Polished, local, Chinese resto

Mao Tai is much more Chelsea than Chinatown, both in appearance and in the kind of food it serves.

It's a pretty restaurant, cleverly lit, well decorated and with brisk, efficient service.

The menu has evolved over the years and the ground has shifted away from the fiery Sichuan influences to something more suave.

Such surroundings - and, to be fair, such food - do not come cheap.

Still, you'll leave well fed and well looked after, as both the cooking and service are slick and chic.

Start with steamed scallops - these are usually a pretty good indication of things to come, and at Mao Tai they are well cooked.

Salt and pepper prawns are very fresh.

Dumplings feature: try pork and ginger; prawn, chive and chilli; mushroom and spinach; and pea shoot and prawn (served until 20.00).

The salt and pepper Chesapeake Bay soft-shell crabs in the starters section are good.

From the fish section, choose Tianjin turbot steamed on the bone - these are serious restaurant dishes at serious prices.

Or perhaps sirloin strips with lemongrass and cracked black pepper appeals? Dishes here are made with free-range Angus beef.

Onwards to sautéed chicken with orange blossom honey and pineapple, or rabbit with lemongrass and garlic.

In the vegetable section there's broccoli in oyster sauce, and seasonal pea shoots.

In the face of all these rather exalted prices, the Mao Tai boast may make sense.

'Mao Tai does not use M.S.G.'

Mao Tai
New King's Road, London, SW6 4LS