Le Chinois

Tucked away on the second floor of The Millennium Hotel, Le Chinois brings modern Cantonese cooking to the heart of Knightsbridge. This was once the Italian restaurant, Mu, and if the refurbished dining room and bar with its well-spaced, white-clad tables and brown, beige and gold colour scheme looks a tad bland, the accomplished cooking certainly doesn’t. Dim sum is serious stuff with juicy prawns fried in rice paper crackling to the bite, pork dumplings gushing ginger-tinged stock, and delicate shrimp and scallop parcels dotted with flying fish roe. Elsewhere, combinations are simple, ranging from the traditional (sticky strips of tender beef coated in garlic, ginger and spring onion) to the inventive (pillowy rounds of tofu with poached scallops, slithers of carrot, mange tout and baby corn). With set menus starting at £30 per person, prices are refreshingly modest for a Knightsbridge hotel, while service is warm, friendly and takes a genuine interest.