The Oriental Condor is a Chinese restuarant/take-away/fast food bar opposite Oxford station. It was recommended to me by a friend because "lots of Chinese people eat there, so it must be good".

So we wandered in for a late lunch one Saturday afternoon, and it was good. And there were lots of Chinese people eating there. It's so Chinese-oriented, in fact, that you get chopsticks by default and would have to ask for Western cutlery.

The decor is rather minimalistic, with wipe-clean plastic tables and lino on the floor, but there is a rather nice mural painted along one wall, depicting happy Chinese people in a Chinese restaurant. The kitchen is quite open, so there are no doubts about your food being freshly cooked.

There is a set menu (with a couple of choices for each course), or you can order from the extensive main menu, which is what we did. Apparently they also do an all-you-can-eat buffet sort of thing, for about £10 a head.

The menu covers standard Chinese restuarant faire that everyone will recognise with some more unusual things too. We both had noodle dishes with a rich sauce - mine was roast duck and Pete's was roast beef. You have to choose the type of noodles you want at the same time - I forget what we had, fine noodles I think.

The food arrived quite quickly, hot and appetizing, and in large portions. The noodles had been fried until they were crispy, which gave a contrast to the tender meat and lovely rich sauce. In other words, it was delicious.

The only thing that I would say is that calling themselves a fast food joint is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, the food arrives quickly enough, but the service was a bit laid back. Fine if you wanted a relaxed meal, a little bit lacking if you were passing the time before catching a train.

All in all it was a thorougly enjoyable experience with lovely food (we certainly didn't need much to eat for dinner!) and one which we will be only too happy to repeat in the future.