Lisburn may be officially a city, but it has a dearth of decent restaurants. So when a leaflet for the takeaway menu of a new place dropped through our letterbox, I read it with interest. It promised a wide range of Asian dishes, from teppanyaki to sushi, with all the usual suspects in between. As a big fan of Eastern cuisine, how could I resist?

The restaurant itself is located at the leisure centre complex, which is always busy, and parking can be difficult. It suffers particularly from people parking in the disabled bays without displaying a blue badge, and from land-rovers hovering by the entrance to the cinema, obviously parents picking up offspring, but too lazy to park properly and so blocking the main exit by parking on a double yellow line. Sadly, as it's private property the police and road traffic wardens have no jurisdiction here, so the law is selfishly flouted. Parking successfully accomplished, our first disappointment was on reaching the front door, to find a notice advising that the credit card machine wasn't working, therefore all payments would have to be in cash. Thankfully there was an ATM just across the road, so Dai got the readies while I was shown to our table.

I was immediately taken with the decor of the place - black and white with flashes of red, in the felt hangings that separated the booths, and in paintings on the wall. Not a square inch of flock wallpaper in sight! The kitchen was visible to all diners, and provided a source of entertainment with much vigorous chopping, flashing of flames and sizzling of chunks of meat. The background music was unobtrusive, and the effect was one of calm sophistication, although Dai claims it was a bit sterile. We were there at about 6.30, ridiculously early by the rest-of-UK standards, but a popular eating time in Northern Ireland, and about half the tables were occupied. The toilets were spotless, and I loved the striped grey and soft brown tiles.3/5

We drew lots for who was driving, and so I ended up drinking water and Chinese tea, the latter very attractively served in dainty glass cups that looked not unlike tea-light holders. There was a small bowl of Chinese pickles on the table for us to nibble while perusing the menu. For starters I had dim sum - delicately seasoned pork and prawn parcels, although I felt a dipping sauce wouldn't go amiss. Dai had the dumpling soup, and pronounced it tasty, but could do with some salt. But he eats far too much salt, that boy.

For main course, I had chosen the healthy option of steamed sea bass in a ginger and spring onion sauce, with boiled rice. I always get slightly annoyed when plain rice isn't included with a meal - it hardly costs £2.50 to make and serve, and it doesn't help matters when staff have to be reminded about it, and it takes another 3 minutes after the main course has been served for it to arrive! Dai went for his favourite, udon noodles, in a seafood sauce. The mix of seafood was impressive, with some particularly tasty squid rings, but even though he asked for some soy sauce, it failed to materialise. The main courses on the menu are mostly around the £10 mark, with the starters at around £5. Add in the tea, rice, and a few vodkas, and our final bill was in the low £40s, £50 with tip. I felt that was overpriced for what it was: the food had been nice, but not exceptional. 3/5

The staff were very charming, readily opening doors, and showing us to tables with a smile. Drinks that we ordered were brought smartly, but a request for soy sauce was completely ignored. 2/5

I really wanted to like this place, and as I adore sushi I'll probably be back some time to see how they fare with that. But overall the experience was slightly disappointing. The food was good, but not wonderful, and didn't warrant the price tag, particularly in these credit-squeezing times. The service was superficially good, but fell down in more than one area.3/5

This column is open to contributions from all members of the h2g2 community. All submissions are accepted on the basis that they are honest and unbiased, and all opinions expressed are those of the reviewers, who may not be professional restaurant critics. Send your reviews to the usual submissions address.

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