Feature illustration for The London Standard article “The Illegal truth behind some of London’s Top Restaurants.” Half-a-million-pound fines. Repeated raids. And a secret illegal workers underground world propping up the capital’s most-hyped dining spots. Rachael Burford investigates.

‘he declares undying love to the dumplings, naming them the best in London. Uncle Paul is restaurant boss Paul Qiu, and his social nous has seen his dim sum restaurant garner more than four million likes and almost 100,000 followers across its TikTok and Instagram accounts. It’s some success for a restaurant that’s been there more than 30 years. It even featured as a set in the Keira Knightley spy thriller Black Doves. But on a dreary evening in mid-December, the scene was much grimmer. Instead of influencers, it was immigration enforcement officers and interpreters making their way through the deep red basement dining room — not to film content, but to conduct a raid. In the kitchen, four of the eight staff working that evening — three men and one woman — were found to be working illegally.’