How many times have I walked past this restaurant in the China Town Mall and walked right by having been turned off by the prices, by the modern looks, by the seemingly posh aspect. I’m sure I could have afforded a meal here it just seemed wrong dine at this restaurant when there were other good restaurants in the vicinity at more than half the price.

Thanks to an offer on toptable for 50% off food, however, I could now come and in here guilt-free.

As will all my dining experiences I will always have a co-conspirator – on this occasion Sandra joined me. Sandra’s great company for trying out new places as we have similar tastes and appetites. Heh heh.

We arrived at about 6.30 and were taken downstairs. The room was completely empty but within what felt like moments it was packed. Plum Valley is spread out over a few floors with each floor fairly intimate (eight tables at the very most) and there is sufficient empty space on the floors that you don’t feel crowded in though the fact that the floors are a tile mean that the room can quickly get loud.

Service was efficient though Plum Valley suffers from what many restaurants seem to suffer from these days – an impatience to get a quick turnover in food. I’m sure its all in the name of good service and not all an attempt to get the table back quickly but still we couldn’t help but feel rushed. Especially when the waiter/waitresses stands behind your table waiting for the very moment when you finish up with your dish to whisk it away! However don’t take this to mean that I won’t have something to say if my food doesn’t come and empty dishes cleared within a reasonable amount of time. Heh heh.

Whilst we were choosing our dinner options we were provided with a bowlful of pickled carrots and radish (yum) and fried broad beans. We quickly made our way through these! Probably even before we’d ordered our dishes. Ha ha.

For starters we went with one of favourites, salt and pepper squid ,to be eaten alongside jasmine tea smoked baby pork ribs. Mmmm … Hakkasan, the marker of all that is good in modern Chinese food, has a similar dish and I wouldn’t be lying if I said that I thought Plum Valley’s ribs were equal if not better than the ribs there. The salt and pepper squid was perfectly lightly fried, not at all chewy though maybe they could have been a bit more generous with the seasoning (the salt and pepper) or at least found a better way of getting it to better coat the squid.

For our mains we opted for the signature pan grilled black cod with champagne and honey accompanied by claypot chicken with shaoxing wine sweet basil and spring onion. We also tried their version of the Fujian fried rice as a replacement for boiled rice. Traditionally this rice is covered in a sauce but for some reason the Plum Valley version was dry and actually a little too oily for me. The cod was quite small in portion and very delicately flavoured (Sandra liked it) and the chicken, though soft and tender, had a dominant flavour of salt. They were good but both Sandra and I were more impressed by our starters than mains.

Of course though we were full we had a little bit of room for dessert. Sandra’s lily jelly cake was even more delicate than the cod though it was very cutely presented. I quite liked my coconut and pineapple pastry and scoop of ice-cream.

One of the trends that is startlingly annoying at these new modern Chinese restaurants is having to pay for a pot of tea per person. In an average Chinese restaurant you will pay £1 per person, maybe £1.50, for a bottomless tea pot. At places like Plum Valley it goes up to £3.80 going up to £5+ per person per pot though they will begrudgingly and slowly top of the teapot with fresh hot water. I know you will pay the same sort of price at Western restaurants (which admittedly are often not refilled) but knowing that previous tradition it just grates on me a little.

Otherwise I’m ever so thankful for the toptable opportunity because the food at Plum Valley is miles ahead of those of any other restaurants in the Mall and whilst I’m not sure I would dine here at full price you do certainly get more for your pound quality and taste-wise, if not necessarily portion-wise, than at the ordinary China Town mall restaurant. I know I’ll be back in the future.