Ho Wong, York Street, Glasgow

With Lorna's sister and her husband over here for a few days, we met up after work at the Marriott Hotel with plans to go and have some dinner and then maybe a drink or two.

We started wandering along Argyll Street back towards the centre of town and spotted the Ho Wong, an innocuous looking Chinese restaurant just off the main road down York Street. We've been working near here for almost a year now and had never noticed it before so it seemed worth having a closer look.

It was a horrible night out, all dark and rainy but the frontage looked inviting enough so in we went and entered a very plush and sumptuous world of thick carpets, solid looking carved wood chairs and vases of fresh flowers. It was quite busy and I think we were lucky to get a table for four even at so early a time slot.

The menu is more traditional than your average Chinese restaurant but not overly so. For example, there were no curries, chop sueys or chow meins in sight but neither were there any chicken's feet dishes so everything should appeal to us more squeamish diners. It leads off with a huge range of starters and then into a very comprehensive list of seafood, poultry, meat, duck, satay, bird's nest, sweet & sour, sizzling and vegetarian dishes so there should be something there for everyone.

Prices are also higher than you'd pay for a standard centre of town restaurant but again, not off the planet. We're lazy and opted for the set meal for four and were treated to a delicious medley of dishes. The starter was mixed hors d'oeuvres (butterfly king prawn, barbecue spare ribs, deep fried wunton, prawn toast and chicken satay) followed by aromatic crispy duck with the usual accompaniments. The main courses were fillet of beef Cantonese style, steamed king prawns with black bean and garlic, chicken in chilli and salt, sweet & sour chicken and Singapore style noodles and to follow we had a choice of ice creams or sweets and coffee.

We washed it all down with a glass of Tsingtao and a couple of bottles of wine and we were royally stuffed. I have to say I enjoyed the lot and we could hardly finish it all. It was still busy when we left which, for a Tuesday night, is quite good going. They were even giving away Chinese piggy banks and calendars in the run up to the year of the pig so Evelyn will be going back to Gibraltar with some more souvenirs.

Cuisine: Chinese
My Rating: 9/10