Man Wah

On the 25th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel is Man Wah, a smart restaurant serving Cantonese food. The dining room has an attractive view over the harbour (if you are after a window seat request this in advance) and is quite small, with a dozen tables laid on the evening of my visit. The room has dark wood panelling, with ornamental screens along one wall, plush red carpet and pink tablecloths.

The wine list stretches over 29 pages, starting at the cheapest wine in the list with Cline Vignier 2009 at HK$400 (£31) for a wine you can pick up for £8, Jermann Vintage Tunina 2006 at HK$1550 (£122) compared to a UK shop price of £37, up to grander wines such as Didier Dagenau Silex 2008 at HKD 2880 (£227) compared to a retail price of £75, and some prestige wines like Romanee Conti La Tache 2002 at HKD 42000 (£3311) for a wine you could buy for £1,426 in a shop.

Barbecued pork (HK$148 = £11.67) was served warm, sliced thin with just some of the meat juices and a few peanuts to one side. The skin of the pork was crisp, the meat tender and slightly sweet from the honey dressing that it had been barbecued with; gorgeous (17/20). Hot and sour soup (HK$118 = £9.30) contained excellent seafood (pieces of scallop and prawn) and was unusually well-made, with a clean taste, a chilli kick and the right level of sourness from the vinegar (16/20).

Scallops with fox nuts and peas (HK$308 = £24.28) were also laced with pieces of ginger.  The scallops were excellent, extremely carefully cooked with good texture; the peas were fine, the fox nuts quite soft, but the star element of the dish was the precisely cooked scallops (16/20). Singapore noodles (HK$168 = £13.24) also showed unusual care in the kitchen: the noodles were thin with pleasing texture, and in amongst them were thin strips of red and green peppers, pieces of scallop, small shrimps and egg, all nicely spiced (easily 15/20).

Service was very attentive and professional, with both my tea and beer carefully topped up throughout the meal without prompting. Overall I was very impressed with the cooking here, which was consistently capable.  The restaurant has an attractive room, good food and professional service, so I would be very happy to return. The bill came to HK$1,014 (£80) for one at dinner, for more food than I could finish, with three beers and good quality jasmine tea.