China Sea, 12 Renfield Street, Glasgow

Got back from training in Edinburgh on Friday night and met Lorna in town so we decided to go and get some food. We fancied Chinese food so started hunting around out from Central Station.

There are quite a few Chinese buffet restaurants around there but we fancied something less frenetic. Anyway, we had passed by the China Sea as from the outside it looks really dingy and uninviting (map). It's basically a doorway between shops with stairs leading up and it doesn't really attract you in but we decided to go back and look at the menu anyway. The menu looked good and they had a pre-theatre deal for under £8 so in we went and boy was this a revelation...

Upstairs is pretty large and it was bustling with staff and customers, what had we been missing all these years. If you're going in then look up slowly, there's an enormous carved dragon coiling in and out of the cloud painted ceiling. Look up to quick and you'll do a double take, it's a fair sized beast.

The service and food were excellent, couldn't be faulted at all. The staff were friendly and the food and drink came really quickly. I had a really nice sweet and sour chicken, which had a really light batter, and Lorna had a chicken satay. The place has been there for years and I'm now sorry I'd passed it by so many tiems.

Cuisine: Chinese
My rating: 8/10