Min Jiang

From up on the tenth floor of the Royal Garden Hotel the view is rather special as you might imagine. Copious London landmarks open up before you and the treetops of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens form a green carpet in the summer. It is a very special setting for a restaurant and adds even more appeal to the already appealing Min Jiang. The interior designers have not attempted to fight nature and went for muted creams and darkwood, plus some flashes of scarlet on one wall hung with black-and-white photos, and a collection of blue-and-white Chinese vases. The contemporary Chinese cooking will certainly divert your attention away from the vista, with a large menu that majors in Cantonese and Szechuan flavours. Start, perhaps, with soft-shelled crab, pan-fried with chilli and curry leaf, whilst the wood-fired Beijing duck is not to be missed (and is worth ordering in advance). Stir-fried fresh lobster with ginger and spring onion, or maybe stir-fried Mongolian-style ostrich might be among main courses, or keep it a little more mainstream with chicken in sweet-and-sour sauce. Dim sum are of a high quality (turnip cake with XO sauce and prawn cheung fun for example), and there are set menus if you want to go with the flow. Desserts are creative compositions such as passionfruit curd with chocolate leaf and passionfruit ice cream.