plates emerge moment after moment amid a hustle of activity. Downstairs, their Mahjong room adds precious extra seating and a second bar in the former storeroom, creating a separate space for larger parties.
The menu, led by head chef Emily Xin Xin Chan, formerly of Bib Gourmand-recognised Bristol restaurant Tare, is succinct. Yet, it explores flavour, ingredients, and texture like no other, while staying scrupulously true to tradition. You will not find fried rice, nor a single element doused in sweet and sour; nor will either cross your mind once you delve into the offerings.
Wangs’ head chef Emily Xin Xin Chan
Authentic Chinese Food in Bristol, Rooted in Tradition
With the Lapsang Sours—made with bourbon and house-made smoked lapsang tea reduction—already flowing, we start, as always, with the Wangs house pickles. Absolutely unmissable and compelling enough to turn even the most vinegar-shy diner to the joy of the preserve, Sichuan Chinese radish retains an excellent crunch while being handsy with the warming, tangy flavour, and donggu mushrooms add harmonious umami and further temper the Chinkiang vinegar's already sweet earthiness.
Rubes, a joyous and truly wonderful original staff member who, on our first date, hilariously broke the ice by asking how long we had been married, sweeps back to the table with a pair of glass noodle scallops. Served on a bed of silky noodles, they paddle in an addictive fried-garlic, soy broth, with glistening beads of spring onion oil dancing around the dish. I always talk big about ordering a second, never do, and always regret it.
Swiftly joined by the Cantonese steamed egg, we relish slurping the delicate savoury custard, dressed with first-press Taiwanese soy sauce and chives. As one of those uncomplicated dishes that relies on flawless execution, we negotiate the age-old riddle of how to reach every last morsel in the ramekin.
Night market chicken arrives at the table, joined by Fu Qi Fei Pian, a chilled beef-and-tripe salad. The former, twice fried after a full 24 hours getting acquainted with a secret spice blend within a ginger-and-soy milk marinade, and all the more tender and juicy for it, is served with a creamy yet saline, house-made doubanjiang mayonnaise intended for heavy-handed dipping. The latter pairs a ballotine of beef shin, slow-cooked in aromatics, alongside slivers of delicate honeycomb tripe. Served finely sliced and chilled, and topped with velvety Sichuan chilli oil and braising broth, it's a meat-centric dish that's light and fresh, and it melts in the mouth.
For the more herbivorous side of the table, the sesame wood ear salad is a long-time favourite that could easily make a standout main. Building on the stand-alone star that is smacked cucumber salad, it adds the crunch of radish and carrot ribbons, plus the bite of chilled wood ear mushroom. Dressed with sesame and soy and sprinkled with roasted seeds, it's a glorious mix of silky, nutty, sweet, and savoury.
Pan-fried turnip cake
What To Eat: Why Wangs Made the Good Food Guide’s Top 100 Local Restaurants
When you focus on seasonal ingredients, you might end up missing an adored dish when it's off the menu. Have I ever made a trip specifically to catch the last of the pan-fried turnip cake? Was our restaurant choice two years ago aligned with the daikon's autumnal return? I’ll never tell.
Their Lo Bak Go is a goey steamed cake, with a crisp pan-fried crust. Fluffy yet dense, it’s a deeply comforting textural enigma you just can't help but reach for again. Served with dongu mushroom XO sauce, or scallop roe and crispy lap cheong sausage, the plate is piled high with flavour.
Chewy knife-cut noodles join the spread. Served with shredded cavolo nero and spring onion, their scalloped fringe is all the better to catch the chilli, garlic, cumin, and aged black vinegar sauce. Slightly spicy and slightly sweet, they add to the lineup of moreish small plates you secretly wish were bottomless.
A love letter to Wangs
As we round off our evening, our neighbouring table, newcomers to the gang, asks, “What’s good here? What did you have?”
“Almost everything,” I reply enthusiastically, briefly working through the sharing plates above the mains and smiling, “but don’t forget a Sichuan Margarita!”
Just before we head off, Rubes bounds back to the table and reports that one of her colleagues has devised a way to print photos alongside receipts, as we snap a few selfies together before she nips back off to print them. Because why wouldn’t we end our evening with another unique memory from our favourite local restaurant?
Want more Bristol restaurant recommendations?
Best Restaurants in Bristol: 20 Places You Need to Try in 2026
