Gouqi

Gouqi is the first solo restaurant from Tong Chee Hwee, who spent eighteen years as group executive head chef of Hakkasan, the first Chinese restaurant in Britain to win a Michelin star. It opened in February 2023 on Cockspur Street, a few steps from Trafalgar Square, and takes its name from the goji berry. The cooking is contemporary Chinese drawn from across the country, served as a tasting menu or as a la carte sharing plates, with signatures including Peking duck and dim sum.

The dining room is done in dark wood and marble, with curved velvet banquettes, black leather booths and a canopy of dried flowers suspended over the floor. Views open onto the kitchen, and pendant lights hang from a high ceiling above tables dressed in soft pinks and jade. Two interconnecting private rooms, Crimson and Ruby, seat up to twenty-two together and can be curtained off from the main room; the Berri Bar pours Asian-inspired cocktails mixed in front of a counter of eighteen.

For private events the restaurant takes both seated dinners and standing receptions, from a long table in the interconnecting rooms to a full buyout of the ground floor. It is well suited to a milestone celebration or a corporate dinner in St James's.