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Mama Li is set to open its third London restaurant at Canary Wharf at the end of January, expanding its presence with a larger site at Wood Wharf.
The new restaurant, located at 3 Rivington Walk, will bring the group’s Hong Kong-style siu mei to the E14 district. It marks a shift from the brand’s earlier express-led sites, with more than half of the space dedicated to dine-in seating alongside a continued grab-and-go offering.
Mama Li was founded by Catherine Hua and her mother after struggling to find Cantonese roast meats in London that reflected the food they grew up eating.
The business is built around family recipes and traditional techniques, with a focus on everyday Cantonese cooking.
Siu mei – Hong Kong’s roasted meat tradition – remains central to the menu. The Canary Wharf site will serve four core roasts: crispy pork, barbecued pork, soy chicken and roast duck, cooked using Cantonese methods including a charcoal-fired duck oven.
Dishes are served with rice and seasonal vegetables, with options to combine multiple meats.
The expanded menu will also introduce a wider range of soup noodle dishes, including roast duck lai fun and wonton noodle soup, alongside cha chaan teng-style dishes associated with Hong Kong café culture.
These include bolo bao with butter, scrambled egg with char siu and rice, and salt and chilli pork chop with rice.
The restaurant has been designed in collaboration with interior architecture studio Macaulay Sinclair, drawing on the look and feel of traditional Hong Kong cafés while adapting the space for a high-footfall business district.
Unlike the group’s other locations, the Canary Wharf site will introduce a range of tea-based cocktails, developed to accompany the food and inspired by Cantonese tea culture.
Catherine Hua, founder, said: “With this opening, it was important to us that we stayed true to the food our customers already love, while giving ourselves room to show more of how Cantonese food is really eaten.”
