What the food critics says…

Work in the Mailbox? Or the city centre? Like eating out
at lunchtime? Try the Oriental – it’s recently been rated 
by the Times as one of the top ten pan-Asian restaurants
in the UK. The new-look lunchtime menu offers a range
of oriental tapas, noodle dishes, noodle soups
and main courses. 

I tagged on to a group of twenty suited and chattery
lunchtime diners, and opted for Yuk Sung as a starter.
This is a rewarding, light meal of finely chopped carrot
mixed with minced chicken, which is then stir-fried,
set on a bed of vermicelli-like strands of rice paste,
sprinkled with sesame seeds and served up
on trimmed iceberg lettuce leaves.

Splash on the soy sauce (if you like it), roll the leaves up
and eat.

For a main course I plumped for Koay Teow,
which is a noodle-and-beansprout recipe that’s served
with either beef or prawns. The contrast between the slippery,
slightly gelatinous texture of the flat rice noodles,
and the crunchy beansprouts is delightful. The chilli 
isn’t overdone, and a glass of water
or a bottle of Budweiser goes down 
well with it.

The bar here is well-stocked
as you can expect, with champagnes, wines,
spirits, and a selection of classy bottled beers,
including Chang, and Magners if you like your cider,
and there are the cocktails, Wild Orchid
and Tokyo Rose, for example, and the more
familiar Screaming Orgasm and Sex on the Beach.

You don’t quite get a beach with the restaurant
but you get the expanse of water at the junction
with the Worcester Canal, and a view along the canal
up to Gas St Basin and Broad Street, and with the sun
out, the reflections on the water and the pacifying
oriental music, it’s a restful place to eat and drink
during time out of the office.