Restaurants

Entrepreneur David Tangs opulently decorated restaurant combines 1930s Shanghai art deco with modern art and chinoiserie to create a space as grand as the Dorchester hotel in which it is housed. With such lavish surroundings, its surprising the menu features casual home-style Cantonese dishes, such as congee (rice porridge), alongside such banquet dishes as three courses of peking duck (which consistently rates among Londons best). Add an all-day dim sum menu and you have the potential for a meal consisting of an eclectic mix of dishes that may appeal more to Westerners than Chinese diners. The cooking is of a high standard and proudly MSG-free. Fried prawns with spicy salt and pepper were bouncy, coated in crisp batter and delectably moreish. Shanghai dumplings were delicately formed and juicy, but let down a little by a pork filling that was grainy in texture. We loved the deeply flavourful pi pa duck roasted duck flattened to look like a pi pa (Chinese stringed instrument). Prices are high, as you might expect, but service was abysmal on our visit. We were given a wine list that was unaccountably missing the pages of lower-priced wines; staff were incapable of explaining dishes; there were lengthy waits; and our bill was presented incorrectly twice.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2008