I'm as guilty as the next person of the irrational expectation that a meal in a Chinese or Indian restaurant shouldn't cost very much. There is of course no reason why, if a restaurant is using decent quality raw materials, the food should be any cheaper than if it were being prepared to create French dishes, say, or Italian. That said, though, a bill of €151.60 (excluding service for which we added €23.40 making a total of €175) for a meal for three, with only one glass of wine, at the new China Sichuan in Sandyford, left me wondering whether I thought that was expensive per se for a meal for one adult and two children, or just expensive for Chinese food.

We were introduced to the old China Sichuan in Stillorgan by foodie friends 15 years ago and have visited several times a year, often
en famille. The children loved the
noodles. The word was that the restaurant was owned by the
Chinese government, but that may have been urban myth. Certainly the food smacked of authenticity – none of your gloopy sweet-and-sour chicken here, thanks very much – and we were prepared to ignore the shabby décor and gloomy service because the food was good and the prices reasonable.

China Sichuan relocated to Sandyford industrial estate a couple of months back. We booked an early sitting on a Friday evening. The
restaurant is now on the ground floor of a new building with
the maitre d's
station directly in front of the entrance door. The grumpy man who we remembered from the old premises glowered at us as we made our way inside. For a moment I thought he was going to ask us to leave because I was accompanied
by Milo (11) and Cian (12), trainee
reviewers, but he led us to our table without a word. In fact, there were
several children in the restaurant that evening – all impeccably behaved. I
suspect a dim view would be taken of any tantrums or lapses in table
manners. There are two dining rooms; the décor is luxe urban contemporary with ne'er a smidgin of black lacquer or lotus blossom in sight. Milo and Cian thought it felt "very officey".

We shared five starters. An old favourite – pan-fried waltip dumplings (€7.50) stuffed with garlic-y minced pork – did not disappoint. Specials of baby squid with chilli and soy sauce and soft shell crab with a soy bean crust (both €8.50) were excellent. Crispy spring rolls were no great shakes, and none of us liked the har kow dim sum (€7) – bland, glutinous dumplings stuffed with minced prawn. The boys ordered some prawn crackers (€2) as an afterthought but these had
disappeared before I registered their presence so I can only assume that they were very good.

Sichuan camphor tea-smoked duck (€25) was not as subtle as I remember it – Milo said it tasted "just like ham" and I had to agree. Dry-fried spicy duck shreds (€18) gave us a few eye-watering moments but we liked them very much. Pork shreds in fish-fragrance sauce (€17) underwhelmed and we couldn't taste the fish. A plate of pak choi was bland and over-priced at €14. Rice does not come with the main courses. Milo loved his soft-fried noodles (€5) and Cian his egg-fried rice (€3.50).

In the interests of research we shared a pudding of red bean paste pancake (€6.50), recommended by our waitress. Served with good vanilla ice-cream, we were surprised by how much we
enjoyed it.

We had a few cokes, a bottle of water and one glass of delicious pinot gris to bring our bill to its total of €175. Clearly the prices have gone up since the old days in
Stillorgan, and it will be interesting to see whether the China Sichuan's
regular clientele will remain loyal and be prepared to dig this deep to pay for its new building and slick décor, and for the privilege of dining in an industrial estate.

China Sichuan

The Forum, Ballymoss Road,

Sandyford, Dublin 18

Tel: 01 2935100

Rating: 3/5