Mandarin Kitchen

Even on a Monday night in summer, queues were forming at Mandarin Kitchen's entrance. Most were tourists with out-of-date guidebooks. Why out-of-date? We reckon this place is living on its reputation.

In the past, advocates were willing to overlook the hustling service and the gloomy, cave-like interior (with yellowing arched ceilings and torn banquettes) for some of Chinese London's best seafood.

The service has improved somewhat (though on arriving for a 7.30pm booking we were asked 'can you come back in an hour?'), and Chinese business-people still hold banquets at the large round tables (feasting on lobster, braised whole abalone, or stuffed boneless chicken with prawn paste), but much of our food seemed perfunctorily prepared and arrived lukewarm.

The best dish was a cold starter: a refreshing assembly of jellyfish, smoked chicken and arctic clam spiced with XO sauce. But peking dumplings were claggy and near cold. MK's most famous dish, lobster with noodles, featured nicely resilient crustacean flesh, but overcooked, insipid noodles. Deep-fried oysters had stodgy batter. Only a dish of steamed belly pork was faultless.

So, standards seem to have dropped, but while those tourists keep queuing, the management doesn't appear to care.