Kwai-Lam Restaurant, Saddler St

1:40pm Friday 22nd August 2008

IF FIRST impressions were all you judged a restaurant by, you might not get up the staircase at the Kwai-Lam restaurant.

An old carpet with the odd bit of litter on it made for frowning faces from my party as we arrived at the Kwai-Lam restaurant, tucked up above the shops of Saddler Street.

However, get up that staircase and the surroundings are far more pleasant. In fact, the restaurant offers a comfortable setting, with the chance to watch the world meander by along the street outside.

I could skip the soundtrack filled with the likes of Paul Young and Bryan Ferry (smooth pop, you get the idea), but at least the volume wasn't obtrusive.

The welcome was warm, with the waitress quick to spirit us to our table, provide menus and ask us what we would like to drink.

There's a curiosity with the restaurant for the moment, though. At present, it does not have a licence for serving alcohol, so visitors who book are told in advance they can take along their own drinks. Any purchases made on the night will be soft drinks only for now. That didn't bother our party especially - I'm not one for drinking much with food and one of us was on driving duties anyway. An application for a licence has been made and a decision due in the next few weeks.

If all these things seem offputting, then the menu will put you in a far more positive frame of mind. There's a wealth to choose from, and some quite interesting possibilities on there, too, that venture a little beyond the norm for a Chinese restaurant.

For starters, one of our party went for the soup, a refreshing and slightly spicy offering, while the other two of us shared a platter offering a selection of starters - prawn toast, won tons, seaweed and ribs.

It has to be said, the starters were a treat, and with some spring rolls and prawn crackers added in, would have sufficed on their own for a light lunch.

There was a real freshness to the taste and it set us up very well for the main course.

As nice as the food was, however, the same can't be said of the service. In contrast to the warmth of the waitress who welcomed us (and who earned the restaurant an extra tick on our ratings), the waiter who served us had the air of someone who had somewhere else to be.

The food was delivered to the table at random intervals and with the grudging manner of a sulky teenager. I know it was a quiet Sunday evening, but with service like that, the evenings will just get quieter and quieter.

On to the main courses. I fancied something a little more adventurous - and on the recommended dishes I spied a chicken stuffed with prawn in a cream sauce. That'll do me, I thought. My friends both went for the stir-fried chicken - one in a spicy garlic sauce, the other in a satay sauce.

After the quality of the starters, it has to be said the main course wasn't as inspiring.

The spicy garlic sauce may well have had the garlic, but lacked somewhat on the spicy, while the satay sauce was humdrum. "Pretty much like an average takeaway,"

said my companion.

As for my chicken and prawn in a cream sauce, the chicken was delicious, incredibly tender, but the stuffed prawn was skimpy in nature, and the cream sauce uninspiring.

A shame, because it was nice to see something different from the norm, but there just didn't seem enough care putting the whole package together.

Of course, part of my perception may be coloured again by the service, with the accompanying rice simply dumped by our waiter at the far end of the table without so much as an "enjoy your meal".

Food finished, we decided to call it time. The bill came to £60 - reasonable given the amount of food we had, and that included a few rounds of soft drinks.

The positives here can be found in the food. As much as the main courses didn't live up to hopes, the starters were excellent, and the range of food on offer could easily make this a spot to visit regularly.

A little more care and attention all round could make this restaurant a promising destination - but it's got a long way to go yet.

Eating Out