Bugis Street Brasserie@ Millennium

Very decent indeed actually. We ate here last night and I was impressed. Try the lemongrass chicken, chicken satay or the mixed vegetable platter. I sampled all of these and they were top notch. Service is quick and friendly and there's plenty of tiger beer on tap. Popular with Americans, this is a great, central place to eat dinner.

Although this is a Chinese restaurant it takes its inspiration from Singapore which introduces some interesting Malay influences, resulting in some more spicy dishes than your usual Chinese place. The decor is a little on the functional side (echoing the Singaporean hawker stalls) and the atmosphere makes this restaurant a good place to get a good quality meal fairly fast, rather than a place where you might pass a few hours.

The food is prepared to a high standard and served in good-sized portions with a varied menu that includes most chinese restaurant favourites with a few more exotic Malay dishes. Having been here quite a few times I have found the service can vary from friendly and welcoming to slightly surly, although that would not put me off going back as the food has never disappointed.

Note that there are good value weekday lunches, and an excellent Sunday lunch buffet that was about £8 per person last time I went. Also, take-away orders get a 10% discount (and don’t have to take a gamble with the service!).

The curiously named Bugis Street Brasserie is a “Cantonese Singaporean bistro” and is part of the Millennium Gloucester Hotel with the entrance on the corner of the building opposite the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum.

The interior is OK, with a slightly odd mixture of modern and old: empty gilded bird-cages hang over the bar, the tables are marble, the floor is tiled and the chairs are old-fashioned and wooden.

The service was disappointing: I was met and seated quickly, but it was then ages before they took my order for food or drink. The menu is a mixture of Chinese (Cantonese) and Singaporean food and sounded nice.

I ordered Salt & Pepper ribs (£5.25), followed by crispy duck. Curiously rather than arriving in that order, and separately, they arrived in the opposite order and separated by about one minute. The ribs were small, and very strongly flavoured. Lots of garlic, both crushed and thinly sliced, plus crushed and sliced chillies dominated the flavour of the dish, perhaps too strongly for some but I did enjoy it. I was glad that I was on my own that evening because I suspect my breath could probably have stopped traffic at 50 yards! The crispy duck (£9.50) was very good: there is something about the theatre of making up the pancake, sauce, duck, cucumber and spring onion mixture that I always enjoy.

For the main meal I went for fried noodle with chicken (£6.50) and sizzling beef (£9.50). Once again the food was highly flavoured, but could perhaps benefit from being more subtle. I washed it down with a couple of bottles of Chinese Tsingtao beer (£3.60).

Overall I enjoyed my meal but the service was disappointing, and the food somehow seemed over spiced, which is odd for a Chinese meal. I will go back again sometime, and it will be interesting to see if my opinion of it changes.