Min Jiang

"Chinese restaurant opens in London", not a headline that is normally likely to inspire enormous interest, however, in the case of Min Jiang at The Royal Garden it ought to as it sets new quality standards in so many areas.

Managed by the irrepressible and enthusiastic Jason Li, formerly of Hakkasan and the Oriental at The Dorchester - what an impeccable pedigree - it serves superb and interesting food. But it also starts with the huge advantage of one of the finest views in London from the tenth floor of the hotel, as, if you are lucky enough to get a table by the windows, you would be looking out right across Kensington Gardens and the whole of Hyde Park. On a fine day you can see the Gherkin, London Eye, Post Office Tower and many of the landmark structures of London.

However, the décor is equally unusual; the most prominent colour is red, with dark wood shelves lining some of walls or breaking the area up, these contain niches filled with an enormous selection of Chinese pots, and there is also the wide use of mirrors, on walls and ceilings, definitely not your standard look.

They bring you hot towels first, and then, as we looked at the menu, we realised that we were in for a rather special experience and that the greatest difficulty was going to come in deciding what to select as it all sounded so tempting.

The dim sum platter was first among the appetisers, a must for us, though it is unusual to find them being served in the evening, they had clearly been prepared with great care, absolutely perfect and symmetrical - eight pieces of four different styles, crab meat, pumpkin with mixed seafood, vegetable and prawn.

We accompanied these with crispy fried squid with salt, pepper and chilli, and soft shell crab done the same way, particularly impressive was the fact that they were not greasy - so often a fault with them elsewhere.

Mains of sautéed gung bao king prawns, done with dried whole chillies, which carried a warning of being very spicy, though it was rather milder than might have been expected, and steamed sea bass with back fungus and golden mushrooms were both beautifully presented and tasted perfectly delicious, with a side order of stir-fried asparagus with hoshimeji mushrooms.

We washed this down with a bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc, recommended by the helpful wine waitress, at £30 it was a good choice, demonstrating her knowledge of the subject. Finally we couldn't resist their snowy flake jasmine tea tiramisu, though we were tempted by the lemongrass crème brûlée, but lacked room for two desserts.

Though Miang Jang had only recently opened, it was surprisingly busy, always a good sign, and it is worth noting that they offer excellent value with their dim sum menu at lunchtime. Check out full details on their Website.