Near my home is a relatively new Sichuan restaurant called Seventeen. It does not look like the kind of place that I can drop in for a takeaway, unlike my favourite local restaurant New Fortune Cookie, or even eat at on a regular, say weekly, basis. Its one of the new modern dark sleek looking places and if looks would count for anything you should expect a very nice meal.

Not to judge a book by its cover I took advantage of a groupon deal to dine – £16 for £40 of credit. Now for our typical oriental meal this would do Pat and I pretty nicely … but at seventeen we actually ended up spending another £18 which means that the meal was nearly £60 all up. Admittedly that included the cost of two drinks (one of which was a lychee martini Pat couldn’t resist.)

Food-wise it wasn’t the most impressive I’ve ever tasted nor were the portions very generous. Further, I guess we didn’t really take advantage of the Sichuan offerings. Maybe it deserves a second chance?