Restaurant review: Sijie Sichuan

10/F Bartlock Centre, 3 Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay

Tel: 2802 2250

Open: 11.30am-2.30pm, 6.30pm-11pm

Cuisine: Sichuan

Price: HK$280 per person. There's no service charge.

Ambience: comfortable and discreet. The place was busy for a weeknight just before the start of the Lunar New Year. The staff were efficient and helpful.

Pros: diners circle the dishes they want from the menu, choosing according to the number of people in their party - for our group of five, we had three appetisers and five mains. The items are listed according to certain categories, such as seafood, dry-fried, with pickled peppers and non-spicy.

Cons: the beef cooked with pickled peppers had the unpleasant, too-soft texture that made it taste as if it had been tenderised with baking soda. Ma po dou fu had too much Sichuan peppercorn. The smothered chicken was the only dish we chose from the non-spicy part of the menu. The tender chicken, cooked with mushrooms and a little too much cornstarch, probably would have been fine on another occasion, but served as the last dish of our meal, it was overwhelmed by the stronger flavours that preceded it.

Recommended dishes: Sichuan cold noodles came topped with a beautifully balanced sauce that was spicy yet refreshing. The spiciness of the Chongqing steamed chicken in hot pepper sauce contrasted with the cooling character of the Chinese celery served with it. Poached fish in chilli oil came as a large bowl of tender sliced fish with fen pei (mung bean sheets) and bean sprouts swimming in broth that had loads of dried chillies. Dry-fried string beans had been wilted in hot oil before being cooked with minced pork and chillies. We munched on the sliced bitter melon with garlic and sesame oil to cool our palates.

What else? No liquor licence, but you can BYOB. Bookings are required.

Susan Jung