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An impressive Chinatown-style frontage outside with stylish Oriental décor inside charms guests dining at Phi-B's Chinese in Crwys Road. Drop in for a quick lunch or a leisurely evening meal, whether it is with family or friends. Polite attentive service adds to the pleasure of dining here. A takeaway menu is also available.

The eclectic menu offers a wide range at Phi-B's. Diners can look forward to starting well with such dishes as barbequed spare ribs, vegetable spring rolls, crispy seaweed, stir fried tofu, sweet and sour pork, crispy roast duck with pancakes and chicken in chilli and black bean sauce. Mains options include roast duck and pork in plum sauce, fried sliced beef in black pepper sauce, fried straw mushrooms with bamboo shoots and Singapore noodles and egg fried rice. For dessert, choose between toffee apple, lychees with vanilla ice cream and mango pudding.

Things seem to move fast at Wagamama - the Asian inspired, noodle restaurant chain that was started in 1992. As soon as you decide what you want to eat, your order is taken via a PDA, and wirelessly networked to the kitchen, so it can be made fresh and served right after. The restaurant chain does not believe in taking reservations, and all customers are seated on a first come, first serve basis. In fact, be aware that most of the tables are long ones and you will often be asked to share them.

The restaurants are modelled on traditional Japanese ramen bars that have been popular for hundreds of years - ramen are Japanese style noodles, served in a meat-based broth, topped with pork, dried seaweed or even corn. Chilli beef ramen, made of noodles in a spicy pork and chicken soup topped with a marinated and grilled sirloin steak and fresh vegetables, is hearty and satisfying.

Apart from ramen, you could opt for the coconut soup based kare noodles or teppan, cooked on a hot, flat griddle. They also offer many rice dishes like katsu curry, chicken fillet deep-fried in panko breadcrumbs, served with a lightly spiced curry sauce and sticky white rice. Vegetarians are definitely not ignored, as they can opt for saien soba, made using whole-wheat noodles in a soup topped with stir-fried vegetables, seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil and garnished with sliced spring onion.

Meat and vegetable dumplings, skewered chicken, deep-fried prawns and raw salads double as both sides and starters. Steamed green soya-beans, called edamame, go well with drinks - hold them up to your mouth and squeeze the succulent beans from the pod. If you've noticed, Wagamama is more about eating healthy food fast and less about the order. Don't be surprised if you're served the main course before the side dish - order isn't important, the aim is, don't wait - just tuck in and share.

Wash down your meal with sake, plum wine or even a Japanese beer. Wind up your meal with coconut reika - three scoops of dairy coconut ice cream topped with a fresh, tangy mango sauce and toasted coconut flakes or the tamarind and chilli Pavlova, with a crunchy meringue base served with a raspberry and tamarind sauce.

At Wagamama, you can also shop for cookbooks, sauces, ramen bowls and t-shirts. The restaurant is all about enjoying genuine, reasonably priced, Pan-Asian cuisine in a sleek but informal setting.

Across their locations in South Wales, the Juboraj group of restaurants excel in providing impeccable Bangladeshi and Indian food to their faithful and increasing clientele. Each restaurant is decorated in an individualistic style and the themes range from opulence to laidback informality while the atmosphere is one where you can relax and indulge in delicious food. Birthday parties, anniversaries, receptions and other such functions are perfect excuses to try out the lovely ambience and tasty food at Juboraj, but even if there's no reason to celebrate, a visit there is welcome.

Start out with a kebab platter, chicken and lamb tikka with sheek kabab, served with onions and green peppers to tantalise your taste buds before moving on to a main course of whole breast of tender duckling gently cooked in light spices, honey and lime juice. The pistachio kulfi, delicately flavoured Indian ice cream is exquisite and is the perfect way to end the meal, along with some chilled imported beers or fine wines to lend you company.

Opened at the end of 2007, Canteen on Clifton Street is a restaurant that specialises in producing high quality and innovative vegetarian cuisine. However, it is not strictly vegetarian, as, on each menu, a slow-cooked meat dish is offered to suit the carnivores.

The restaurant's aim is to be a place where all are welcome and, whether vegetarian, vegan or omnivore, everyone gets to enjoy interesting cooking. For lunch there is simple, café-style food and in the evening the dishes become more sophisticated.

They offer a wide variety from Thai potato and tofu cakes with chilli dipping sauce to falafels with smoked chilli dressing; gnocchi with artichoke, tomatoes and herb pesto to Arabian spiced lamb in yoghurt on pistachio cardamom rice or mushroom bread pudding with dauphinoise potatoes and buttered carrots with a mushroom and chive sauce.

Both lunch and evening menus are a la carte, with a two or three course menu also available in the evening. The food wherever possible is locally produced and organic, with many of the drinks produced in Wales. The small wine list is of high quality, offering fine wines not usually stocked by the high street supermarkets.

The restaurant welcomes families offering half price meals for children and high chairs for babies, while changing facilities are available.

The interior is clean and simple with a rustic feel created by walls faced with rough wooden planking. In the daytime the atmosphere is busy and lively, with the evening becoming quieter, and even romantic, in the candlelight.

Why is it that many Chinese restaurants have such a strong reputation for lunch? Dunno, I hear you say, you're supposed to be telling us. Well, I have long held that Sunday lunch is due for a comeback but probably in a different form, and that form could learn much from the Chinese pattern.

First, all sense of the passage of time must be banished. If your guests turn up an hour late, forget it, no problem. You want a large meal, it's all there; you want to emulate tapas, fine - go for the dim sum and have a prolonged nibble-fest. As with the food so with the drink, let them be long and languorous, undemanding but satisfying.

Large numbers of the Chinese population of Cardiff seem to feel exactly the same and you will find them at the well-named Happy Gathering every Sunday, and on other days of course, but possessed then with less of a sense of that well-loved Jamaican saying 'come soon'.