Guests are greeted at the door by a tall monster in face paint and costume. A variety of other creatures escort guests up the escalator and through rooms decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphics, cobwebbed skeletons and scary jungle scenes.

The only problem is that you are rushed through so quickly you do not have time to take in the details of the decor, which reportedly cost $22 million.

Eventually you end up in the dining area - a large, cavernous hall filled with long wooden tables and hard, narrow benches. This is where it becomes obvious that Igor's is not a getting-to-know-you place.

Though you share a table with strangers, the music is too loud to carry on a conversation without serious damage to the vocal cords.

When we entered the packed dining room just before 8pm on a rainy Friday night, some of the guests had already started dancing on the benches. Before the night was over, many others were getting a good workout and sweating off the calories.

If you are shy and inhibited, go somewhere else. Audience participation is strongly encouraged by the friendly staff - if you are not up and dancing on the benches when everybody else is, someone will attempt to pull you up.

Occasionally the master of ceremonies, Igor (he is a werewolf), and his sidekick, the bodyless Gertrude, entertain the audience. Around 10pm the house band, the Rolling Bones, start to play an eclectic mix which includes songs by the Beatles, Oasis, U2 and from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

And the food . . . truthfully, it is incidental. This is not the place to come if you want haute cuisine and expensive wines, but it is surprisingly adequate for something mass-produced.

Down the centre of the table is a wooden board set on two metal runners. Huge platters of food are placed on it and pushed down the length of the table for guests to help themselves. There is plenty to go round, and servers bring extra helpings of the more popular items.

The appetiser platter offers a cold selection that includes a well-balanced Caesar salad, tomato and onion salad, boiled prawns, delicious cured salmon, rather dry smoked salmon, and vegetable crudite.

The main-course platter is heavy with large hunks of meat - thick slabs of veal and lamb, chicken drumsticks and fish - lightened not at all by fried chunks of potato, breaded squid and ratatouille. Strict vegetarians might have difficulty here.

For dessert there are chocolate mousse ('the rest of the moose is on the wall', joked Gertrude), cake, creme brulee and fruit salad.

This is not a cheap night out. On Fridays and Saturdays it costs $350 plus 10 per cent, and on weeknights it is $250.

This does not include drinks - it is only for entrance and food. Pitchers of beer cost $180 each, jugs of cocktails are $250. Frozen shooters (delicious) are $30 each.

If you really want to get into the spirit of things, they offer face-painting - a small design is $50, and the entire face costs $80. They also sell scary masks for about $200.

This is a great place for large parties, and they wisely refuse to take bookings for fewer than four in a group.

Igor's, Ground Floor, Western Harbour Centre, 181 Connaught Road West, Tel: 2108-IGOR (2108-4467), Open: Wednesday-Saturday 7pm-1am